News

Exciting news! The Michigan Shoreland Stewards program has been awarded the North American Lake Management Society (NALMS) Award for Leadership and Service in Community Education and Outreach. 

This award recognizes Glen Lake Association and other neighboring lake associations for design, facilitation, and performance of exceptional education and outreach activity that promotes community understanding, protection, preservation, and appreciation for our lakes, rivers, and streams.

This program was made possible over the past two years by a great deal of hard work and the financial assistance of the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality and many lake associations in northwest lower Michigan, including the GLA. 
“Ambassadors” for the program were identified by local lake associations to participate in assisting the MISSP in developing and testing training, education and outreach for the program. The GLA’s early work on stewardship initiatives was one of the models used for the development of this program. The hiring last spring of GLA Guardian Ambassador Tricia Denton is just one more example of the GLA’s continued commitment to being at the forefront of water protection efforts. Tricia will continue to catalyze riparians to engage with the Michigan Shoreland Survey, Glen Lake Guardian pledges and additional education outreach to ensure a bright future for protecting and preserving water quality on and in our Glen Lake/Crystal River Watershed.

Having an national, award-winning program ready for you to use is just one more reason to engage with the 40 question survey on the Michigan Shoreland Stewards website. By registering and completing the Michigan Shoreland Stewards survey you will automatically receive customized educational information tailored to your property along with detailed recommendations for improving your “lake friendly” status. Find out more by going to this website: 

And thank you- it’s all about the water!

The recent  “Clean Water: What Can I Do?” talk by GLA Guardian Ambassador, Tricia Denton was well attended. Held at Glen Lake Community Library, topics included: current GLA water protection programs; wastewater treatment challenges and nutrient loading of surface water. We’re thrilled to report that five Leelanau School students took our GLA Stewardship Checklist with them to evaluate their school’s stewardship of 2,000 feet of Crystal River frontage.

Also, 20 attendees became new Guardians after participating! 

Clean Water: There is always something each one of us can do to protect this precious natural resource. Come learn more about threats facing our water at a community conversation on November 28.
Held at the Glen Lake Community Library beginning at 7 p.m., learn practical applications for doing your part. Glen Lake Guardian Ambassador Tricia Denton will be available to answer questions, share tools and help you develop a customized plan. 

Have questions or want to do more? Feel free to contact Glen Lake Guardian Ambassador, Tricia Denton, with your questions. 

glenlakeguardians@gmail.com

Remember, It’s all about the water!

The photo here shows a seawall on Glen Lake that has been replaced by a natural shoreline.

 

Do you know how many seawalls are on the Glen Lake shoreline? A seawall is defined as an engineered concrete, steel, or wood structure at the water’s edge that typically is designed to curb shoreline erosion where it is installed. Interestingly, the August 2017 shoreline survey on Glen Lake indicates there are currently 18 seawalls, each about 100 foot long representing approximately 1800 feet of shoreline. Some riparians use “rip rap” or stones to “harden” their shorelines as a preferred line of protection from erosion. The use of rip rap is not considered a seawall. Rip rap when used in conjunction with other erosion prevention measures such as core log installation and native plantings can actually absorb wave energy, prevent shoreline erosion and create wildlife habitat. 

 

The entire shoreline of Glen Lake is approximately 17 miles long. Simple math tells us our shoreline is mostly seawall-free. It is widely accepted by watershed protectors that this current ratio is a good thing. Ideally, the entire shoreline of Glen Lake should be seawall-free. Seawalls on inland lakes like Glen Lake tend to be problematic for water quality due to the fact they remove vital wildlife habitat, do not absorb and filter nutrient runoff from land and deflect and even intensify wave energy onto nearby shorelines causing increased erosion and sedimentation of the water. Thereby inviting more seawalls, which would create the “need” for more seawalls, and so the story goes. In fact the MDNR does not identify any Michigan inland lake environment as an appropriate or necessary application of  Seawall type erosion prevention measures. A much better use of seawalls can be found on the Great Lakes where significantly higher wave energy occurs.

 

Installation of a seawall is expensive. However, there is a win-win option to install something far less expensive and much more lake-friendly. To learn more about removing a seawall or to consider other options for shoreline protection click on this link. 

 

 

On October 17th, GLA Watershed Biologist Rob Karner, together with Dennis Wiand, Owner of Zero Gravity, LLC, presented a Leelanau Clean Water program to a group of over 30 key lake stewards from lakes around the region.  Thanks to the Glen Lake Association’s willingness to be the first to use drone technology for conducting shoreline surveys, many other lakes have either followed the GLA’s lead, or are giving serious consideration to using drones as a water quality data gathering tool.

 

The key benefit of having a shoreline videotaped via drone is to establish a benchmark for the current condition of the water’s edge. Future drone surveys will be created and compared to the original survey thereby setting up the perfect comparison opportunity.  

 

The kind of water quality data gathered is still evolving and future updates on the results of Glen Lake’s first survey, done in August of 2017, will come in subsequent communications. Examples of water quality data that are being quantified and placed on the map include: Green belts; drainage pipes; sea walls; rip rap; erosion; fish habitat; lake-water irrigation; road ends; inlets, and invasive plants.

 

While the use of the drone is proving to be a valuable, water quality-monitoring  tool, GLA will continue to monitor the water chemistry using the hydrolab, collect and analyze plankton every month in the spring, summer and fall, and participate in the volunteer-based statewide water quality monitoring program.  

 

Can you self-monitor your own shoreline?

 

One way you can monitor the water quality on your shoreline is to place two or three clean, volleyball-sized rocks at the water’s edge and wait to see if they become covered with green algae. If they are covered within a few weeks during the growing season with a healthy crop of algae, then you may have a nutrient loading problem that will need investigation.