Tag: lake management

Quick Primer on Grants

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As noted a few posts ago, grant season is among us. It is very common that lake districts, improvement associations, and individual property owners seek out funding assistance for a wide variety of projects that can help improve conditions within lakes, wetlands, and streams for water quality, navigation, flood control, and aesthetic appeal among other things. The one thing that grants however do not consistently funding is dredging projects.

Why is that someone might ask? The simple answer, although it never appears to be a simple answer from the regulatory end, is that dredging is often categorized as a maintenance item. While it can certainly be debated on both sides the fact stands in most cases dredging does not have a taxpayer based funding mechanism.

In a sense it is understandable that a process that is so heavily driven by healthy watershed practices be addressed at that level; and furthermore the necessity to appropriately and proactively consider the implications of sediment delivery mechanisms before addressing in lake issues. Grants can be obtained for this. It becomes a simple discussion of addressing a symptom and not the cause. Dredging is a snapshot in time, in which that snapshot begins to deteriorate the moment the contractor leaves the site. The rate of deterioration is further dictated by the practices in place on the ground to combat runoff and sedimentation. Most agencies would rather see money put towards these practices to address the issue at the point of attack rather than once the material is in the water.

So facilitating the cost of dredging is a tricky situation. Good consultation can often help in mitigating or controlling costs, but it often estimated that the cost to remove sediment from the water is nearly 6X the cost it is to attack it on land. Pair this with the fact that so many view dredging as some “big fix” when it is really only a temporary reprieve. There is money available for better shoreline practices, buffer establishment, runoff control practices, and land preservation/protection. The State of WI sees this as the better immediate value and they are not alone in this perspective.

July – Lakes Appreciation Month

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As the title of this blog-article suggests, July is Lakes Appreciation Month! It’s in the dead of summer when most lake activities are fully ramped up. With the ongoing Pandemic 2020 the great outdoors have been a welcome distraction to some in their social distancing efforts. We fish and recreate on them, some of us even work on them.  Lakes are even drinking water sources for some of us, but do we really show and advocate our appreciation for them? It’s hard to say.  How is it that we even show appreciation for our lakes?  Consider some of the thoughts below:

  • By way of reading this article it is highly likely that you have already joined your local lake association, but have you ever looked beyond those borders? Perhaps there is a local watershed association as well.  Our lakes and streams tend to reflect what is draining to them and at times lake associations can get tunnel vision, over-focusing on in-lake issues. Watershed issues can be just as vital. Involvement with both lake and watershed management creates the holistic picture.
  • One silver lining of the pandemic and shelter in place order has been the spike in available online webinars at little to no cost.  I’ve attended webinars as far away as the Maine Lakes Society, and while much of the material looks familiar at first glance, there is always something that can be picked up.  Watch the Twitter Feed for occasional announcements.
  • Check out your local volunteer lake monitoring opportunities. There is much to be learned by sitting and listening to others but getting your hands on the equipment and learning the components of the number and how the information is collected can give you new insight and understanding.

So, July is a big month; continue practicing social distancing from others, but that should be easy enough to do from your lake’s perspective, boating, kayaking, canoeing, shore fishing, etc.  Consider how you can show you appreciation for your lakes and it will continue to give back to you.