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People have been told that if they take care of their bodies, they will live a good long life. So they exercise, take vitamins, see their doctor annually and take prescribed medications to take care of their bodies.

People spend thousands and thousands of dollars for their vehicles. They have been told that if they take care of their vehicles, they will last a long time. So they change their oil at regular intervals, take their car in for regular checkups, wash and wax their cars.

People buy expensive lawn equipment. They are told that if they take care of the equipment it will last a long time, so they do. I’ve seen people waxing their lawn mowers.

Then people spend hundreds of thousands of dollars for lake front property. They buy big boats and pontoons and they take care of them so they will last. BUT, very few of them consider the quality of the lake which is a part of their property. Many of them will unintentionally do everything they can that is harmful for the lake.

  • The first thing most of them do is add a great big seawall.
  • Many of them rip down the place they bought and erect a place twice or better the size of the old place. Covering the ground with as much impervious surface area as possible.
  • Then a lot of them cut down most of their trees and vegetation for their newly manicured and well fertilized lawn running to the water’s edge.
  • Many of them will do their best to purchase the back lot property behind them so they can strip that lot of most of its vegetation and erect the largest utility building allowed, again covering the ground with as much impervious surface as possible.
  • They install lighting lakeside which in turn can prevent zooplankton from eating surface algae, causing algae blooms.

If you ask many of them why they bought a place on the lake they will tell you it was for the value and the beauty (quality) of the lake. All five of the items above are harmful to the quality of the lake and if the quality of a lake is harmed, so is the value of the property and this is just a small part of the list. Please take care of your lake, it will last longer.  There are alternatives.  For more information, join your lake association or join a state wide lake association.

 Roger Carey

Lake George

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