Oneida County land and water conservation reveals new lake classification and protection tool

Over the last several years, the Oneida County land and water conservation department has worked with a team of stakeholders to create a lake classification system, a large undertaking for a county with over 1,100 lakes. Of those, 451 are names lakes, with the rest being small “pot hole” lakes of 50 acres or less.

The project was headed up by JoAnn Lund and was undertaken due to concern about the lakes in the county being more heavily used than in the past. With a significant increase not only in outdoor recreation, but also in development around the lakes, there was some concern about increased stress on the county’s lakes. With lakes being a central part of the Northwoods economy and culture, the department put together a stakeholder group to help give input on a Lake Classification System looking at how to potentially protect lakes from external stressors. Rather than being focused on restoration, or waiting until the health of a lake declined to the point where restoration was needed, this project focused on keeping lakes healthy to begin with, which can be much less costly and resource-intensive.

The goal of the classification system, and the resulting potential protection strategies was to, “keep 100% of Oneida County priority healthy watersheds and the high-quality waters within them at or better than their current condition at least thought 2030,” according to the classification document released recently. The department wished to create a classification system that would group lakes with similar features and then design a set of protection strategies tailored to each set of lakes with similar scores and characteristics.

Each named lake received a score based on two factors. One of those factors was the physical characteristics of the lake itself, broken down into lake size, maximum depth, shoreline density and lake type or hydrology. 

The other factor was the lake health score. This category was broken down into scores for factors such as water quality and land use.

By using the classification system, lakes could be grouped by score into protection levels based on the above characteristics and conditions. This would give land managers, lake managers, the county and even lake organizations a clear framework by which to provide protection efforts for a given lake. 

For instance, the physical score of a lake put it into one of three sensitivity categories: high, moderate or lower. The high sensitivity lakes tended to ne small and shallow located at a relatively high elevation within the watershed. Those with a lower sensitivity rating tended to be larger and deeper well as located a lower elevation within the watershed.

The department then created a matrix, using both the physical score and the health score to determine at what score a lake would require high, moderate or lower protection efforts. Of the 451 named lakes in the county, it was found that 133 were in the high protection category, 287 in the moderate category and only 31 in the lower protection category.

Lakes that landed in the high protection category were assigned Class 1 status. Those lakes have a high sensitivity to outside stressors. These smaller, shallow lakes tend to have irregular shaped shoreline and be located relatively high in the drainage area. They are also located in a healthy watershed with high environmental and water quality. It would follow, then that Class 2 lakes would be moderately sensitive to outside stressors and Class 3 lakes would have a lower sensitivity to outside stressors.

What it all means

The recent release of the lake classification system document includes recommended protection activities based on where a lake is classified. Those activities address things such as public access, developmental density, enhanced wake activity and aquatic invasive species. Each named lake in the county has their score and other pertinent information listed in each of these categories. Following that, the recommended protection actions are based on which class the lake falls into. For instance, a lake with low development density may prioritize promoting shoreland and wetland protection or participating in citizen science activities. 

Where high density development lakes may utilize activities such as planting native buffers, promoting the writing of a comprehensive lake management plan or work with the county and the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) to monitor aquatic invasive species and water quality.

All of these protection activities are listed directly in the classification system document, which will help lake organizations and other stakeholder better understand what activities to prioritize based on how their lake has been classified. 

The county has also created a list of 30 recommended activities for lake organizations and stakeholders to undertake in order to mitigate the effects of what they have found to be the four biggest risk factors to lake health: public access, development density, enhanced wakes and aquatic invasive species. 

While this work took several years to complete and involved a number of stakeholders from diverse background sitting on the committee, this complex classification system has been reduced to something digestible and useful for stakeholders when looking at their lake and how to best protect the resource they love and enjoy.

The classification system, as well as the supporting documentation, can e found on the Oneida County land and water conservation department website at oclw.org. Department staff is always available to talk with lake groups and riparian owners about ways to protect their lake. Those wishing to talk to staff may stop in at the office in the Oneida County courthouse in Rhinelander or call 715-369-7835.

Beckie Gaskill may be reached via email at [email protected].