Sunapee — The Lake Sunapee Protective Association received a $50,000 grant under Section 319 of the federal Clean Water Act from the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services.

The grant will help fund a two-year effort to update the existing watershed management plan, which was put into effect in 2008. Robert Wood is associate executive director at the association and is overseeing the watershed management plan. He said that people don’t realize how large the Lake Sunapee watershed is.

“People think of the lake only, but we’re talking about other lakes, ponds, streams, that are all connected by groundwater,” Wood said in a phone conversation. The watershed covers about 50 square miles, touching the towns of Sunapee, New London, Newbury, Springfield, Goshen and Sutton.

Officials and the public from those towns are invited to be part of the watershed planning process, Wood said.

Existing conditions of the Lake Sunapee watershed will be used to develop projections about the impact of building development, changing weather patterns and increasing impervious surfaces.

The plan is meant to guide decision-making about water protection over the next decade, and Wood hopes that the six involved towns will consider the watershed protection in their master planning over the next decade.

“I think our message here is that water resources always need protection,” he said. “The more development there is the more important that becomes.”

Anyone who would like to share their thoughts or become involved with the planning process is invited to email Wood at rwood2@lakesunapee.org.