Big Lake needs love from user, neighbors

BIG LAKE — Before the ice begins to melt, a coalition of agencies is trying to bring sustainability to Big Lake.

The project began in 2006 when Big Lake joined Cottonwood Creek, Lake Lucille and Matanuska River as the Valley’s fourth impaired waterway. DEC testing during 2004 and 2005 found the level of petroleum hydrocarbons in the lake were above state standards.

According to the DEC, the testing determined the hydrocarbons were associated with pollution caused by motorized watercraft. While the lake is still safe to swim in, the hydrocarbons can effect the insects crucial to the marine food chain.

In response to this, a coalition is working to improve the lake not by imposing regulations, but by working with the community.

“Our primary purpose is to build a stewardship mentality,” said Margaret Adsit working for Friends of Mat-Su as a go-between for the project that joins representatives from DEC, Fish and Game and Wasilla Soil and Water Conservation District among others. “We want people to start taking individual responsibility for the lake.”

Adsit knows the only way to create this mentality is from the ground up. For her part, she is conducting a survey in April to ask people how they use the lake. From the results, she will see that each group has a voice moving forward with the conservation efforts.

“We need to make sure everyone who uses the lake continues to have access,” Adsit said, “but we need to improve education.”

She points to efforts on the Kenai River as a model for success on Big Lake. Limiting two-stroke engines and a lake and riverfront rehabilitation cost-share program revitalized the overstrained waterway, she said.

The cost-share program she is referring to is designed to rehabilitate and sustain the fish habitats on lake and riverfront property. It’s run by Fish and Game and is now being implemented on Big Lake.

“There are three things juvenile salmon need, undercut banks, overhanging vegetation, and slow moving water. These provide the necessary protection from predators,” said Dean Hughes, director of the program for Fish and Game.

Funded by state money for salmon preservation, the program gives homeowners a financial incentive to take out obstructions that are harming the fish or their habitat, put in structures to protect the fish or revegetate a section of shoreline. Hughes is happy to talk more about how to get funding from the program. For more information, call (907) 276-2207.

Hughes is the first to say that, despite the good the rehabilitation program can do, preservation should always be the goal. The best thing any homeowner can do for waterbody is to maintain shoreline vegetation. This is why, beside the cost-share program, Fish and Game is conducting an outreach program to promote conservation.

“We can make it better than it is, but it will never be what it once was,” said Hughes. “We try to remind people that while we can repair things, we cannot make a better product than Mother Nature.

“For example,” Hughes continued, “property owners are worried about shore erosion, but most don’t realize that the roots of the native plants are the best protection against this.”

This sort of education is exactly what Adsit hopes to promote. It may seem fairly simple, she said, but it will make a huge difference.

“I don’t think this problem will be cured by a government oversight committee,” Adsit said, “but people should want a healthy waterbody 800 years from now.”