The microfossil and geochemical records of a sediment core from Black Pond, Franklin Country, New York, collected in 1999 and representing the last 240 years, were analyzed in order to seek information about possible effects of fisheries management practices, including rotenone treatment (reclamation), on the lake. The core chronology was based upon 210Pb and 137Cs dares, and shows that a pronounced and persistent water quality decline began abruptly in the 1950\u27s. This change occurred close to the time of the first of five reclamations (1957), but the core\u27s temporal resolution is not sufficiently fine to exclude coincidence with the post-reclamation stocking of trout. Despite the uncertainty in attributing Black Pond\u27s water quality change to a single cause, these findings nonetheless call into question widespread assumptions that reclamation and the fisheries management associated with it have no long-term effect on water quality in Adirondack lakes
