Stewardship
How to Participate
Every Lake Allegan homeowner ought to find their niche on how they can contribute with preserving Lake Allegan. Engaging in positive community conversations with others to stay current with the latest talking points, participating in a lake association committee or learning how to keep our lake healthy by registering for an online course. Friends of Lake Allegan will also provide monthly educational articles on it’s Stewardship page. Please read the current educational article on Eurasian Milfoil below.
In 2024, a new story about Lake Allegan is about to begin. All residents are characters in this story, everyone has a role to play; try to show up, engage and play a role to preserve Lake Allegan. Everyone’s opinions, thoughts, and suggestions matter with Friends of Lake Allegan and on our Facebook page you will have an opportunity to weigh in on discussions that will be generated thru the Friends of Lake Allegan blog.
Friends of Lake Allegan recommends an easy to follow online course on how to keep a lake healthy and thriving. If you join the Michigan Lakes and Streams Association prior to the course sign up, you will receive a $95 refund for completing the Introduction to Lakes Online Course, with a check in the mail.
Registration for the award-winning Michigan State University Extension Introduction to Lakes Online course is now open and will be available a second time later this year! This introductory six-week online course kicks off January 30th and is designed for anyone interested in inland lakes including concerned residents, decision makers, local leaders, and lakefront property owners. Course instructors include faculty from MSU Extension and state agency personnel.
Course topics include lake ecology, watershed management, shoreline protection, aquatic plants, Michigan water law, and community engagement. These six topics are explored online through video lectures, interactive activities, and discussion forums. Additional resources are also provided for those looking to dive deeper into a topic. Participants communicate with each other and instructors through lively discussion forums and biweekly Ask-an-Expert webinars which include guests from organizations such as the Michigan Department of Natural Resources and the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy.
Registration is open now through January 28, 2024. The cost of the course is $115 per person.
Another recommended activity; please listen to this informative presentation by Dr. Joe Nohner with Michigan DNR Fisheries and several boating industry leaders on the pros and cons of wake boats https://www.mcnalms.org/lunch/ which could have implications for the future of Lake Allegan with regards to the EPA’s natural remediation methodology of PCB’s and how wake boats can resuspend lake bottom sediment, along with other detrimental effects to a lake’s shoreline if boaters are not educated on how to “wake responsibly.” The DNR is not attempting to regulate wake boats, they are interested in bringing an awareness on how wake boat waves can impact an inland lake’s future sustainability.
Invasive Species
Here’s an informational 101 from a lake in New York on Eurasian Milfoil that everyone on Lake Allegan should also be familiar with.
Eurasian watermilfoil
(Myriophyllum spicatum) is native to Europe, Asia, and north Africa. It is a submerged aquatic plant, and grows in still or slow-moving water, and an invasive species in North America. Eurasian watermilfoil has slender stems up to 3 m long. The submerged leaves (usually between 15–35 mm long) are borne in pinnate whorls of four, with numerous thread-like leaflets roughly 4–13 mm long.
Plants are monoecious with flowers produced in the leaf axils (male above, female below) on a spike 5–15 cm long held vertically above the water surface, each flower inconspicuous, orange-red, 4–6 mm long. Eurasian water milfoil has 12- 21 pairs of leaflets while northern watermilfoil M. sibiricum only has 5–9 pairs. The two can hybridize and the resulting hybrid plants can cause taxonomic confusion as leaf characters are intermediate and can overlap with parent species.
Impact
In lakes or other aquatic areas, the Eurasian plant can quickly spread. In lakes it can form thick underwater stands of tangled stems and vast mats of vegetation at the water’s surface. In shallow areas the plant interferes with water recreation such as boating, fishing, and swimming. The plant’s floating canopy can also crowd out important native water plants.
How It Spreads
Likely means of spread: Milfoil may become entangled in boat propellers, or may attach to keels and rudders of sailboat. Stems can become lodged among any watercraft apparatus or sports equipment that moves through the water, especially boat trailers. Eurasian watermilfoil can grow from broken off stems which increases the rate in which the plant can spread and grow.
A single segment of stem and leaves can take root and form a new colony. Fragments clinging to boats and trailers can spread the plant from lake to lake. The mechanical clearing of aquatic plants for beaches, docks, and landings creates thousands of new stem fragments. Removing native vegetation creates perfect habitat for invading Eurasian watermilfoil.
Prevention & Control
Since roughly 2000, hand-harvesting of invasive milfoils has shown much success as a management technique. Several organizations in the New England states have undertaken costly, large scale, lake-wide hand-harvesting management programs with extremely successful results. Acknowledgment had to be made that it is impossible to completely eradicate the species once it is established. As a result, maintenance must be done once an infestation has been reduced to afford-ably controlled levels.
Well trained divers with proper techniques have been able to effectively control and then maintain many lakes, especially in the Adirondack Park in Northern New York where chemicals, mechanical harvesters, and other disruptive and largely unsuccessful management techniques are banned. After only three years of hand harvesting in Saranac Lake the program was able to reduce the amount harvested from over 18 tons to just 800 pounds per year.