News and notes about your water quality at Big Star Lake

January 2024

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Water Quality

News and notes about your water quality at Big Star Lake

November 30th 2021

News and notes about your water quality at Big Star Lake

November 4th 2020

News and notes about your water quality at Big Star Lake

April 20th, 2019

News and notes about your water quality at Big Star Lake

December 19th, 2018

December 19th, 2017
February 23rd, 2016

December 15th, 2015

As prepared by the Restorative Lake Services the Big Star Lake “State of the Lake” (2015) Report & 2016 Management Recommendations has been made available for those interested in reviewing our lake’s information. Below is a link to the report in pdf format.

PAGE 1 OF THE WATER QUALITY NEWSLETTER

PAGE 2 OF THE WATER QUALITY NEWSLETTER

June 2, 2015
Submitted by: Bernie Woltjer

Dear MLSA member,
While aquatic plants are an important component of healthy lakes and streams, some species form overly large, dense populations. While these nuisance plants are often non-native species such as Eurasian milfoil, native plants can also grow to excess when exposed to high nutrient levels. When plant populations reach levels that impair recreation and ecosystem functioning (for example, decreased fish and bird habitat), control efforts are often warranted. However, there are many options for such efforts, from using predatory insects to machine harvesters, each with advantages and disadvantages. It can be difficult to choose a control option and develop the associated management plan that maximizes efficiency and minimizes cost.
To help Michigan Lake and Stream Associations (ML&SA) members with these decisions, ML&SA has put together the “Invasive aquatic plant control and management guide: a summary of management options and service providers.” This guide is intended to serve as a resource for ML&SA members who are considering management of invasive aquatic plants. The guide provides a summary of current knowledge and options for management, as well as a list of Michigan businesses that can provide guidance and/or perform management services. Michigan Lake and Stream Associations encourages supporting businesses that are ML&SA commercial members due to their support for the organization and its goals. The guide can be found at the link below labeled Control Management Guide.
Sincerely,
Alisha

Research and Development Coordinator
Michigan Lake and Stream Associations (ML&SA)
Phone: 248-672-1458
Email: alishad@mlswa.org
Web: http://www.mymlsa.org/

SPRING 2015

Big Star Lake Water Testing Program – Spring 2015

The water of Big Star Lake was annually tested under the Cooperative Lakes Monitoring Program (CLMP) for the years of 2004 through 2009. Following the summer of 2009 the testing program stopped due to the lack of a volunteer to take the training and do the water sampling. In 2013 the program was restarted with a new volunteer but could only be taken on as a partial test program due to the training requirements and need to demonstrate competency under the CLMP guidelines. Starting in 2014 all four parameters of the CLMP testing program were again in the water sampling and testing effort sponsored by the Big Star Lake Association. These tests include, Transparency, Chlorophyll-a, Phosphorus, and Dissolved Oxygen.

The principal purpose for regular and consistent test of the lake water is to recognize changes in important parameters of the lake chemistry and clarity that might allow early corrective action to a problem in the lake. Now that the program is fully functional it should be continued annually so that normal lake conditions can be documented and abnormal situations identified.

Submitted by:

Bernie Woltjer

2014 Report

3/30/2015
Big Star Lake Association
Water Quality Sampling Summer 2014

The Big Star Lake Association has joined with the Michigan Clean Water Corps by partcipating in their “Cooperative Lakes Monitoring Program (CLMP)”. This program is supported by the Michigan DEQ. BSLA rejoined this program in 2013 by sending a board member to the Michigan Lakes & Streams Convention to obtain training in how to carry out the various types of water sampling and parameter measurement.

Attending the training in 2013, measuring water transparency (turbidity) throughout the summer and doing a fall sampling for fall Phosphorous in 2013 qualified our association and board volunteer for participation in a larger program in 2014.

The 2014 program included attending the MLS7A conference in May, regularly measuring transparency, taking both spring and fall Phosphorous samples, taking multiple Chlorophyll a samples, and regularly measuring dissolved Oxygen. Samples taken the determination of Chlorophyll a and Phosphorous were brought into the DEQ office and Cadillac, MI for transfer to the DEQ in Lansing. The results of these findings will be posted on the MiCorp’s website. the measurement of tranparency and dissolved Oxygen were directly loaded onto the MiCorp’s website. All of the results of this testing and sampling will be available online and will be published in a printed report that the BSLA board will receive.

The testing that was done included:

Phosphorous sampling – 2 times (early spring and fall)
Chlorophyll a – 4 times
Transparency – 10 times
Dissolved Oxygen – 9 times

The principal purpose for regular and consistent test of the lake water is to recognize changes in important parameters of the lake chemistry and clarity that might allow early corrective action to a problem in the lake. Now that the program is fully functional it should be continued annually so that normal lake conditions can be documented and abnormal situations identified.

Information about this program can be obtained from the MiCorp’s website and from the Michigan Lake & Stream Association’s website. Click on the buttons below.

Report submitted by:

Bernie Woltjer

September 25, 2014