|
Invasive Spotlight:
Scotch Broom
|  |
Season: Apr-Jun
This unsuspecting flowering plant is actually a weed that costs Oregon an estimated $47 million annually in timber production loss. It tends to rapidly establish in areas that have been disturbed or where nothing is growing. This plant is widespread on the Oregon coast and in the Willamette Valley.
Some plants produce up to 12,000 seeds per year and the seeds can survive 50+ years. It is an extremely persistent plant.
What to do:
The best removal practice is to use gardening shears to cut the main stem at the soil level. Be careful not to leave excess stem or the plant will re-sprout. In order to prevent regrowth, cover the stem and root system with soil followed by cardboard and 3" of straw in order to prevent seeds from obtaining sunlight.
|
|
|
Spring into Action!
In this issue we wanted to provide the public a few tools you can use to help restore Devils Lake. Many are free, low cost, or will even save you money. In fact be sure to check out the Devils Lake Revival RFP shown under the Calendar of Events where you could even get paid helping others get more educated on lake restoration! So break out those gloves and let's get to work!
- Concerned about potentially failed Septic Systems? Call, email, or make public comment at City Council and voice your support for a Mandatory Septic Inspection Program for all watershed properties. Your voice matters, but only if it is heard. Get a direct line to your elected officials through the links below in Squeeky Tanks.
- Want to help destroy Harmful Algal Blooms? It is easy, and every homeowner around Devils Lake can get started today by planting the shoreline with native vegetation. Not only does the vegetation help keep nutrients out of the lake which support algal growth, but the woody vegetation produces natural algaecides when it decays, combatting a green lake. Read more about this in Limnology 101.
- Free yourself from chemicals!
Living on the shoreline and in the watershed we have a responsibility to the lake. Excess nutrients from fertilizers wash off or percolate through the soils, eventually working their way to the lake. Here they feed Harmful Algal Blooms, turning the lake green. Herbicides often contain the compounds which when the breakdown provide the building blocks for more weed and algal growth. Learn more in Round Down and Round Out.
- Donate your lawnmower to a museum! Lawns are not for lakes (period). A short time ago, our shoreline used to be dominated with a Sitka Spruce forest, two hundred feet high. Iron saws, demand for forests products, and lake views saw the bulk of them fall away in a century. What replaced these giants often has been lawns...sparkling bright green lawns. This spring and summer, park the lawnmower and put the time you used to spend on mowing the lawn into planting native vegetation, fishing, making jewelry, whatever. Your back and the environment will thank you. Let's reclaim our shorelines one parcel at a time! DLWID will even help foot the bill with up to $750 as part of the Save our Shoreline project. Read more in Why Lakescape?
|
|
|
Water Quality Information
A REMINDER and a NOTICE
Please note that the lake is currently exhibiting a late winter/early spring blue-green algae bloom. While the bloom we had in the summer/fall subsided in November and December another has taken its place.
During periods of the year when we are not actively monitoring, please be cautious of your surroundings by Looking before you Leap! The District resumes its summer water quality monitoring program soon, so look for updates between Memorial Day and Labor Day in your inbox.
If you haven't received these in the past, please make sure you update your e-subscription by clicking on the "Update Profile/Email Address" at the the very end of this email.
What causes a bloom in the winter?
The same things that cause it in the summer...Sunlight and Nutrients! The Oregon Coast has a temperate climate and this winter we have been blessed or cursed with a lot of sunshine which drives photosynthesis and very little rain for much of he same period which normally tends to flush the lake out in November and December in particular. With nutrients entrained in the system and sunlight in the sky things are going to grow. Not so differently, the Lincoln City Parks Department reportedly is a full month ahead on its mowing schedule as the grass grows too in these conditions.
While we can't do much about the weather we can Spring Into Action against ever increasing nutrients being added to the lake via septics, fertilizers, herbicides, and other sources.
What about rumors about Lake Level and Temperature?
Currently the lake is nearly a foot higher than it was during the summer and yet the Blue-Green algae are reproducing readily. Thus it appears the lake can and does bloom irrespective of the lake level. Temperature regimes also are not fully restricting their reproduction. While freezing temps may be one thing, once the environment gets above a threshold, biological activity resumes...true in this case again for Harmful Algal Blooms I Devils Lake. The lake is a full 20 degrees Fahrenheit cooler than it was this summer, and yet the bloom has thrived.
These are hardy organisms that have survived for 3.5 billion years. If we are going to try and rid ourselves of them or at least reduce their frequency we should focus our collective energy on starving them out by getting rid of the excess nutrients in the watershed. Septic Inspections, Sewers, Low Impact Development, Wetland and Shoreline Restoration are all part of the real, long-term solutions for Devils Lake. Read and learn more about nutrient abatement by downloading a copy of the DEVILS LAKE PLAN!
For more information on Water Quality view the District's website or contact DLWID at 541-994-5330 or [email protected].
|
|
Squeeky, I mean Leaky Tanks
Spring into Action
today by contacting your local public officials on the septic tank inspection issue. Squeaky wheels get the grease as they say, so please reiterate the importance of getting a mandatory inspection program passed and implemented this summer. As you can see on the map of septic tanks in the watershed this is no small issue, one that needs to be addressed sooner than later. Get more info on the issue from our website by clicking here! Then contact your City Council or provide Public Comment at one of their upcoming meetings.
 Upcoming City Council Meetings at City Hall, 6 pm start times. March 24, 2014 April 14, 2014 April 28, 2014 |
Limnology 101:
Last quarter we looked intensively at water at the molecular level. We learned that water is it's densest (heaviest) at about 4C or 40F, explaining why ice floats, but also demonstrative of the why life can exists in lakes through the winter. For the Spring E-newsletter we wanted to explain a little behind the science of natural algaecides that can help combat HABS we mentioned in the beginning.
As the story goes it all started in the British Isles over a malted beverage of barley (more or less). Lake scientist on Great Britain began exploring using Barley Straw for treatments for Harmful Algal Blooms in the 1970's. What has been shown through the subsequent research in the UK and around the globe is that barley straw when it breaks down in oxygen rich waters has degradation by-products that act effectively as algaecides on blue-green algae. One theory is that the lignin in the barley is what is being transformed (Geiger, et.al 2005). However, before we go out and dump a bunch of barley around the lake, Merriam-Webster's definition of lignin not only clarifies what it is, but suggests there might be other sources of it available:
Lignin (n): Complex oxygen-containing organic compound, a mixture of polymers of poorly known structure. After cellulose, it is the most abundant organic material on Earth, making up one-fourth to one-third of the dry weight of wood, where it is concentrated in the cell walls.
Save a pint for me.... As an English educated lad myself I am intrigued by this work as others have been. Research reported by Kale Haggard at the Oregon Lakes Association conference in 2008 showed that wetland species are also a source of these algaecides when they decompose, thus being quite possibly a better more natural solution, which if I might embellish a bit would allow the barley to stay back at the brewery for other uses.
ABSTRACT: Intense blooms of cyanobacteria, primarily Aphanizomenon flos- aquae, are an annual occurrence in Upper Klamath Lake and create conditions that are harmful to fish, including species that are federally protected. Understanding and controlling the intensity of such blooms should be an important element of lake management strategies. Based on reports that brown marsh waters and barley straw have algistatic properties, we conducted a series of controlled laboratory assays and in-situ limno-corral experiments during the summers of 2006 and 2007 to asses the effectiveness of barley straw and marsh plants, as well as extracts of each, on the growth of A. flos- aquae. Results from these studies indicate that the addition of barley straw or wetland plants is effective in suppressing and even killing AFA, though dosage rate is a critical consideration. Marsh water and barley straw extract results were inconclusive.
What does that mean for Devils Lake? We can fight HABS by just getting the wetland species back along our shorelines. As they decompose they provide a natural defense against HABs.
Read more about Barley Straw and Algae Control in the literature analysis done by some Oregon and California researchers in 2005. OSU graduate Kale Haggard is among them!
|
Why Lakescape?
For the last couple of years the District has provided a lot of reasons and provided a lot of tools to help return native plants to the shoreline. We've created the Devils Lake Shoreline Planting Guide and held several courses for homeowners and landscapers about native plantings. We even created a YouTube Video explaining the Save our Shoreline program which offers 75% cash match for shoreline projects. What we haven't done is reached the critical mass which the program needs to make substantive change.  | |
Save Our Shorelines Video
|
Spring into Action! This is where we need your help. While there are many reasons to plant native vegetation, here is another: Harmful Algal Blooms. Yes that green nasty stuff in the lake that can be toxic. Native vegetation is not only good to protect against erosion, but they absorb nutrients that would feed the toxic Harmful Algal Blooms. Further many wetland species as they die back breakdown to provide natural algaecides. No need to spray chemicals when nature has them already (See Limnology 101).  | | Click photo to see more native plants |
Native plantings don't just help the lake though. They also benefit the homeowner. Native plantings save homeowners time and money. They don't need to be watered, mowed, or fertilized, which means you get more time enjoying the lake and less time on your lawnmower! Link to the British Lawnmower museum!
|
|
Round Down and Round Out Herbicides
Spring into Action: Many herbicides contain the very building blocks of the weeds they are trying to kill. As a result when the herbicide breaks down in the soil, what we are left with as shown circled in the diagram are inorganic phosphorus and the nitrogen compound, ammonium -- nutrients for more weeds and algae.
Figure adapted from Wikipedia, showing the degradation pathway of glyphosate the active ingredient in Monsanto's Round Up.
|
| SOS: Spring into Action and Save 75% on landscaping projects
Save our Shorelines program is continuing to look for shoreline property owners who are interested in revegetating their shoreline with native plant species. Native plants offer many benefits including:
 | | Click here for Shoreline Planting Guide |
- Harmful Algal Bloom prevention and mitigation
- Erosion prevention
- Wildlife habitat
- Less maintenance
- Natural views
- And its good for the lake
Take advantage now and the District will pay 75% of the project costs. Including, site design, labor, plants and other necessities. Email [email protected], if interested.
|
Budget Committee Filled - Board Vacancy
Joining continuing Budget Committee member Ed Willette are a talented group of new comers and returners to DLWID.
- Douglas Holbrook
- Robert Landuis
- Mitchell Moore
- Susan Walke
Proposed Budget Available: May 2, 2104
Budget Committee Meeting: May 9, 2014 - 10 am
Budget Hearing: June 12, 2014 - 6 pm
 On the down side, leaving the Board of Directors however is Mr. Noel Walker. Noel has served the District at three separate times over the last three decades and will be sorely missed. The District will seek to fill his unexpired term in the next months. Interested parties should contact the District at 541-994-5330 for more information.
|
|
Lake Steward Nominations Wanted
A hearty congratulations again to Don Sell who won last year's Lake Steward award, but it is time to Spring into Action to nominate this year's potential recipients.
|
Mark your Calendars!
April 18- 26 - Community Days! Don't miss the Kiwanis Easter Egg Hunt at Regatta Grounds, Saturday the 18th at Noon. Also Kayak Devils Lake, Saturday the 26th, 9 am from Holmes Road Park, plus the Banquet that evening at Chinooks Winds Casino Resort from 6-9 pm, where the 2014 Lake Steward will be awarded.
May 10 -11 - Devils Lake Dash Personal Water Craft take to the lake in this adrenaline filled dash around the lake. In its second year now, this event kicks off the summer season and is a spectator's delight. Regatta Grounds is ground zero!
ODFW just put on the Devils Lake Family Fishing Frenzy last weekend where they stocked 2,000 fish in a pen at Regatta Grounds. Kids under 14 were able to catch 2 fish each before the remaining fish were freed to the broad lake to join the thousands of other Rainbow Trout planted recently in Devils Lake. There is a lot of fishing to go around for all ages. Watch for the June weekend which statewide allows everyone to join in the fun of fishing with or without a licence. All other fishing regulations still apply, but it is a perfect weekend to get hooked on fishing.
July 19 - Devils Lake Revival
Event Organizers or Non Profits Wanted -- Interested in helping organize the Revival this year? Seth Lenaerts, who organized it the last four years, left some big shoes to fill, but we are confident someone or some entity is up to the task. The Revival is the District's biggest outreach event, plus the most fun most of us have on the lake all year. Send us your best proposal by April 1st. See the RFP and Planning Guide to learn more.
|
|
Ok, enough computer time. Grab those gloves and shovels and let's get to work!
Paul Robertson, MSc
Lake Manager
|
|
Find DLWID on Facebook and Twitter
In addition to our website, www.DLWID.org, you can get updates from the District on Facebook, Twitter and even YouTube. Help us spread the word...like us and follow us through social media.   |
|
|
|
|
