* This Leelanau Conservancy page is under development - draft material.

Introduction

The lakes and streams of Leelanau County enrich the lives of both the permanent and seasonal residents of the area. In addition, these water resources are major recreation and tourist attractions and are therefore important to the health and vitality of the local economy. Credible strategies are needed to protect these important resources that have a valid and strong scientific foundation. Baseline and long-term water quality data are needed to establish this essential reliability. In 1990 the Leelanau Conservancy initiated watershed surveillance and data collection program that was designed fill these needs for both private and public applications. This program consists of measuring and analyzing water quality variables in the major lakes of the County and in numerous tributaries. These data can be used:

1. To compare the water quality among various local lakes

2. To compare the water quality of local lakes with other lakes in the State

3. To detect long-term changes or trends in water quality over time

4. To develop hydraulic and phosphorus nutrient budgets for the lakes and watersheds that can be used by public officials as rational water quality planning and management tools

Extensive data has been collected over the last 20 years. A Microsoft Access database has been created to allow easy storage and retrieval of these data and to provide convenient summaries of the data in the form of tables and graphs. The database is available to anyone but requires that the user purchase and know how to use rather expensive software and to have some background in limnology and aquatic sciences. The purpose of this web site presentation is to provide the general public and casual users with a concise summary of some of the water quality data in the database that might otherwise be unavailable.

Introduction

Measurements

Water Quality Sampling Sites

Secchi Depth Summary

Total Phosphorus Chart

Trophic State Index Summary

Secchi, North Lake Leelanau, 2000-2007

Stream Flow 2000

Stream Nitrate 2000

Stream Phosphorus 2000

Nutrient Budgets

Other Data Sources

Contacts