The Adirondack Park is marked by an imaginary blue line around a vast wilderness of old-growth forest and primeval wetlands, making it the largest protected area in the lower 48 states at roughly the size of Massachusetts. Unlike most state and federal parks, it is a patchwork of public and private land and home to more than 135,000 residents. The 68,000-acre Saranac Wild Forest contains a network of streams, ponds, and lakes used by day visitors and long-distance travelers, with many New York State Department of Environmental Conservation campgrounds and waterway access sites providing launches for canoes, car-top boats, and motorized craft. The water in front of this site is Lake Flower, an impounded section of the Saranac River that flows northeast into Lake Champlain. Early settler Captain Pliny Miller dammed the river for a sawmill pond in 1827, and the lake was later named for Governor Roswell P. Flowers, who secured state funds to clear it of stumps. Over the next century, the shoreline became heavily developed with eateries, gas stations, hotels, and a local swimming beach, before changing to an improved highway bordered by a park in time for the 1980 Winter Olympics. The Department of Environmental Conservation oversees the boat launch, and its lock system provides seasonal boat access to Lower and Middle Saranac Lakes. The park's waterways also face threats from aquatic invasive species such as Eurasian milfoil and purple loosestrife, which overwhelm native plants and animals, choke waterways, deprive them of sunlight and oxygen, smother surrounding vegetation, and disrupt the commercial, agricultural, aquacultural, and recreational activities that depend on these waters.