Karin Critchlow has many fond memories of summers spent on Seneca Lake. After all, her family has owned land next to the lake in the small village of Dresden for more than 70 years.

Over that time, they’ve improved the property, building two lake houses, enhancing the beach area, and expanding the dock. In recent years, they’ve had to install central air conditioning; something they thought would never be needed—in the past they’d just open the windows on hot summer nights.

“On a summer night (now), you wake up at two in the morning (because) the sound is so loud. It…