By Grace Lovins
From the crashing waves of Lake Superior to the currents of Lake Saint Clair, if Michiganders value anything, it’s the lakes surrounding us. Home to over 11,000 of them, these lakes hold significant value for Michigan’s natural beauty, economy and recreation.
According to Michigan Sea Grant, the coastal counties of the Great Lakes states produced 21 percent of the gross domestic product in the Great Lakes region between 2009 and 2018. The same study also showed that the national parks and lakeshore located in these coastal counties attracted roughly 6.5 million visitors in 2018 alone.
It’s not just the Great Lakes, though, that give Michigan its status as an attractive destination for tourism, recreation and jobs. Outside of the Great Lakes, Michigan has more than 11,000 inland lakes and 3,000 miles of water trails, according to the Michigan Department of Natural Resources (DNR).
These waterways provide drinking water and water for irrigation, boost property values of residences located on and around the shores, and are a tourist destination. They also provide “blue space.” “Blue space” – seas, rivers, lakes and urban water features – has been shown to reduce stress levels over time, as reported by The Guardian, among other health benefits for people with chronic illnesses.
Michigan is home to the largest number of freshwater lakes more than any other state in the nation, according to the Michigan DNR, with Oakland County having the largest concentration of inland lakes of any other county in the state.
Oakland County has 1,400 located within its county borders. These lakes provide various recreational opportunities like fishing, kayaking or canoeing, and beautiful scenery.
To point out the obvious, there’s more to lakes than just the benefits they have for the people that live around them. Lakes are an important ecosystem, the locations of important habitats and resources for fish, aquatic life and other wildlife, noted the U.S. Geological Survey. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) stated that Michigan’s lakes support more than 3,500 species of plants and animals.
Like many ecosystems though, lakes have seen an increase in threats to their health stemming from invasive species, habitat destruction, pollution and climate change, according to NOAA.
Different lakes face different issues depending on geography in the state, the size of the lake and the amount of human activity around it, among other influences. Oakland County’s lakes are no exception.
Eric Diesing, with Oakland County Parks and Recreation, explained that human development is one of the major threats around the county’s lakes.
“Increased development leads to increased runoff during precipitation events. This runoff carries harmful materials from our lawns, roads, driveways and other surfaces directly into adjacent surface waters,” Diesing said. “This can lead to pollution and reduced water quality as well as impacts to native fisheries. Development also reduced natural shoreline habitat which is crucial for many native animal species.”
Runoff from development isn’t the only factor at play here. Diesing explained that shoreline development can negatively affect the habitat availability for wildlife and the quality of the water itself. As an example, seawalls, said Diesing, that are designed to protect shorelines from erosion can also lead to habitat degradation and flanking of wave energy, which can cause erosion of neighboring properties.
“Shoreline development also removes sources of large wood material for the lakes,” said Diesing. “Large wood is an important habitat component for fish, which use it for cover, forage and breeding habitat.”
On top of the threats posed by increased shoreline development, Diesing and Bindu Bhakta, natural resource educator with the Michigan State University Extension Service in Oakland County, explained that invasive species are another major threat to the county’s aquatic life and can be costly and difficult to remove.
So, what can we do to ensure our lakes are able to thrive? That’s where Michigan’s Inland Lake Improvement Act comes into play. Passed in 1966 and later codified in 1994 through Michigan’s Natural Resources and Environmental Protection Act, Public Act 451, or the Inland Lake Improvement Act, allows for the formation of lake improvement boards, according to the Progressive Companies (Progressive AE) water resource group, headed by Paul Hausler who has three decades of experience working with lake boards and local communities on water quality issues.
A lake improvement board brings local citizens, municipalities and county governments together to manage a specific lake. The law allows lake boards to take on a broad range of projects, including those on a watershed, according to the Michigan Chapter of the North American Lake Management Society.
Oakland County currently has 48 lake improvement boards established to address issues like aquatic weed control and nuisance control.
Lake improvement boards typically take on projects like dredging, augmentation wells, beach management and boat launches, said Jim Nash, Oakland County Water Resources Commissioner.
These lake improvement boards consist of two representatives from the local community; one representative from the Oakland County Board of Commissioners; one representative from the Oakland County Water Resources Commissioner’s Office and one riparian representative who is a resident that lives on the lake, said Nash.
The county representatives are appointed by the county board of commissioners, said Dave Woodward, chair of the Oakland County Board of Commissioners. The county commissioner who sits on the board is appointed at the start of the term. Generally, the commissioner that represents the district where the lake is located sits on the lake improvement board, he said.
Resident representative appointments come from the lake boards themselves, said Woodward. Property owners interested in serving on the board fill out an application and the board nominates and votes on the appointee.
Both public and private inland lakes can have a lake improvement board, but it must be established by property owners or through a local government, as explained by Progressive Companies’ water resources group.
A public inland lake board may be established if two-thirds of the property owners bordering the lake petition for it or by the motion of a local government. On a private lake, however, a board can only be established through a petition from the property owners.
Nash stated that lake improvement boards are “considered a fully functioning separate mini-government” with the specific task of implementing lake improvement projects once it is established.
These boards have their own budget funded through the formation of a special assessment district, hold public meetings throughout the year to discuss projects and the board’s budget, record meeting minutes and commission reports, similar to what the public would see from a board of commissioners or other public boards.
“At a high level, these lake boards are tasked with insuring water quality, developing and figuring out how to fund all lake improvements, and that’s everything from testing and mitigating erosion, public health and safety issues as it relates to reducing the risk of E.coli and a host of other things,” Woodward said.
Once a lake improvement board is established, one of its first tasks, said Nash, is the creation of a special assessment district and the assessment methodology used to create the district. The assessment covers the cost of the projects the lake board intends to implement. “All funds raised through the special assessment must be used on identified approved projects,” he said.
When a lake board is formed, typically residents have a specific project in mind they want to pursue or are already implementing on their own on the lake, said Nash. The board relies on the residents of the lake for projects they wish to be implemented.
If residents want to implement a new project, they can bring up the concern with the lake improvement board, which would investigate the issue. Depending on the scope of the project, it may either be placed on the budget for the next hearing of practicality and hearing of assessment, according to Nash.
Nash said that when a project is a little more complicated or costly, the board may ask for a petition from the residents to start the process or a resolution from the community. That petition would be put in motion, an engineering report will be prepared for the project and a hearing of practicality would be scheduled.
The hearing of practicality requires a public notice period during which residents would be informed of the hearing through mail and newspaper postings. If a resolution from the board states that the project is practical, it will also be printed in a local newspaper, said Nash. Next comes the public hearing of assessment, which also requires a public notice period.
Nash also explained that Part 309 of the Lake Improvement Act provides clear guidance that any project undertaken by a lake improvement board must benefit the lake as a whole, but it doesn’t outline specific individual projects that can be undertaken.
Generally, boards take on projects like weed management – this could include general lake health monitoring – as well as goose egg roundup, lake ecological survey and fish stocking, Nash said. Each project requires an engineering report in order to be implemented.
In lake management, monitoring is a key task, and most lake improvement boards take this on, according to Woodward.
“Monitoring is an important component of lake management. We need to know what conditions are like in the lake in order to make informed decisions on how to properly manage the waterbody,” said Oakland County Parks and Recreation’s Diesing.
Monitoring can consist of keeping an eye on aquatic plants, algae and aquatic life. Lon Nordeen, board secretary for the Michigan Lakes and Streams Association, noted in his work for the association that lake boards can focus on a variety of monitoring and management techniques: algae analysis and treatment; invasive species analysis and monitoring clean boats and washing programs; shoreline analysis; and resident education.
Of the multiple techniques out there for monitoring lake health, Diesing said one of the most important is the collection of water samples to test water quality and record data.
“Water quality data is crucial to understanding the quality of the lake. We can begin to identify what impacts we are having on the lake by identifying if there are particular water quality issues occurring,” he said. “For example, high nutrients may be a symptom of increased runoff, while high water temperatures may be a result of a reduced canopy cover from shoreline development.”
Mike Vlasic, a resident of Bloomfield Township and the riparian representative on the Lower Long Lake improvement board, recalled that the Lower Long Lake board has been monitoring the lake’s health and water quality for over 30 years.
“Lower Long Lake has really great water quality, and it has for a long time. We think that’s directly accountable to the fact that: a) we test the water quality twice a year every year and have for many years; b) we harvest the weeds out of the lake as opposed to using chemicals in the lake and that has a really beneficial effect on the water quality of the lake,” Vlasic said.
Vlasic said the lake has seen several benefits from the activities of the board. The Lower Long Lake improvement board is responsible for water quality testing, weed harvesting and maintaining the boat launch for the homeowners. Other lake boards may be responsible for things like dams or geese poop management.
Lower Long Lake has had exemplary water quality, which Vlasic noted comes directly from the work the board does. Harvesting weeds allows pools of fertilizer built up from runoff to be removed from the lake as the weeds use the fertilizer to grow. The water quality testing ensures residents and wildlife are safe from bacteria and other pollutants that can be found in deteriorating lakes.
Water quality reports and other studies are available on most of the county’s lake improvement board websites.
According to Vlasic, he has seen this work as not only having a positive impact on the homeowners but the wildlife population as well. “The wildlife in Lower Long Lake is very diverse and by any measure for a lake that’s in a very developed area,” he pointed out.
The work from lake improvement boards not only affects the lake itself, but it has significant overlap with economic development, planning and public health, said Oakland County Commission Chair Woodward.
“From an economic development point of view, our lakes are part of our ecosystem and economic landscape. That is, it’s important to property values, it’s important in placemaking, so the intersection from an environmental sustainability and conservation and economic development really go hand in hand there,” said Woodward.
The county has several partnerships that help lake improvement boards maintain the lakes their responsible for.
Oakland County Parks and Recreation, which is under the Oakland County Board of Commissioners, partners with CISMA, the Oakland County Cooperative Invasive Species Management Area, that spends a lot of time combatting invasive species. They help identify invasive species and develop a plan to mitigate them, Woodward said.
They are also transitioning back to a pre-COVID partnership with the Michigan Lake Corps, that relies heavily on volunteers from various lake improvement boards, said Woodward.
“We’re working with a whole bunch of volunteers to take water samples that the state of Michigan then tests, and that data is so important because … it’s the trend line over time, like chlorophyl content, presence of other gases in the water that impacts the clarity, the health of the lake and other things,” he said.
Aside from data and testing, lake boards and lake residents can get a feel for the health of a lake and success of management strategies based on visuals.
“Signs of a functioning lake ecosystem include a thriving fish population, healthy aquatic plant communities, little or no invasive species and water quality that meets state standards for surface waters,” said Bhakta, educator with the MSU Extension Service in Oakland County.
Of course, lake management does not come without challenges. Diesing of Oakland County Parks and Recreation, and Bhakta explained that the most challenging aspect of lake management is managing development around the lake as well as changing the narrative on aquatic vegetation.
“Native vegetation in the water is important for fish and other organisms. The presence of aquatic vegetation is not a sign of poor lake quality, but rather a sign of a function ecosystem,” said Diesing.
Vlasic noted that one of the biggest challenges he has seen through his time on the board of Lower Long Lake is a misconception of what humans can control about the lake.
“A lake is an ecosystem that we don’t control and, to be honest, in this day and age, people don’t think about it like that,” he said. “People are worried about water quality, but they don’t necessarily understand what the means. Sometimes they’ll think of the lake, if it’s cloudy, it’s the water quality. Well, that can be from just the weather or something else.”
Lake management strategies are proven to help address the needs of a lake to maintain and improve lake health and preserve the ecosystem, and local lake improvement boards have a heavy hand in ensuring lakes’ residents enjoy are healthy for both the aquatic life, wildlife and residents.
With the numerous partnerships and large number of established lake boards, Oakland County seems to be leading the way when it comes to lake conservation and management. Woodward attributes part of this to the county having the largest concentration of lakes, but the county’s environmental goals and the overarching impact on economic development and public health are also a factor.
Efforts of lake boards span beyond just conserving the overall health of a specific lake. The ideas and methods used to preserve a lake’s health are widely researched strategies that can be employed in several different types of lakes, according to the Fondriest Environmental Learning Center, a full-service environmental monitoring company based in the Great Lakes. Getting residents involved and invested in the health of lake can have a significant impact in maintaining a quality waterbody available to residents, aquatic species and wildlife.
“I think that the lake boards can be very positive for the environment and for the users of the lake,” said Vlasic. “I just think that like so much of local government, you need to be involved and pay attention and it can be great. It’s been great for Lower Long Lake to have this board.”
LAKE BOARDS IN OAKLAND
Addison Township
Lakeville Lake
Bloomfield Township
Forest Lake
Gilbert Lake
Island Lake
Lower Long Lake
Meadow Lake
Orange Lake
Upper Long Lake
Wabeek Lake
Brandon Township
Lake Louise
Highland Township
Charlick Lake
Duck Lake
Gourd Lake
Highland Lake
Kellogg Lake
Murray Lake
Taggett Lake
Tomahawk Lake
White Lake
Woodruff Lake
Independence Twp.
Clarkston Mill Ponds
Van Norman Lake
Walters Lake
Novi
Walled Lake
Oakland Township
Cranberry Lake
Orion Township
Indianwood Lake
Rose Township
Tipsico Lake
Springfield Township
Big Lake
Dixie Lake
Eliza Lake
Susin Lake
Waumegah Lake
Troy
Lake Charnwood
Walled Lake
Walled Lake
Waterford Township
Eagle Lake
Huntoon Lake
Lake Oakland
Pontiac Lake
Rainbow Lake
Scott Lake
Van Norman Lake
Watkins Lake
Williams Lake
White Lake Township
Cedar Island Lake
(Stopke Bay)
Grass Lake
Lake Neva
Lake Ona
Round Lake