Editor’s Note:
Does your association have a newsletter or other means to educate and inform your residents and members? Here is a great example from the most recent email newsletter sent out by the Torch Lake Conservation Center. This is one of many of the informative articles sent out by the conservation center, who’s mission is to help people care for Torch Lake and the watershed. They reach out to visitors and landowners with their educational resources, you can learn more at their website: conservetorch.org
TRUE BLUE News
Do You Know? More than 180 non-native aquatic species live in the Great Lakes today.
A few non-native species have become invasive by rapidly reproducing and negatively changing the lakes.
Aquatic invasive species can interfere with recreational boating, paddling, swimming and fishing, lead to a loss of native species, change food webs, and change nutrient cycling.
Torch Lake has been invaded by:
- Rusty Crayfish (crustacean)
- Round Gobies (fish)
- Zebra and Quagga Mussels (mollusks)
- Eurasian Water Milfoil (plant)
Other Invasive species found in our 14 Chain of Lakes are poised to enter Torch Lake:
- New Zealand Mud Snails (in Grass River between Lake Bellaire and Clam Lake)
- Curly Leaf Pondweed (in Torch River and her bayou and Rapid River)
How have aquatic invasive species changed Torch Lake?
No study has quantified or identified the impacts of rusty crayfish in Torch Lake, but based on information from Lake Michigan, rusty crayfish can lead to a loss of native perch and carry botulism, which kills our loons. Anecdotal reports state that Torch Lake has fewer native crayfish than in past years.
Potential Negative impacts of round gobies include: loss of small native fish species such as darters and sculpins; loss of bottom dwelling invertebrates that are important food sources for other fish species; consumption of eggs and larvae of important native sport fish including smallmouth bass, lake trout, walleye and lake sturgeon; and transfer of botulism to water birds like loons, which leads to their death.
Zebra mussels entered Torch Lake in the late 1990s, followed by quagga mussels around 2018. Three Lakes Association confirmed beds of quagga mussels in deeper shoals of Torch Lake in 2023. Potential negative impacts of Zebra and Quagga Mussels include the reduction of phytoplankton food for zooplankton, fish larvae and small fish, change in the nutrient cycle of phosphorus, and encouraging bottom algae growth.
Eurasian Water Milfoil (EWM) has been present in Torch Lake since the late 1990s. Potential negative impacts include an interference with recreational boating, paddling, swimming and fishing and the loss of native species. Three Lakes (TLA) and Torch Lake Protection Alliance (TLPA) have been surveying Torch Lake for the presence of Eurasian Water Milfoil since 2000.
Over the past two decades, volunteers and professionals have been removing Eurasian Water Milfoil using a variety of methods: benthic barriers, hand removal with and without scuba as well as chemical treatment with Renovate OTF pellet herbicide at six sites on Torch Lake. TLA and TLPA are required to pay for a Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy (EGLE) permit to treat EWM.
In the Upper Chain of Lakes, Six Mile Lake spent thousands of dollars on weevils in an attempt to naturally control the aquatic plant growth. The EWM became so dense that motorboat propellers become entangled with the aquatic plant. Voters in Echo Township approved a Special Assessment District to pay for repeated chemical treatment.
Lake Love looks like – keeping invasive species out of Torch Lake. Before launching all watercraft and trailers- Clean, Drain and Dry. This needs to be done even if your last launch was WITHIN a different lake of the Elk River Chain of Lakes. Check out TRUE BLUE Boating or visit the TRUE BLUE Gallery.
Boat Washing Event- FREE
Saturday, August 3, 2024 9:00-1:00
William Day Park Boat Launch
12201 Public Dock Road
Kewadin, MI 49648
Sponsor: Tip of the Mitt Watershed Council– Petoskey, MI