Lakes on the mend

The trend is clear, researchers say: Rain falling over the Adirondacks is getting cleaner every year and today is nearly ideal.

Water bodies ravaged by acidic precipitation for years are springing back to life, and fish and wildlife are returning.

“It’s a national success story,” said Jed Dukett, a chemist who runs the Adirondack Lakes Survey Corporation, which has done long-term monitoring of waters in the Adirondacks. The group has performed the bulk of the sampling of acid rain and Adirondack lakes since 1992.

Data current to August 8, for example, show that Bear Pond, which was hit hard