Editors Note: This article originally appeared on the MI Chapter, North American Lake Management Society website at www.mcnalms.org.
The Michigan Chapter, North American Lake Management Society (McNALMS) in coordination with the Michigan Lake and Stream Associations, Inc. have awarded two one-year $1000 grants to Joe Nohner from Michigan State University (MSU) and Delilah Clement from Grand Valley State University (GVSU). Joe is a graduate student in the Department of Fisheries and Wildlife at MSU. His research for this grant will focus on the social, cultural, and economic factors underlying lakeshore property owners’ willingness to conserve natural aquatic habitat on their properties. Previous research has shown that changes in habitat and shoreline development influence fisheries productivity. The information he gathers along with his ongoing research on largemouth bass populations will help provide a better understanding of factors influencing the decisions of landowners to remove vegetation and woody habitat and potential effects on the fisheries resource. It will also help practitioners and lake organizations better tailor their conservation efforts to mitigate changes to the natural shoreline. Delilah is a graduate student at the Robert B. Annis Water Resources Institute at GVSU. Her research will look at phosphorus loss via tile drains in the Macatawa Watershed. She plans to collect tile drain effluent, record land and management factors, perform bioassays on algae using the effluent, and determine if soluble reactive phosphorus concentrations in relation to total phosphorus from drain tile has a significant effect on algal growth. Her research will lead to a better understanding of the relationship between tile drain phosphate and algal blooms in the Macatawa watershed and Lake Macatawa. McNALMS and MLSA congratulate the two recipients and look forward to their sharing of information on their research results.