Lake Leland Monitoring

Here's info on Lake Leland aquatic vegetation. Al

----- Original Message -----
From: Parsons, Jenifer (ECY)
To: Hamel, Kathy (ECY) ; Glenn Gately
Cc: Neil Harrington
Sent: Monday, November 03, 2008 11:18 AM Subject:
RE: Lake Leland

Hi Kathy and Glenn,
I just wanted to chime in with my observations from spending a day on Leland in early August (8-2-08). At that time the algae bloom was present but not too bad (the visibility as measured by secchi disk was 6 ft), and there were plenty of submersed plants. I also found very little egeria, but Robbin’s pondweed dominated the submersed community, along with plenty of whitestem pondweed and lesser amounts of several other species.

So, I would tend to say that submersed plants have moved in to mostly take the place of the dying egeria, though the lake could be moving in the direction of becoming an algae dominated system I wouldn’t call it that yet. When a lake is truly algae dominated there is very little submersed plant growth. I sent some of the egeria off for pathogen analysis, to see if there was some kind of fungus or something attacking it and causing the die-off, but nothing out of the ordinary was found.

So, still a mystery why the egeria died back – except that this boom and bust cycle has also been documented in other areas with egeria (mainly New Zealand). Here is what John Clayton from New Zealand said about their egeria declines (they have swans that graze it): “Egeria - No clear single factor seems to account for decline, but several seem to occur together. Top-side grazing (esp when clarity/photic zone is shallow); organic matter built up (nutrient depletion due to low density & poor rooting media); periodic fungal or bacterial blight (sudden death and patchy); fish grazing (succulent and rudd love it).

I know we wrote something on this somewhere - probably in the grey literature, but we had a bunch of incriminating suspects - all seemingly pretty likely. Oh yes - even Boron build up in some cases - egeria accumulates this to amazing high levels if its available - which in some of our lakes they had coal mining effluent high in B.” I have attached the map of where I saw egeria (as well as two listed rare plants) and the species list in case you are interested. Thanks, Jenifer

From: Hamel, Kathy (ECY)
Sent: Monday, November 03, 2008 10:42 AM
To: Glenn Gately
Cc: Neil Harrington; Parsons, Jenifer (ECY)
Subject: RE: Lake Leland

Hi Glenn,
That is very interesting about the Brazilian elodea. I suppose your theory might be possible, although I would have expected the native plants to fill in where the Brazilian elodea was before. We have had shifts from plant dominated systems to algae dominated systems. As the algae blooms become more intense and of longer duration, they shade out the plants, leading to a lake with less plants and lots of algae. I appreciate your report and hope that you are doing well. Kathy

From: Glenn Gately [mailto:gately@jeffersoncd.org]
Sent: Friday, October 31, 2008 4:47 PM
To: Hamel, Kathy (ECY)
Cc: Neil Harrington
Subject: Lake Leland

Hi Kathy,
I paddled around the shoreline of Lake Leland on October 28. There was not much Brazilian elodea present--even less than what we found in 2006 when it mysteriously died back. The predominant submersed plants now are fern leaf pond weed and white stem pond weed. Present to a much lesser degree were common elodea, thin leaf pond weed, and coontail. What was really notable was the abundance of blue-green algae. It was literally everywhere in the lake and pretty thick in a lot of places.

In talking with a resident who owns the dock where we put the bottom barrier, the blue-green algae became noticeable about the time the Brazilian elodea disappeared. Do you suppose the nutrients from breakdown of the Brazilian elodea is what caused the blue-green algae to become so abundant? Have you heard of anything like this happening any where else? Hope all is well with you in Olympia.

Glenn Glenn Gately
Jefferson County Conservation District
205 W. Patison St.
Port Hadlock, WA 98339
360-385-4105

Lake Leland, WA: Brazilian Elodea Suddenly Dies

A large die-off of invasive Brazilian Elodea on Lake Leland in Quilcene, WA was recently formally noted by the Jefferson County Conservation District. Glenn Gately, Conservation District resource technician, visits the lake annually to track conditions there. During a recent visit he was surprised to see that the formerly thick Brazilian Elodea infestation had almost completely disappeared.

A call to Pamela Roberts, county 4-H coordinator, helped begin the process of gathering information that might shed light on what led to the death of the Brazilian Elodea that previously clogged the lake. Glenn knew that Pamela lived on Lake Leland and was hoping she might have observed something that could help scientists understand what had happened.

Pamela shared:

"My best recollection is that I first noticed the Brazilian Elodea turning an oily looking black at the top tips sometime around November 2005. I was curious about why it was turning black and guessed that the plant had either ended some sort of growth cycle and was dying back to reemerge in the spring or that the state Ecology staff had somehow poisoned the plants. These were guesses, of course, and were somewhat influenced by the fact that I knew scientists had been working on the lake at night on occasion. I have since been informed that they were probably doing tests with fish during these night time excursions.

After I noticed the blackening tips I started to check on the Elodea around our dock each day. It was not long before all the Elodea was completely gone. It happened within 2 days to 2 weeks - I can't be sure of the time period that it took to completely rot away, but it was a very fast process.

Where there had once been Elodea so thick that you could barely row a boat through it, there was now completely open water. The whole area around my dock was completely clear of vegetation, except for the reeds on the shoreline. This seemed strange at the time and somewhat concerning because of the radical and rapid change. My first concern was how this change might impact the annual migration of the Trumpeter Swans that live on the lake from late November through March. I had observed them frequently near our dock, apparently eating the Elodea. I worried that perhaps a vital food source for these magnificant birds had been lost.

The Trumpeter Swans arrived shortly after the Elodea died and they did not stay long. In the past we have observed swan groups as large as 40 in number. After the Elodea died we saw groups of 4-6 swans visiting, but they didn't seem to stay long. Later we saw the birds spending much of their time at a nearby farm that had a flooded pasture.

I still pondered about the Elodea and wondered if it would return in the spring. I was thinking about our children and how they liked to swim in the middle of the lake with life vests on. I wondered if they might now wish to swim closer to shore since they no longer had to compete with the Elodea.

The Elodea did not come back in the spring of 2006. Since then the native Elodea has returned as the primary vegetation around our dock. A few sprigs of the Brazilian Elodea have also begun to show by around August 2006.

Pamela is happy to communicate with anyone who wishes to ask her more questions about what she observed at Lake Leland. She can be reached by email if you: click here or you can write to her through the Comments link below this posting.

Glenn can also be reached at:

Glenn Gately
Jefferson County Conservation District
205 W. Patison St.
Port Hadlock, WA 98339
360-385-4105

Urea nitrate dumping and water pollution

Urea nitrate dumping possible source of lake and Hood Canal pollution

On March 6, 2008 Howard Gilbert, Jefferson County Lake Leland resident, noticed a small piece of paper tacked to a tree in a forest near his home. It was a notice from Pope Resources, the land and timber management group, stating that they intended to aerially fertilize their Lake Leland forest unit with Urea nitrates between the dates of March 3-21, 2008.

Because of the time sensitive nature of the notice, Gilbert immediately called the Jefferson County Environmental Health Department. He left a message for Neil Harrington and then was told to called Al Latham with the Jefferson County Conservation District. Mr. Latham said he had no jurisdiction in the matter, but reassured Gilbert that chemical nitrate fertilizing was approved through the Washington State Department of Natural Resources and therefore posed no problem to the Lake Leland watershed. He suggested that Gilbert get a map of the area to be fertilized, that Gilbert test the lake for nitrates and that he call Glen Maxim with Pope Resources to discuss any further concerns. Glen Maxim returned the call to Gilbert, informing him about the methods that would be used to apply the fertilizer and that government regulations would be followed.

Gilbert shared, “My primary concern about Pope’s use of nitrates within the Lake Leland watershed was that these chemicals might increase the poison algae situation in Lake Leland and also feed into Leland Creek, connecting to the Little Quil River which leads into the already environmentally threatened Dabob Bay and Hood Canal. I was surprised to read on the notice about this planned nitrate dumping. It made me suspect that this forestry practice might be a contributing factor to the inexplicable pollution problems in Hood Canal.”

Pope Resources eventually dropped at Lake Leland the planned 440 pounds of granulated Urea per acre during a 6-hour helicopter operation. Terra Industries of Sioux City, Iowa manufactures the Urea 46-0-0 granular nitrogen fertilizer, which Pope Resources dropped and it consists of a total nitrogen content of about 46%. The primary ingredient in chemical Urea is ammonium sulfate, which is prepared commercially by reacting ammonia with sulfuric acid (H2SO4).

During the helicopter drop, Gilbert called Ross Goodwin from the Department of Natural Resources, who visited Gilbert’s home with a map of the planned operation. When Gilbert looked at the map there was no indication on it of nearby osprey, eagle or red-tailed hawk nests that have been located in the forests around the Lake Leland watershed for many years. This indicated to him a total lack of consideration, not only of the watershed, but also of the surrounding wildlife.

In the U.S. Air Force, July 2005, Proact Fact Sheet - An Environmental Resource sponsored by HQ Air Force Center for Environmental Excellence it states: “Urea, used in pellet form has a high BOD (biological oxygen demand), and is of limited effect at temperatures below 25 degrees Fahrenheit (F). Urea degrades to ammonia, which is toxic to aquatic organisms and may accelerate the growth of algal blooms. Air Force discourages the use of Urea.”

Gilbert concluded, “After researching chemical nitrates I am now even more concerned about their possible negative impact on our watersheds. In this case, the day after the Urea drop occurred and continuing into the following week, it rained hard at Lake Leland, causing all the seasonal streams that flow into the lake to swell, dissolving the Urea granules and sending these nitrates directly into the lake. I hope that citizens in Jefferson County will demand some real answers related to this practice, which I believe has probably been going on for a long time without adequate oversight and public knowledge. It is truly ironic when residents are asked to stop fertilizing their lawns, that forest industries would be dumping many thousands of pounds of fertilizers into our sensitive watershed areas. Who is responsible for approving and condoning this irresponsible practice?”