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Posts: 123
| There is a lake I've been frequenting over the past 10-15 years. It went from crystal clear to green over that time period. There used to be a lot of large healthy looking weeds of different types. There is now a lot of milfoil. There still is are some other weeds, but you don't come across them that often. I'm wondering how this could change so dramatically? The lake does have homes surrounding about 2/3rd's of it. It's about 1000 acres in size. |
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Posts: 815
Location: Waukee, IA | Milfoil invasion combined with runoff from McMansions will kill a lake in just that way. Sorry to hear about it. |
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Posts: 859
Location: MN | I'm thinking run off. Any chance they hooked in a storm water pipe to the lake. I have seen that happen but that falls into the run off camp. |
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Posts: 81
| As others have said, likely runoff, McMansions typically mean lots of lawn care, and all those chemicals run right into the lake. |
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| Lake can be affected from miles away thanks to progress of man changing the landscape, building, roads,etc.. |
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Posts: 20179
Location: oswego, il | Farm field runoff can cause it too. |
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Posts: 688
Location: Northern IL | My experience has been over the last twenty years as the trend in most lakes going in the opposite direction. I'd find your self another lake, that one's toast.
Kidding of course, there is no reason to be concerned. In fact from your original post I gather you spend some of your time casting in and around weeds and this change is actually good for that type of fishing. The rule is the clearer the water the deeper the fish and vice versa. Yes you will always have a small percentage of adult fish visit the shallows but the bulk of the bigger fish (the school) will spend the majority of their time in deep water.
Personally I couldn't tell you the difference from one weed to another, to me it matters none. The fish are either deep (most of the time) shallow (hardly ever) or somewhere in between (about once or twice a day). Best of luck |
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Posts: 8717
| Algae blooms are often caused by a combination of phosphorus and nitrogen leeching into the lake. Shoreline development is usually a contributing factor, specifically from runoff of lawn fertilizers. Another factor, as others have mentioned, is agricultural runoff. If you are in a rural area and surrounded by farms, this can be a likely culprit as well, especially if there are inlets to the lake that traverse through agricultural areas.
The good news is that most of the townships and lake associations are aware of what's causing the problem, and taking measures to solve it. One of those measures is encouraging riparian landowners to stop using lawn services and fertilizers of any sort, and to create a shoreline "buffer zone" where native vegetation can grow. This filters out a lot of what would otherwise wind up in the lake.
For the most part, folks have been pretty cooperative. When the grandkids come up and the lake is green and nobody wants to swim in it, and decide to spend the weekend in the cabin instead, it gets their attention pretty quickly.
To my knowledge, there isn't much one can do about the agricultural runoff, but getting rid of the lawn fertilizer is a big step.
As for the milfoil?
Well, that's just plain #*#*ty and there's not much you can do.
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Location: Sawyer County, WI | esoxaddict - 7/22/2015 7:17 PM
Algae blooms are often caused by a combination of phosphorus and nitrogen leeching into the lake. Shoreline development is usually a contributing factor, specifically from runoff of lawn fertilizers. Another factor, as others have mentioned, is agricultural runoff. If you are in a rural area and surrounded by farms, this can be a likely culprit as well, especially if there are inlets to the lake that traverse through agricultural areas.
The good news is that most of the townships and lake associations are aware of what's causing the problem, and taking measures to solve it. One of those measures is encouraging riparian landowners to stop using lawn services and fertilizers of any sort, and to create a shoreline "buffer zone" where native vegetation can grow. This filters out a lot of what would otherwise wind up in the lake.
For the most part, folks have been pretty cooperative. When the grandkids come up and the lake is green and nobody wants to swim in it, and decide to spend the weekend in the cabin instead, it gets their attention pretty quickly.
To my knowledge, there isn't much one can do about the agricultural runoff, but getting rid of the lawn fertilizer is a big step.
Thanks to the the Joint Finance Committee and the Governor, Wisconsin has removed the power of local municipalities to enforce controls stricter than the state standard on lakefront properties within their jurisdiction. Amongst other questionable changes, development can now take place on lots with only 100 feet of lake frontage and the buffer zones you mention above can no longer be mandated by local authority. This "simplifies" lakeshore zoning with a "one size fits all approach". This makes perfect sense because all lakes are created equal, right ? Chippewa Flowage, Lake Monona - exactly the same. No need for specialized zoning regulations.
Freeking idiots. We really do get the government we deserve.... |
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Posts: 400
Location: Metro | What would you consider deep? |
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| Not only is the state making it harder for local government to have tighter controls on lake front development, as of this week, the waters division of the DNR in WI is being rolled into the section of the DNR that proclaims itself a one stop shop for business development. Just heard a discussion on that this morning on Wis. Public Radio.
The guy from the state chamber of commerce was all for it, Peg Lautenschlager, former Atty. General for the state, felt it will just about end all prosecution for pollution violators, which has been minimal for the last four years anyway.
If you want clean water in WI, you have to contact you state legislators. It is that simple. I have already contacted mine, but he has told the newspapers he is all in favor of the zoning changes, even though much of his region, in particular, Vilas County is strongly opposed to weakening their shore line zoning. I think we need a new state senator. |
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Location: Sawyer County, WI | North of 8 - 7/31/2015 11:49 AM
Not only is the state making it harder for local government to have tighter controls on lake front development, as of this week, the waters division of the DNR in WI is being rolled into the section of the DNR that proclaims itself a one stop shop for business development. Just heard a discussion on that this morning on Wis. Public Radio.
The guy from the state chamber of commerce was all for it, Peg Lautenschlager, former Atty. General for the state, felt it will just about end all prosecution for pollution violators, which has been minimal for the last four years anyway.
If you want clean water in WI, you have to contact you state legislators. It is that simple. I have already contacted mine, but he has told the newspapers he is all in favor of the zoning changes, even though much of his region, in particular, Vilas County is strongly opposed to weakening their shore line zoning. I think we need a new state senator.
I wrote my Senator and Rep as well, and they opposed the JFC amendment. Regardless, it's now "law". As I posted earlier, we really do get the government we deserve. Now the Governor is stating that the first thing he's going to do after he's elected President is abolish the EPA. I hope he becomes a front runner, and then we'll see the national media fillet him like a Caitlyn caught legal musky. Then, of course, he'll still be the Governor of Wisconsin. Sigh. Should have bought the lake home on Vermilion.... |
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Posts: 335
Location: Minnesota | Way too many possibilities to give you an answer. The odds are good tha this lake was teetering near the tipping point for a while and once that line was crossed there was a series of events that happened and released a whole lot of nutrients at once causing algae which only leads to more algae unless the cycle is stopped.
Good luck! |
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