LOST LAKE — Neighbors Cordelia Scheuermann and Chris Gray want to make sure they don’t take the serene lake in their backyard for granted.
They live along Lost Lake near Maltby. They share a paddle boat every couple of weeks to venture out on the lake and check on water quality and aquatic plants. The two also track possible contamination sources on their own properties and nudge neighbors toward workshops and other water education events.
Scheuermann and Gray are part of Snohomish County’s LakeWise program. It’s a voluntary water quality effort with landowners who live on lakes in unincorporated areas of the county or own property within the watersheds that feed those lakes. They can have their yards inspected, get advice on how to make them more compatible with the lake’s ecosystem and earn a LakeWise certification for making those changes. There are grants available through the program to help with lake-friendly landscaping. County water experts also host free workshops for anyone interested in improving the health of local lakes.
Planting native vegetation along the shoreline, cleaning up waste from pets and using limited or no weed killers and fertilizers can make a big difference in the purity of lake water, said Marisa Burghdoff, water quality specialist and LakeWise project manager.
For many lakes in residential areas, phosphorous levels are a growing problem. Runoff containing particles from loose soil, animal waste and chemicals increases phosphorous levels. That’s especially true where flat, grassy lawns have replaced scrubby native vegetation that naturally filters runoff along shorelines. High levels of phosphorous in the water feed algae blooms, including potentially toxic blue-green algae.
“You need a lot of people taking small actions on their properties to make a big difference,” Burghdoff said. “People who live right on the lake have a special opportunity to help. The property right along the water is kind of the last line of defense.”
Scheuermann is working on a 15-foot buffer of native plants between her yard and the lake. She spread cardboard and wood chips over the grass there and plans to plant blueberries, huckleberries, elderberries and native hydrangeas, among other plants. She applied for a landscaping grant through LakeWise to get help picking out and buying the plants.
Gray’s property has a protected wetland behind it so she doesn’t need to plant any new buffers. But her role in the LakeWise program has taught her a lot about little things, including having her septic system tested regularly and not using any weed killer.
“I think the impact our human behavior can have on the lake has really been the biggest thing I learned,” she said.
Snohomish County has had a volunteer lake monitoring program for two decades but the LakeWise project with workshops, inspections and certifications is more recent. The county piloted it at Lake Howard near Stanwood about three years ago before expanding to other lakes in the county, Burghdoff said.
“People really can make a difference just by making small changes,” she said. “A lot of people don’t even realize they might be contributing to the problem.”
Since the program started, county water experts have completed 115 site visits and certified 35 LakeWise properties. Lost Lake has been one of the most active areas for the program, and Burghdoff said Gray and Scheuermann are the reason.
“It hasn’t been hard to get people to care about the lake,” Scheuermann said. “Our little lake is a place where a lot of people of all ages like to come and play.”
It draws retirees in fishing boats, kids in floaties, adults on paddle boards and dogs fetching floating sticks.
“There’s just a lot of joy on that lake,” she said. “And we want to keep it that way.”
Kari Bray: 425-339-3439; kbray@heraldnet.com.
Learn more
LakeWise workshops are planned later this month in Stanwood and Monroe. For more details, go to lakewise.org.
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