Lake Level Report – Vegetation

VEGETATION

A section from the Lake Level Monitoring report contained in Staff Report from the December 13, 2012 board meeting material.  This section drafted by district staff.

One aspect of the decision to not impound as much water as had been done in previous years was the potential impact to the shoreline plant community. In fact it was the concern for the viability of the District’s SOS (Save our Shorelines) program that initiated the Erosion Study (Link) that contributed in many ways to the findings for the recent lake level decision. As a healthy shoreline is integral to the health of the lake it is worth nothing that the District continues to sustain its investment in the SOS program with staff, training programs, a native plant nursery, demonstration sites, and a 75% cash match for shoreline property owners. Additionally, the District paid for the development of the Shoreline Planting Guide (Link), and has since then reinvested in multiple printings of this document, sharing it with property owners, landscapers and the like.

Further the District recognizes with the limits of private property owner participation in the SOS program — to date only six have participated and only two property owners have come forward leading to one site evaluation since the June decision — the best opportunity for restoration currently lies on public property. Not only is this on upland publicly owned parcels such as East Devils Lake State Recreation area where the District has its second demonstration site, but more importantly at all areas around the lake up to the 10.4’ meandered legal boundary of the lake. This areas then includes the ring of the lake from Ordinary High Water which is the 10.4’ to some level near 8.3 which may be consider more or less the Ordinary Low Water. This OLW water is ill defined for Devils Lake, but a 2’ fluctuation in lake stage is often seen through the year.

Lake Landscaping Class

 On Saturday, September 17, the Devils Lake Water Improvement District will be hosting a discussion on landscaping (or lakescaping) practices that you can do that will improve Devils Lake water quality.

RSVP is not necessary but encouraged. 541-994-5330.

A Native Planting Guide is also available for Devils Lake. The guide is available for free download on the DLWID website. Materials are free to use for everyone, including landscapers, nurseries, homeowners, and watershed councils. Follow this link for a free download.

Lake Group Sets Sights on Banned Fish

PATRICK ALEXANDER
The News Guard

Chinese grass carp seen as vital in fight against weed

The group charged with improving the quality of water in Devils Lake is hoping to persuade the state that it needs more weed-eating Chinese grass carp to prevent the lake becoming choked with invasive species like it was in the late 1980s.

“You would think that would be pretty simple,” Lake Manager Paul Robertson said, “if grass carp were not illegal.”

The addition of more grass carp is a central strategy in the Devils Lake Water Improvement District’s newly updated Devils Lake Plan, which credits the ravenous creatures with saving the lake from weed in the late ‘80s and boosting lakefront property values in the process.

Devils Lake Plan Released

District Requests Public Input

The Devils Lake Water Improvement District Board has just released The Devils Lake Plan and is seeking public input. We would encourage you to attend one of a series of Open Houses featuring the newly released plan.  The Devils Lake Plan will eventually become the management plan for the District, guiding the District’s projects for many years to come.  This is your opportunity to ask questions and to provide the District with your comments on the plan. The District is seeking to formally adopt the plan at its March 2011 Meeting.

The District has made the Devils Lake Plan available for your review in two formats, MS Word or Adobe PDF. Please download the plan and familiarize yourself with our lake’s future.  We have reviewed the document and found it to be quite comprehensive outlining a multi-faceted management approach to the lake.  Even still, our review raised some questions and perhaps generated a comment or two, and the District has created a public input process for us to do that very thing.

Each of the open houses will start with a short presentation. There will be ample time for you to ask your questions and provide the District your comments.  The District has also made the presentation available online.  Therefore, if you cannot attend one of the sessions you can view the slideshow of the plan here and still provide input using the District’s online comment form.  You may also wish to provide written comments by email to the Lake Manager at Lake.Manager@DLWID.org an to the full board simultaneously at Board@DLWID.org.

Please mark your calendar for one of the featured sessions.

Open House Events:

Friday, January 28, 2011

• Session 1:  10 am – 12 pm
• Session 2:  2 pm – 4 pm

Saturday, January 29, 2011

• Session 3:  10 am – 12 pm
• Session 4:  2 pm – 4 pm

Thursday, February 3, 2011

• Session 5:  6 pm – 7 pm  (as part of regular meeting)

Location:

Devils Lake Water Improvement District Office
820 SE Hwy 101, Suite D, Lincoln City, Oregon.