PennsylvaniaLake Management Conference 2007

Attended By and Notes Taken By: Greg Robinson

Conference Date: October 10 & 11, 2007

Conference Location: State College, PA

Conference Brochure:

PALMS Website:

Table of Contents

Elements of Successful Lake Management - Dr Wagner

Glenn Rider – DEP Grant programs

Aeration to Improve Pond & Lake Water Quality - Ed Molesky

Environmental Planning - Jason Smith

GIS for Lake Management – John Wilson (Lafeyette College)

Comparison of Fishery Management Techniques – Joe Gallagher

Smaller Scale Projects to Control Nutrients and Sediments - Fred Lubnow

Bluegreen Algae – Dr Wagner

References / Networking:

Elements of Successful LakeManagement - Dr Wagner

Did not provide slides

Rating: 8 out of 10

  • Number 1 priority is to set goals
  • Next is to monitor progress toward those goals
  • LakeManagement is only 35 years old as a science
  • pH below 6 will cause fish to start to die
  • When planning, think in terms of 5 and 20 years
  • LakeManagement is open ended like gardening, landscaping, home management, etc.
  • They do not have a clear end
  • Dr. Wagner recommends 5 and 20 year plan that covers:
  • Costs
  • Prevention
  • Follow up monitoring
  • Start with assessment before you put together a plan
  • It is much cheaper to prevent than to treat a problem
  • 2 Phases
  • Diagnostics
  • Get data first
  • get plan built
  • set realistic expectations
  • Feasibility

Glenn Rider – DEP Grant programs

He did not have slides, but he emailed me the following info.

DEP Grant Spreadsheet:

DEP Funding Fact Sheet:

Rating: 9 out of 10

  • EPA randomly picked lakes to survey to be part of a national report on the status of lakes in PA. The report will be out in 2009
  • Different Types of Grant programs
  • 319 program – PA gets 6 million dollars every year
  • Used for Staffing, Projects, and Watershed Implementations
  • Must have a documented plan to receive grant
  • Growing Greener
  • 2 different categories of Growing Greener
  • Growing Greener 1
  • Growing Greener 2
  • Each has a 15% match
  • Growing Greener 1 Covers:
  • Education & Outreach
  • Assessments
  • Planning
  • Monitoring
  • Administrative
  • Growing Greener 2 is more specific and covers:
  • Can only be used for Capital Improvements
  • Physical Improvement of the Land and Last 20 – 25 years to be eligible for the funds
  • Solicitation for Growing Greener opens in December
  • Glenn has a spreadsheet of DEP Grant Programs
  • Fact Sheet 11 pages long containing info on Federal Grants, Public Funding, Private Funding – Will be on website next week
  • Partnerships at the local level are extremely important
  • Diversify
  • Growing Greener programs have gone to a private lake in the past
  • 360 applications received – 85 million dollars was given out
  • 25% was funded (21 million dollars)
  • Applications need to be in by April
  • Once they receive the applications, they rank them

Aeration to Improve Pond & Lake Water Quality - Ed Molesky

Only provided hardcopy of slides

Rating: 7 out of 10

  • Have realistic goals and expectations
  • Aeration is useful tool but has its limitations
  • Implemented with other lake management tools
  • LakeManagement is a marathon and not a sprint
  • Work gradually to improve water quality
  • Early summer – two layers of water exist
  • Ramifications of Stratification
  • No oxygen in water causes need for aeration
  • This can occur at any depth and it is a function of the sediment at the bottom
  • For fish
  • Want good dissolved oxygen
  • Temp
  • pH
  • alkalinity
  • You can aerate but have poor fish because of bad food habitat
  • Aeration is adding more air, or dissolved oxygen
  • Measure throughout the year
  • Want to keep the phosphorus to a minimum
  • Aeration types
  • artificial circulation (conventional aeration)
  • partial lift aeration
  • full lift aeration
  • layer aeration
  • Water fountains are good for aerating ponds
  • Want smaller bubbles – better oxygen transfer
  • Rubber membrane technology – the future of aeration technology
  • Advises his clients to run aeration fountain from April through September
  • Cleaning needed every year

Environmental Planning - Jason Smith

Slides:

Rating: 10 out of 10

We need to talk to this guy. His community already went through what we are going through now.

  • Partnerships are extremely important
  • Lots of governing bodies that have a stake in it
  • EAC – environmental advisory council
  • What you should do
  • how you should do it
  • works very well
  • volunteers
  • Primary Goals
  • Preserve quality of life
  • Protect
  • Land and water resources
  • Historic districts and structures
  • Water quality
  • Raise awareness
  • Township officials
  • General public
  • Secrets of success
  • Tie environmental protection initiatives to WATER QUALITY
  • Watershed protection ordinance - Irrespective of political boundaries
  • Includes:
  • Setback restrictions
  • Buffer requirements
  • Land use restrictions
  • Implementation of best management practices
  • Low impact development techniques
  • Regulations may:
  • Low Impact Development
  • 9010 zoning
  • Streams affect the lake
  • Buskill Township EAC – originally formed in 1971 and reestablished in 2002
  • Went over how they developed their plan. Privately owned land that they could not afford to purchase
  • Develop strategy to protect woodlands
  • Riparian buffere ordinance
  • Saldo revisions (Sub Land Development Ordinance)
  • Natrua features conservations ordinance
  • Forestry ordinance
  • Zoning has its advantages and disadvantages
  • Protects people’s property values, water quality, environment
  • Ensures that the smelly glue company won’t build next store
  • Get voters on your side. Raise public awareness and constantly educate
  • Application
  • Complex
  • Oen year to negotiate preservation
  • Need land preservation options
  • Preservation Options
  • Recommendations
  • Put good ordinances in place
  • Require wetlands delineation (option for JD)
  • Open space plan
  • Open space fund (very important)
  • Local tax assessment
  • Matching funds
  • Zoning – 2 acre minimum lot size
  • Performance zoning (takes into account the Low Impact development techniques)
  • Showed a topographical map of Buskill township
  • Showed green area and white area and where ordinances applied
  • Applications for Lakes
  • Riparian buffers
  • Shoreline buffers
  • Wellhead protection areas
  • Future parkland
  • Future open space
  • Other?
  • Critical habitat areas
  • Hydric soils areas
  • Steep slopws
  • Recreational facilities
  • Trails
  • Public access
  • Restrict, but don’t completely restrict. Must allow for partial development. You can’t be too restrictive. Keeps residents happy and major development out
  • Protects the best of your resources but provides the flexibility
  • It is a Great Tool
  • It’s legal
  • Not risky
  • Be respectful of the land owners
  • Public education is critical

GIS for LakeManagement – John Wilson (LafeyetteCollege)

Slides:

Rating: 5 out of 10

  • LakeManagement is data intensive
  • Can use GIS to answer questions
  • Water clarify
  • Turbity
  • Secci disk
  • Depth
  • Water chemistry
  • Salinity
  • Conductivity
  • Phosphorus
  • Nitrogen levels
  • DO
  • pH
  • Temp
  • Spatial
  • Longitude
  • Latitude
  • Geology
  • Census data
  • Species Richness
  • Fish populations
  • Insect populations
  • Bird populations
  • Can create a lake health index based off GIS
  • Can help you make decisiosn
  • Should we stock
  • Should we use for water?
  • Should I fish/swim
  • What can I do to help?
  • Mapping long term trends
  • Water quality
  • Species richness
  • Invasive species
  • Land use / Land cover change
  • Policy / Legislation changes
  • Lakes are a function of all the things around them
  • Understanding this interaction will help you manage the lake better
  • Pennsylvania data clearing house
  • Data for lakes in PA is lacking
  • PASDA – Pennsylvania spatial data access
  • GIS = A system of hardware, software, and procedures designed to support the capture, management, analysis, modeling, and display of spatially referenced….
  • Create / Join a data clearing house
  • Non-profit organizations
  • Alliance for Aquatic Resource Monitoring (ALLARM)
  • American Forests
  • Bat Conservation
  • Heritage Conservancy
  • Natural heritage inventory
  • Natural lands trust
  • The Conservation Fund
  • Meet Dr. Wagner’s goal
  • OpenSource
  • Google Earth (.kml file)
  • G.R.A.S.S (ArchGIS is the professional version, but GRASS is very similar)

Comparison of Fishery Management Techniques – Joe Gallagher

Slides:

Rating: 9 out of 10

Joe has done work at PennLake in the past.

  • Moosic Lake
  • LakeBlythburnem – in the Wilkesbarre area
  • Walker Lake
  • Caruso Pond
  • He presented a case study on his management of LakeBlythburne
  • More black crappie in more lakes – he’s done analysis on 8 or 9 lakes this year
  • Poppy seed sunfish present in lower pH level lakes
  • Fish community composition
  • He manages lakes by the rule - 25% of population is what your preferred population is. Remaining 75% is predator species. Bluegills (e.g., 33% bluegill, 5% 9% yellow perch, 8% golden shiners, etc.)
  • Every species has it’s own little niche. He doesn’t like to manage lakes with a wide variety of fish
  • Recommendations:
  • Reduce the cover, create open areas. Good for fisherman, and give the large fish a chance to catch the smaller fish
  • Establish woody habitat to replace vegetation in shallow areas
  • Provide brush as habitat for black crappie
  • Notice that his plan does not include stocking more fish. Take what you have and manipulate it to improve the fishery
  • MoosicLake (100+ acre lake, 55 feet deep, pretty deep)
  • TDS – the ability to grow fish is less (total dissolved solids)
  • Deep lake: preferred species Largemouth Bass, Walleye, Black Crappie
  • Had 64% population as yellow perch, but not a balanced population if Largemouth bass is the preferred species
  • Problems:
  • There is not enough vegetation
  • Lack of prey minimizes abundance and size of predator species (Largemouth bass)
  • Recommendations:
  • Provide a diversity of habitat for preferred species
  • Supplement natural prey base by stocking bait fish several times during the season
  • Initiate a management program to control the amount of harvest
  • Walker Lake(100+ acre but relatively shallow)
  • Yellow perch 34%, largemouth bass only 11%
  • Problem:
  • Low productivity minimizes the potential of the fishery
  • Lake of prey in combination with the presence of three major predator species minimizes the abundance and size of the preferred species. If you want largemouth bass, manage for largemouth bass
  • Recommendations:
  • Reduce the number of predator species and manage for preferred species only
  • Supplement natural prey
  • Caruso Pond(11+ acre, shallow)
  • Fish population was ideal
  • Problems
  • Reduce the number of predator species and manage only for the preferred species
  • Increase the amount of “woody” structure in the pond
  • Initiate a management program to provide “quality sized” fish
  • Summary of Findings
  • Natural vs manmade did not influence the quality of the fishery
  • Shallower lakes (<1.5 meters) had tendency to maintain higher quality fisheries
  • Lake productivity (total dissolved solid concentrations) strongly influenced the quality of the fishery
  • The better fisheries have a diverisyt of habity throughout 40% to 50% of the lake basis
  • Golden Rule: Successful fishery management programs maximize the potential of that particular body of water

Smaller Scale Projects to Control Nutrients and Sediments - Fred Lubnow

Slides:

Rating: 7 out of 10

  • Phosphorus is the primary limiting nutrient
  • As phosphorus increases, chlorophyll increases
  • Prevent anoxy. Depletion of dissolved oxygen hinders fish breeding and promotes phosophorus development
  • Small scale projects
  • Snout – $200 - $500 per snout. Drains water into basis instead of into lake
  • Total Phosphorus – algae feeds on it
  • Aqua Guard – water flows through the filter and sediments are collected
  • $2 - $3K per unit
  • Non-phosphorus fertilizers
  • Lake in NJ has a campaign for this
  • Some states are banning phosphorus based fertilizers
  • Some have no Phosphorus fertilizer ordinances
  • NALMS has great magazine called Lakeline
  • Having vegetation or plant life at your shoreline can really help filter out the sediment and nutrients from the lake, which negatively impact the lake’s water quality. The vegetation actually attracts the fish
  • Good practice is to let everything grow throughout the spring and summer, and then cut it down in the winter so that it doesn’t become a problem for neighbors
  • Dogs on average produce approx 13 lbs of nitrogen and 2 lbs of phosphorus
  • Geese produce a lot of phosphorus
  • Phosphorus binds to the soils
  • Non-point source pollution – no single point where solution is being generated
  • Point source pollution – a single point that is generating the pollution

Bluegreen Algae – Dr Wagner

Did not provide slides

Rating: 6 out of 10

Cyanobacterial blooms

  • refer to the blue green algae pages for info on this topic
  • Aglae types
  • unicellular
  • just like invasive species, it’s important to know which Algae you’re working with
  • they like warm temperatures, shallow areas
  • People get rashes when they swim in lakes with Blue Green algae
  • NALMS conference is coming up
  • Monitor algal quantity and quality – not easy to do. Only 8 – 10 companies in the nation that does this

References / Networking:

Dr. Ken Wagner – ENSR Water Resources Manager

  • Phone: 860-429-5323 x222
  • Email:

Jason Smith – Hanover Engineering

  • Phone: 610-691-5644
  • BushkillTownship
  • Has tool that he uses for regulations and zoning
  • Email:

John Wilson – LafayetteCollege

  • Phone: 610-330-5197
  • Email:

Joe Gallagher – Ecological Solutions

  • Phone: 888-433-3267
  • Email:

John Steele – Adam’s County

  • Former president of his association
  • Overlay zoning
  • Zebra mussels – boats need to be quarantined for 7 days
  • Phone: 866-584-7274
  • Email:

Lorainne Sloss – Harvey’s Lake

  • Email:

Stephen – Harvey’s Lake

Ed Molesky – President,Hydro Logic Products

  • Phone: 215-230-9325
  • Email:

Rosie Wise – Watershed manager

  • Email:
  • Luzerne County Conversation District website. PACD.net

Glenn Rider – DEP

  • Email:

Jeanne Ortiz -Pennsylvania Environmental Council

  • Email:

Fred Lubnow, PhD - Princeton Hydro

  • Phone: 908-237-5660
  • Email: