May 10, 2024 at 5:50 a.m.
The Lake Where You Live
By Ted Rulseh, Columnist
Presentations at last month’s Wisconsin Lakes Convention put a fine point on the value of natural shorelines.
It’s axiomatic in lake protection that what happens on the land affects the health of the water. Burnett County, in the state’s far northwest corner, has operated its Shorelines Incentive Program. In his talk, county conservationist Dave Ferris described how property owners receive monetary rewards for keeping a buffer of natural vegetation along the shoreline.
A natural shoreline provides habitat for diverse wildlife, and adds to the scenic value for which the Northwoods is well known. Most important, it helps protect water quality by holding the soil in place and capturing runoff that contains phosphorus. Phosphorus is the main nutrient that promotes algae blooms and excessive growth of aquatic plants.
In another presentation Paul McGinley, director of the Center for Watershed Science and Education at UW Stevens Point, described how runoff carries phosphorus into lakes. His studies show that what matters most isn’t the concentration of phosphorus in the runoff — it’s the volume of the water.
In other words, a little phosphorus in a large amount of water (as from a major rain event) carries a meaningful amount of nutrient. Sources of large inflows to lakes include impervious surfaces like roofs, driveways, walkways and stairways, and properties with lawns extending all the way to the waterline.
To McGinley, the goal for property owners should be zero runoff, meaning no phosphorus flowing downhill directly into the lake. A natural shoreline buffer contributes to that goal.
Burnett County’s incentive program gives property owners an initial payment of $250 for creating or preserving a natural buffer. Every year after that, the owner received $50 by way of a property tax refund.
Other benefits include a free site visit by a natural landscape expert, planting plans for restoring a natural shoreline, and payments to cover 70% of the cost of plants and materials. Participants also receive a shirt or cap and a sign they can display at the water’s edge.
Since the program’s inception, Burnett County has enrolled nearly 800 properties, representing just over 55 miles of lake frontage. That’s in a county with a population of 15,500, with 509 lakes totaling 31,200 acres.
So a logical question is: just how much phosphorus can a program like this keep out of the lakes? And what impact does that have on the aquatic environment? A little math tells the story. The algae adage says that just one pound of additional phosphorus entering the water can foster the growth of 500 pounds of algae.
Runoff flowing unimpeded across a lakefront property will carry about 0.15 pounds of phosphorus per year, assuming the owner has not applied phosphorus-containing fertilizer. That might not seem like a significant amount.
But now multiply that phosphorus by 800 properties, and then by 20 years. The total rings up at 2,400 pounds of phosphorus. Multiply that by 500 and you get 1.2 million pounds of algae — or 600 tons. And those 800 Burnett County properties account for just 8.7% of all the county’s waterfront parcels.
Now imagine the impact if every lakefront property in the county had a shoreline buffer holding phosphorus contributions to near zero.
That is a future worthy of contemplation.
Ted Rulseh is a writer, author and lake advocate who lives on Birch Lake in Oneida County.
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