04/07/2004 Council Packet - Laserfiche WebLink

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Before 1998 - Detail Before 1998, aquatic plants west, north, and east of the island were native, abundant, healthy. They were mostly dikoontail. These beneficial plants protect the sediments, filter the water, and oxygenate the water, benefiting ater quality. Fig 2. Closeup of Coontail West of the Island Fig 3. Coontail West of the Island The images in Fig 2 and Fig 3 show what the coontail looked like all around the island. The image in Fig 2 was taken August 20, 2002 and the image in Fig 3 on August 21, 2003. Boat traffic did not occur west of the island •nd the coontail there has not been damaged. 1998 Through 2002 - Detail The image in Fig 1 clearly shows the damage done by the slalom water -ski course. The native coontail aquatic plants have been cut out in a path roughly 2,000 feet by 200 feet (400,000 square feet) with a counterclockwise "curl" turnaround visible on the right. No permit was issued to remove this aquatic vegetation. (From their experience with association harvesting of curlyleaf pondweed, they knew how to efficiently cut plants and they knew they needed a permit.) The image was obtained from the Internet at www.mapquest.com by viewing the aerial photo of northern Peltier Lake. Heron nesting mostly occurred at the north part of the island because virtually all -human activity was at the south end of the island. Notice the ski course was set right next to the heron rookery at the north end of the island. In 2000, I noticed a fair amount of coontail in the south part of the lake. I've lived there since 1979 and never saw much coontail in the south part of the lake before. I now realize, that the most likely reason is that coontail was being cut and ripped out at the north part of the lake by the slalom water -ski course and this cut coontail was drifting into the south part of the lake. This was in 2000. On July 7, 2001, I discovered and confronted people at the slalom water -ski course in heavy use north of the island. They said they could do anything they wanted. They said the herons were fine. In fact, there wasn't a heron to be seen anywhere. I later tried to work the issue by talking to other people on the lake because the agreement was very clear. On July 10, at 9:05pm, two people came to my house and threatened lawsuits and intimidated me to try to get me to stop pursuing the issue. I had to stop talking with others on the lake. What would they do next? Besides, the association had no enforcement power to change anything. The only hope to save the lake would be to get help from a government agency and establish some kind of enforceable ordinance. •he image in Fig 4 was taken July 14, 2001. It shows Coontail being pushed into large floating mats. The slalom water -ski course was in heavy use the summer of 2001. Coontail plants were ripped and or cut out and with only 3 or 4 feet of depth, the soft silty mud bottom sediments were being put into suspension. Terrible 3