Volunteer Lake Monitoring Program

Overview

The Watershed Council has coordinated and sponsored the Volunteer Lake Monitoring Program for over 20 years. Presently, volunteers monitor 35 lakes spread throughout Antrim, Charlevoix, Cheboygan, Emmet, and Montmorency Counties (map below). The objectives of the program are to collect baseline data, characterize lake ecosystems, identify specific water quality problems, determine water quality trends, and, most importantly, inform and educate the public regarding water quality issues and aquatic ecology. Monitoring water quality does not ensure clean water, but rather provides valuable information to help protect and improve water quality in the lakes of northern Lower Peninsula of Michigan.

Lakes in Volunteer Lake Monitoring Program in 2006

Lake Characterization and Trophic Status

All lakes undergo a natural "aging" process called eutrophication. Lakes formed from glaciers are often very deep, with cold water, low levels of nutrients (phosphorus and nitrogen), and low biological productivity (relatively little aquatic life). As a lake "ages", nutrient accumulation in the lake water and bottom sediments leads to greater biological productivity. Greater biological productivity leads to increased deposition of organic matter, which, combined with sediments that wash in during rain storms or snowmelt, cause the lake to become shallower and water temperatures to rise. In a natural setting this process occurs very slowly with little or no apparent change over the course of a human lifetime.

Human activities in a watershed often greatly accelerate the natural aging process of lakes by contributing additional nutrients and sediment. The acceleration of the process is called 'cultural eutrophication'. When excessive nutrients are added to a lake, aquatic plants and algae thrive, resulting in excessive growth and large blooms. Excessive plant growth and large algae blooms can make swimming undesirable, make boating difficult and lead to the formation of 'dead zones'. Dead zones are areas in a water body devoid of aquatic life due to dissolved oxygen depletion. Although aquatic plants and algae contribute oxygen to the ecosystem during day-time photosynthetic activities, they consume oxygen during the night while respiring, which (with excessive plant growth) can result in oxygen depletion. Increased sediment contributions from erosion, construction activities, and other human activity also accelerate the aging process.

Data collected by volunteers in the Volunteer Lake Monitoring program are used by Watershed Council staff to determine the current level of productivity or the "trophic status" of a lake. Lakes are classified according to their trophic status, which ranges from oligotrophic (low productivity) to eutrophic (high productivity). In general, oligotrophic lakes are considered to have high water-quality, mesotrophic lakes have moderate water quality and eutrophic lakes have poor water quality. However, keep in mind that eutrophic lakes occur naturally during the aging process and do not necessarily reflect poor water quality.

To learn more about the work of a volunteer lake monitor and view reports that include data collected by volunteers, click on the following links:

• A Day in the Life of the Volunteer Lake Monitor
• Putting the Data to Work
• The Future of the Volunteer Lake Monitoring Program
• Lake Profiles

In addition, data collected in the Volunteer Lake Monitoring Program has been entered into a comprehensive database and is available for download (in a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet) by clicking on the following link:

Comprehensive Volunteer Lake Monitoring Database

Contact Us|Search