How To Care For Your Lake

Lakes and reservoirs cover almost 40 million acres in the U.S. Typically, lakes have a surface that is greater than 10 acres. Lakes are usually natural, whereas ponds are typically man-made. For the most part, lakes are deeper than ponds, therefore, they have a significant difference in temperature from the surface to the bottom of the lake, and some lakes are big enough to impact local climate conditions.

Lakes suffer from the same problems as ponds such as sedimentation, pollution, or intruding species, and these can by magnifies by surrounding residential, recreational, and agricultural land use. For example, motorboats can disturb wildlife and wakes from boats can cause erosion in popular recreational areas. Lakeside homes, resorts, docks, marinas, and roads all are hard on the ecosystem. Wastewater pollution, and the runoff from driveways or yards are common issues.

How To Care For a Lake

There are many ways that you can limit your impact on a lake, and here are just a few:

-         Avoid making changes to the waterfront on your property that could potentially harm fragile aquatic wildlife habitats. These changes include building a permanent dock or a beach area.

-         Try to see your yard as an extension of the lake, limiting the amount of turf, and the use of herbicides, pesticides and fertilizers.

-         Perform regular maintenance on your septic tank, and avoid adding harmful chemicals down the drain, which will minimize groundwater pollution.

-         Replace your yard with impervious surfaces with greener alternatives to reduce runoff from your yard.

Lake management laws, permits and regulations: Most States have developed shoreline management laws that protect lakes and surrounding watershed. Just an example, Washington State’s Shoreline Management Act, which applies to marine waters, lakes, rivers, streams, shore lands and associated wetlands, covers environmental protection, shoreline use and public access. Each community’s specific needs have shoreline master programs administers at the city and county levels. Prior to doing any water-related work on your property, check with your state’s natural resources department and your city or county’s zoning and planning authority. You will need to become familiar with the local regulations and may need to obtain a permit. Also, lake management and restoration grants are available sometimes for landowners and lake conservation groups.

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Created on Jan 26th 2020 16:04. Viewed 245 times.

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