Lake in good shape, despite potential for trouble

By ALEX STRICKLAND / Bigfork Eagle

The annual State of the Lake report given last Wednesday near Lakeside indicated a well-managed resource in Flathead Lake, but also pointed out potential harbingers of future issues.

Jack Stanford, head of the University of Montana Biological Station at Yellow Bay, delivered this year's address to a crowd of well over 100 at the Glacier Conference Center south of Lakeside as part of the Flathead Laker's annual meeting and 50th anniversary celebration.

As Stanford went though an overview of changes to the lake — namely the construction of Kerr Dam and the introduction of mysis shrimp — he explained how the food web has massively altered through the years.

"It's changed now, and it's different," he said. "But it's still a great lake."

Some of the most noticeable effects of the change have been the near complete decimation of the Kokanee Salmon population (Stanford said he heard reports one was caught this year) and the Cutthroat and Bull trout populations crashing.

"People used to catch cutthroats by the bucketful," he said. "Today the lake food web is very different."

What is also constantly changing are the pressures on Flathead Lake, largely from increased nutrient loading. Stanford spoke about the increased amount of algae growing in the lake and quipped, "If you go down in scuba gear, you'll see a lot of furry rocks."

The lake has been host to quite a few large algae blooms over the last few decades, the last large one occurring in 1997. But water clarity and water quality are far from assured, as the staff at the Biological Station discovered in May of this year in the water at Yellow Bay.

Stanford showed a photograph taken on May 15 showing green algae blooming on the shoreline near the station. Stanford said conditions for the bloom were perfect — dead calm for days that prevented the lake from mixing and a spot where groundwater flowing into the lake contains particularly high levels of nitrogen — but that it was a warning nonetheless.

"If we keep adding nutrients to it (the lake), you will see this in front of your house," he said.

Stanford said that the bloom appeared isolated to the one spot in Yellow Bay, but that it could be a sign of things to come if people relax their vigilance.

"It's a local lesson that the lake can bloom in bad ways if we don't take care."

And plenty of care will be needed, according to Stanford, who estimated that in the years to come property around the lake will become "some of the most valuable on the planet" because so many people want to live here.

"This is the crown jewel," he said. "Thank you all for helping me take care of it."