The following article is reprinted with permission of the Chapman Lakes Conservation Association:

 

Poor water quality (clarity) will reduce the value of lakeside real estate, according to dozens of studies in many states.

Some studies suggest that property values decline more than 20% when the water clarity (a measure of how deep you can see into a lake) declines. A Minnesota study, for example, calculated "...if the water got clearer--so you could see down another 3 feet--a lake property's value would rise by $423 for each foot of frontage. For a 40-foot lakefront lot, that amounts to nearly a $17,000 gain in value." In the same study, a lakefront parcel would lose $23,760 if the water clarity decreased by three feet. (Deluth, MN, News Tribune, 5-27-03)

Heavy boating traffic also causes a decline in property values because excessive boating can reduce lake clarity significantly. Excessive lake use causes numerous other lake ecosystem problems as well, studies say.

A study by the University of Wisconsin suggested zoning restrictions that control development around lakes improved property values. It reported "...people are willing to pay more to live on a lake that's protected from degradation, often related to lakeshore development."
 
The positive "connection between the environment and economics could encourage more people to respond collectively to ecological change", the report argues. Researchers also suggest "preservation is valuable economically because it enhances the worth of land surrounding restricted lakes."   (Wisconsin Week 2-25-04)

 

 

Silver Lake Update

 

The City of Valparaiso continues to move forward with plans to build Vale Park Road.  They are negotiating a contract with DLZ to prepare construction drawings for a “ two-lane road “ through the upland forest and wetlands contiguous to Silver Lake.  DLZ has added a few more curves to “reduce the wetlands impact from about .04 acre to .07 acre.”  The Friends of Silver Lake believes that any invasion of the wetland will be detrimental to the wetlands and Silver Lake.  We are also concerned about how this road will affect stormwater management regarding the Chain of Lakes Watershed, particularly that of Flint Lake.  We continue to write letters to the Army Corps of Engineers and to IDEM voicing our concerns.  Valparaiso has a number of other projects on the table at this time and this venture is not only challenging to the environment, but it is an extravagant expense, as the proposed road is only one half mile long and the soils are hydric.

We believe that the city may try to obtain federal funding for the project through the Northwest Indiana Regional Planning Commission (NIRPC).  If you are willing to help by sending emails, letters, or making calls, please contact me (see below).

 

A group of students and teachers recently constructed a large colorful sign and installed it across the street from Valpo High School (near the proposed road access) alerting the public to the need to save the woods and wetlands. Look for it as you travel south passing VHS!

 

Dorothy Graden ph. 219-464-1974

Email: dardorov@verizon.net

 

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First in a Series Linking Neighbors in Our Watershed ……….

CAMP LAWRENCE & Moss Lake

The Camp Lawrence grounds were purchased in 1957 initially by Monsignor Lawrence Grothouse through a loan from his mother. Msgr. Grothouse was actively involved in Camp Wawasee in Warsaw, Indiana and was interested in bringing a youth oriented facility to the new Diocese of Gary. With financial assistance from the Diocese, his loan to his mother was repaid and additional property was purchased. Msgr Grothouse, with the vision of Bishop Andrew Grutka and welcomed assistance of the US Army, began developing the camp property to become the focal point of youth activity for the new Diocese. The spirit behind this effort and the hard work of all of these persons shows in the present beautiful grounds and camp facility. The Camp motto "Close to nature, Closer to god", coined by Msgr. Grothouse and Bishop Grutka exemplifies that "spirit" of the facility which is still enjoyed by those who visit.

Since 1959, the Catholic Youth Organization (CYO) has run a summer camp program stretching over seven summer weeks. Over 7000 children from around the local area and outside the State of Indiana have enjoyed camp since its inception in 1959. The summer camp program is accredited by the American Camping Association. For more information on this program, call the CYO office at 219-736-8931.

Acknowledged for it's aesthetic beauty, Camp Lawrence is a prime location for a group meeting or retreat. For the past 5 years, Camp Lawrence has been the location for our highly acclaimed “Living with Lakes” Seminars and Porter County’s first Bio Blitz.

Camp Lawrence grounds management are under the direction of John Thorstad, who begins his sixth year as Property Manager after his appointment to the position by Bishop Dale Melczek. John is also employed as a probation officer for the Lake County Superior Courts.  Prior to becoming Property Manager, John and his wife Laura held several positions in the camp program both on the CYO summer staff program and as director of the Maintenance Staff. John and Laura have been married over sixteen years and have two sons ages nine and fifteen. The Thorstad family makes their home at Camp Lawrence.

The following are excerpts from an article by John Bates sent by the Indiana Department of Natural Resources:

 

Lake Study Says to Leave the Dead:

 

As a sign that sanity can exist amidst apparent chaos, many people hang little plaques above their disarrayed desks that say things like, "A messy desk is a sign of productivity," or "Clutter is a sign of a creative genius." Whether that's true for office desks is debatable, but a team of researchers from the UW-Madison Trout Lake Station is working to prove a comparable analogy in nature - that "messy" lake shorelines with downed trees all along their rims are nature's sign of productivity and creative genius.

Their research is triggered by the realization that human development along northern lakeshores is rapidly stripping away the dead trees and other natural debris that had been common to lake ecosystems since the last glaciers departed 10,000 years ago. Scientists have long thought that woody shoreline habitat was critically important to aquatic food chains, but exactly how important to specific organisms has never been demonstrated.  With the clock ticking as more and more shorelines are developed, the UW researchers are trying to accurately determine how fallen tree trunks and branches, or "coarse woody habitat," affect insect, frog, and fish populations.  To do so, they've been given the unique scientific opportunity to manipulate the entire shorelines of two undeveloped lakes in the Northern Highland State Forest north of Minocqua. In 2002, the researchers removed trees from the north basin leaving only the trees that were too buried in the sediments to be moved.

Little Rock's south basin, however, was left alone, where its high number of naturally downed trees give it a wild appearance, a look that many shoreline owners might consider "messy" or "chaotic."  Data collected in the north basin has shown dramatic changes in the basin's fish populations and their behaviors. The biggest change has occurred in the population of yellow perch. Perch numbers have dropped to nearly zero, because yellow perch usually deposit their sticky eggs over submergent vegetation or submerged brush and branches in shallow water. Bass predation upon them has also increased due to the lack of woody habitat for the perch to use as a refuge. Thus, the absence of toppled trees in the water appears to have the potential to severely reduce perch populations.

The largemouth bass population has also suffered as the yellow perch have declined. They've had to switch from eating yellow perch, a favorite prey item, to eating more of a terrestrial diet. Rather than looking out into the water for their supper, they now look up to the surface in hopes of finding insects or frogs or snakes on the surface of the water.  Stomach analysis has shown that the bass are even eating rodents swimming along the shore. The net result: the growth rate of largemouth bass has significantly declined, and their long-term reproductive success may be at risk.

At Camp Lake, only a mile west, provided the researchers with the opposite opportunity for manipulation. Camp Lake historically had a very low number of naturally downed trees along its shoreline. In March 2004, trees were hauled in and placed on the shoreline ice of its south basin. Each tree was placed about 10 meters apart all the way around the 40-acre basin. When the winter ice melted, the trees, which included an array of species and sizes and shapes, sank into the water.

The north basin, which is connected to the south basin by a tiny channel, was left in its natural state - a "clean" shoreline with very few downed trees.

In the south basin, the impacts were immediate. Next to every new log that was put in the water, there's now a largemouth bass nest, and sometimes two. In the branches of the trees in the water, there was a mass of toad eggs in nearly every one.

So while connected, the basins acted as if they were two separate lakes. But now the fish were migrating through the channel and into the south basin to nest, presumably because of the better habitat provided by the downed trees. In contrast, very few bass now nest in the north basin.

Researchers explain that the woody habitat provides a substrate for plants like algae and aquatic insects to latch onto for use as a home and for food. The tangle of branches further acts as a protective refuge for insects and small fish. These trees are where the action is. The little fish hide inside, but every once in a while gets chased out, and then a predator will have a meal. The trees create refuge areas, and become hot spots for aquatic life.

Most anglers already know this. To find fish, one usually has to find structure, some kind of architecture in the water like aquatic plants or downed trees that provide cover and food. In shallow lakes, open water has nutrients and plankton, but typically little refuge. Most of the predator-prey relationships are focused on the edge of refuges in these lakes.
 We watch as a loon pops up and dives again and again near our boat, actively fishing. Loons sometimes use floating woody habitat along shorelines as a platform for building their nests, and they certainly know to fish around the wood. So do great blue herons, mergansers, kingfishers, otters and other fish-eaters and insect-eaters. Turtles line up to bask on the logs. Dragonflies and damselflies perch on the branches.

Yet, dead and downed wood still gets a bad rap. We talk about getting rid of the "dead wood" in an organization. We think of death as the end of being of value or service, but it turns out that even in death, a tree has a life of its own. While everyone sees the same shorelines, not everyone understands them.

Coarse woody habitat is a natural occurrence. It's part of being in the Northwoods. If you move up there and have lakeshore property, you have to treat it differently and look at it differently than city property. Just because trees are in the water, doesn't mean they are debris or going to waste. They're a living community. So, it turns out cleanliness is not next to Godliness, at least along lakeshores. One learns a landscape finally not by knowing the name or identity of everything in it, but by perceiving the relationships in it.  Researchers believe that if people knew the effects of the changes they were making along their shorelines, many people would manage their property differently. Wood is critical to spawning success for many fishes. It's an interaction that has gone undisturbed for thousands of years.

For more information on the studies conducted by the UW Trout Lake Station, see their Web site at http//limnology.wisc.edu

Calendar of Events

Monday, March 21^st, 6:30 PM – Next meeting of Valpo Chain of Lakes Watershed Group, Porter County Administration Building, Indiana Ave. Board meeting w/ Pizza, open to the public, bring your friends and neighbors.

 

April 8 & 9 – Indiana Lakes Management Society Meeting and Conference, Holiday Inn, Downtown, South Bend. See Ron Bedwell for details or check web site of ILMS.  See Walt or George Smolka for car-pooling possibilities.

 

April 12 – 7:30 PM. Woodland Savannah Land Conservancy, meeting at 7 Napoleon St., Valpo. Call 465-5669 or see Noel Evans for more information.

 

April 23 – all day.  Indiana Earth Day Celebration and Conference. Indianapolis area. Call Duane Davison- 464-0940 for car pooling possibilities.

 

May 16 – 6:30 PM. Valpo Chain of Lakes Watershed Group, Porter County Administration Building, Valpo.

 

May 21 – Noon-4 PM. Save the Dunes Earth Day in May, Michigan City.

 
Help Wanted: 

 
Walt Breitinger