Residents on North Lake are offering to ante up and form the city’s second Lake Management District.
Sixteen lakeside property owners petitioned the city council and were granted permission April 21. The owners will each pay a fee to keep the organization alive as well as keep the lake clean and safe for residents and visitors. Their contributions will allow the continual monitoring of the lake’s plant life and water quality. Public education on how to achieve and maintain healthy lake water will also take place. Steel Lake is home to the city’s other district.
Since 2005, the city’s surface water management department has worked with residents to control plant life present on North Lake, such as fragrant water lily, purple loosestrife, yellow flag iris and narrow leaf cattail.
For the past four years, the city has administered a Washington State Department of Ecology Aquatic Weeds Management Fund grant intended for North Lake. The grant provides for annual plant surveys, herbicide treatments, manual control of non-native species and public education about the lake’s quality. The funding source is due to expire in December 2009. The Lake Management District will keep the lake up to par after the grant period ends.
The city will oversee the district and hire contractors to dually concentrate on managing the lake’s native and non-native plant life. Tasks will be aimed at keeping invasive plants contained and noxious weeds reduced. Non-native plants tend to disrupt native plant and wildlife habitats.
They can lower adjacent property values, according to an April 6 memorandum from Water Quality Program Coordinator Dan Smith to a city council sub-committee.
In 2005, the northern end of North Lake experienced an infestation of milfoil. It was treated with herbicide and vanished.
“If left unchecked, it would have been out of control,” Smith said.
The plant growth spreads easily and quickly. It can be jump from lake to lake by boaters, who sometimes fail to clean the foliage from their watercraft. Milfoil can degrade the ecology of the lake and eventually harm its natural habitat.
“It will choke out the beneficial native vegetation,” Smith said.
Volunteers within the Lake Management District will also take water samples from the lake. These samples will help determine the long-term overall quality of the lake, Smith said, but they will not determine when milfoil or algae outbreaks will occur.
Each of the district’s members will contribute to its funding. Fifty-three single family residential developed property owners will pay $100 annually. Vacant property owners with the same zoning will be charged 70 cents per lakefront foot. Owners of single-family residential properties without lakefront access will pay $75 each for developed properties and $15 each for non-developed properties.
Weyerhaeuser owns several lots on the lake and will pay 70-80 cents per lakefront foot, depending on zoning. The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife will pay $4,000 for a boat launch located on the lake. An annual total of $12,536, plus up to 5 percent inflation, will fuel the Lake Management District for a contracted 10 years, according to the Lake Management District petition submitted to the city council.
Bruce Findt, a lakefront resident and certified diver, has lived on North Lake for more than nine years. He is happy to pay the fee because it will ensure a weed-free lake that can be better enjoyed by property owners, he said. In the past, the lake has experienced horrific problems with invasive water lilies and milfoil, he said.
The weeds got so bad that Findt’s neighbor asked him to dive to the bottom of the lake and pluck out the weeds. The experience was fun, and Findt is willing to contribute his diving skills to keeping the lake free of invasive species in the future, he said.
A steering committee will work with city staff to develop a work plan and budget for the Lake Management District. These will be carried on for implementation by the city’s surface water utility. City staff will provide a quarterly financial report.
