LLPOA LAKE MANAGEMENT COMMITTEE UPDATE
July 17, 2024
inform & educate residents; develop sustainable lake management solutions
- Thanks were expressed (and a round of applause) to Mickey and John Emde for all their time and effort taking care of North Beach. It looked great at our meeting there. A thank you to Randy Cook for rescuing the baby ducklings caught in the fencing on the floating island at South Beach. A thank you to Marty and Erich (our administrator) for helping with the installation of the new water circulator at South Beach. And a big thank you to all the residents who have raked and pulled weeds as well as scooped algae at South Beach and along shorelines.
- Geese – There have been ZERO geese sightings on our lake for almost 2 weeks. This means the goslings are old enough to fly and our geese deterrents and harassment has paid off. We will see geese again as they migrate south but our goal is that their stay on our lake is as temporary as possible. It was suggested we look into a geese deterrent that works during the day for use on the South Beach swimming pier.
- Weeds – Most of the discussion was around weeds so this summary is a little long. The weed harvesting this week removed 13 trailer loads of plant material totaling over 19,500 pounds. That brings our grand total to-date to 114,000 pounds of plant material (and associated nutrients) that have been removed from our lake. That is not a misprint. The total really is 114,000 pounds. Yes, we do still have weeds in our lake and in some areas are still pretty thick. Remember this is our first year of this and we are learning as we go. We have already adjusted our plan by adding more days to the schedule this summer. We are also looking at adding a boat ramp to North Beach to increase the effectiveness of the weed harvester by reducing the travel time to and from South Beach from North Bay and Half Moon Bay. Another idea to look into is doing more harvesting days early in the season and less later in the summer/fall to match the growing season. The main purposes of cutting and removing the weeds is to remove excess nutrients from our lake and reduce the silt build-up at the bottom of the lake. Chemical spraying does NOT remove the nutrients from the lake and increases the silt buildup on the bottom of the lake. These are the 2 main reasons we believe weed harvesting is a sustainable solution. The weed harvester can not cut the weeds along the entire lakefront shoreline. Lakefront homeowners are encouraged to rake their shorelines to remove weeds and algae. A number of lakefront homeowners have been busy raking weeds and algae from their shoreline. It was suggested that this is an opportunity for local teens to earn some summer money by raking shorelines for residents. Local kids at Countryside Lake have been doing this on their lake. It was also mentioned that J&D Lake Services is a company that does this. We are starting to see additional varieties of native plants grow in our lake including charra, american pondweed and floating pondweed. We are also seeing lily pads appearing around the lake. These are all good signs that we are making progress on our goal to increase the plant diversity in our lake. Lilies are a good plant to have as they are especially efficient at cleaning the water. Lily growth needs to be managed as they can become a nuisance with overgrowth. Something we need to plan for next year. Luke showed an ‘Aquabox’ that is basically a plastic cage that can be used along with rocks to protect and grow native plants in the water along the shoreline. It protects the roots from being eaten by muskrats, carp, etc and fosters the growth of the native plants.
- Recent algal bloom – The recent algal bloom on our lake coincides almost to the day last year that we experienced our first algal bloom of the season. Last year with chemical spraying it took over a week to clear up. This year without spraying it cleared up faster than that. Why? Mother Nature is much more effective than spraying. The smaller rainfall right after the bloom along with stronger winds and cooler temperatures took care of it for us. The best defense we have against algal blooms is by removing the excess nutrients in our lake that feed the algal blooms and by creating more water movement through things like water circulators and aerators. In the last month several homeowners have installed water movement devices with additional residents planning to do the same. Initial results from those who have installed them are positive. It is something the association needs to look at again for next year for at least part of the lake. Rich volunteered to research a quantity discount for water circulators similar to what we have done for the biodredge material.
- Secchi update – Our secchi team, Doug and Gerry, were unable to attend the meeting but shared their data and observations. The secchi depth readings at the 3 buoys are consistent with the last 2 years so far. Several residents have told me that water clarity along the shorelines has been better than it has been in several years.
- 2025 Lake Management budget discussion – July is when we start talking about plans for next year and start to prepare our budget requests for presentation to the board for funding. Items briefly discussed were: More weed harvesting days, continue the 1 time early spraying for invasive curly leaf pondweed, a water circulator for North Beach, water circulators for the troublesome areas in our lake, 2 rounds of biodredge applications (pending results of this year’s application), a boat ramp for the weed harvester at North Beach if not done this year, expanding the length and depth of the boat launch at South Beach to better accommodate the larger pontoon boats.
- Ideas for grants – There is grant money available from Lake County Stormwater Management. The deadline for grant submissions is September 13. We are looking for ideas for grant applications and help with researching, writing and submitting grant applications. Please send me any ideas and any interest in researching and writing the applications. More information can be found here SMC Grants .
- Nancy Burton and I met with the Mundelein Park District this past month. They shared the results of their sediment analysis of the large pond just north of North Beach that feeds the major inlet for our lake. The analysis concluded that the large pond is doing what it was designed to do, which is slow the water down and trap some of the sediment before it reaches our lake. They also stated they do not believe they have a goose issue with that pond and are not planning to install any geese deterrents. If you drive by the large pond and see any geese activity please take a picture and send it to me.
- We have a meeting next week with the Village of Mundelein Public Works to discuss stormwater runoff flowing into our lake. I will provide an update after the meeting.
Our next meeting will be Tuesday August 13 at 7:00 PM.
The next LLPOA Board Meeting is Monday August 19, 7:00 PM at the Mundelein Fire Station.