Jack Stanford will also leave his post as director next year after 40 years of service. On hand to give Jack the award was his predecessor at FLBS, Dick Solberg. The Annual Stewardship Award was given to Brian Sullivan who has voluntarily contributed years of surveying and compiling elevation data on Whitefish Lake that will be employed by regulatory authorities (See photos on page 4).

Community Enjoys Wine Auction and Ten Year Anniversary Celebration

The sixth annual Whitefish Wine Auction served as a ten year celebration for WLI and 300 guests. It was an ele-gant evening with attendees dressed to the theme “Whitefish Lake: Sparkle and Shimmer 2015.” Master of Ceremonies and auctioneer Connie Chung was the highlight of the evening with entertaining stories and quips to entertain bidders. It was a rare treat to have this highly accomplished and awarded woman share her time with WLI for our fundraising efforts. WLI board member Jordan White opened the evening by sharing his connection to Whitefish Lake. Distributors Fun Beverage, Georges Distributing, and Intermountain Distributing poured a large number and variety of wines for the discerning tasting palettes in at-tendance. Delicious hors d’oeuvres were beautifully dis-played and served by The Lodge at Whitefish Lake. Greg Lane and Bill Foley once again contributed excel-lent Foley Family Wines for tasting and for auction items. There were nine extraordinary Live Auction Items includ-ing specialty wine lots, adventures and a helicopter ride. The 27 Silent Auction items did extremely well as bid-ders worked to maintain a hold on their desired items. Artwork, gift baskets, and the most wine in the six years of the event were all donated by our many generous sponsors. The Barrel Stove Combo played background music, thanks to sponsor, Icon Media. The Lifetime Achievement Stewardship Awards honored two of the finest and most hardworking scientists—Drs. Jack Stanford and Bonnie Ellis. Bonnie retired this year after 30 years at the Flathead Lake Biological Station.

Quarterly Newsletter of the Whitefish Lake Institute Summer 2015

A 501 (c)(3) Nonprofit Corporation

Inside this issue of LakeFront—

WLI’s 10 Year Anniversary Celebration..1

Calling all Members…………….……….. 2

Whitefish Lake Septic Issue Update……. 2

Whitefish Water Resources Report…… 3

WLI in the Media……………………….. 3

Summer Photos………………………… 4

WLI Supporters…………….…………... 5

Become a WLI Member….……………... 6

Back issues available at www.whitefishlake.org

Maury Povich steals the microphone from Connie Chung at the Whitefish Wine Auction.

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Whitefish Lake Institute

550 East 1st Street #103 Whitefish, MT 59937

Voice: 406.862.4327 Fax: 406.862.0686

info@whitefishlake.org www.whitefishlake.org

Founded in 2005—Celebrating 10 Years

The Whitefish Lake Institute is committed to science, education, and community stewardship

to protect and improve Whitefish Lake and Whitefish area water resources today, while providing a collective vision for tomorrow.

Board of Directors Andy Feury, President

Hank Ricklefs, Vice President John Collins, Secretary/Treasurer

Pam Barberis, Whitefish City Council Representative Susan Fletcher

Greg Gunderson Ed Leiser

John Muhlfeld Sharon Morrison

Mike Shaw Jordan White

Science Advisory Committee

Karin Hilding Tony Nelson Eric Sawtelle Dick Solberg Brian Sugden

John Wachsmuth

Citizens Advisory Committee Cindy LaChance

Nicole James Sue Moll

Linda Sawtelle Nancy Svennungsen

Dan Vogel

Staff Mike Koopal: Founder, Executive Director Lori Curtis: Science & Education Director

Josh Gubits: Environmental Scientist Jen Croskrey: Finance & Administrative Manager Chris Ruffatto: Associate Environmental Scientist

LakeFront is published quarterly by the

Whitefish Lake Institute

Cover Photo: Whitefish Lake courtesy of gravityshots.com

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Calling all WLI Members… Would you like to help WLI in the Great Fish Challenge by hosting an evening event with your friends and neighbors at your home? WLI Ex-ecutive Director Mike Koopal will come to your home and tailor to your group’s wishes an hour long discussion centered on the natural history of Whitefish Lake and answer any questions. Mike will also explain the projects underway at WLI and ask new donors for their support via the Great Fish Community Challenge. The ideal group size for this type of evening includes you and your spouse and four or five other couples. The Great Fish Community Challenge is a great way for new WLI do-nors to maximize their donation to us with a matching grant from the Whitefish Community Foundation. Time is limited. The Great Fish Com-munity Challenge ends September 18th. Call Mike at 862-4327 or email mike@whitefishlake.org for additional details and to set up a time and date. Thanks for your support!!

Whitefish Lake Septic Issue

First Whitefish Lake Preliminary Engineering Report underway

The Whitefish County Water District—in partnership with the City of Whitefish and WLI requested proposals to conduct a Preliminary Engi-neering Report (PER) for proposed improvements to wastewater man-agement in the Lion Mountain area on Whitefish Lake. Seven firms en-gaged in engineering and grant administration services responded. Carver Engineering was selected by a committee made up of individu-als from the Lion Mountain HOA, Whitefish County Water District, City of Whitefish, Flathead Conservation District, and the Whitefish Lake Institute. Carver Engineering has until March of 2016 to complete and submit the PER in accordance with guidelines stipulated by the two granting organizations, the Department of Natural Resources and Con-servation and the Treasure State Endowment Program. In addition, the City of Whitefish is a funding partner for the project. The project is the next step in an effort to address septic leachate effects to Whitefish Lake. The pollution was identified in the Investiga-tion of Septic Leachate to the Shoreline Area of Whitefish Lake (Curtis & Koopal, 2012) which reported the results of a 2011 study that identi-fied septic leachate contamination to the lake, and areas with low, me-dium and high potential for future septic leachate contamination. This report echoed previous studies (U.S. EPA, 1977, Flathead County Sanitarian, 1981; U.S. EPA, 1984; Golnar & Stanford, 1984; Jourdon-nais et al, 1986) that found evidence of septic pollution increasing in the lake. The full report, including these references, can be found online at http://www.whitefishlake.org/download/index.php.

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WLI in the Media

Pick up the Summer issue of Montana Outdoors for an article on the volunteer lake monitoring program.

Check out the Summer edition of Flathead Living for an article highlighting WLI’s 10 year anniversary.

For a July radio interview with WLI Executive Director Mike Koopal, go to Whitefish Community Radio.

www.whitefishcommunityradio.com

For a complete historic media listing for WLI, including back issues of LakeFront, visit our website at www.whitefishlake.org and click on News and Publications.

Whitefish Area Water Resources Report

WLI reaches first milestone for Whitefish area report

WLI delivered its first draft of the Whitefish Area Water Resources Report: A Status of the Whitefish Lake Wa-tershed and Surrounding Area to scientists, educators, resource managers and policy makers for peer review. Through this deliverable, WLI is processing and analyz-ing the data collected since 2007 through its core moni-toring program and assimilating historical data from pro-ject partners, resulting in a complete water quality status report and a scientifically comprehensive foundation for long-term water quality management. The report pro-vides baseline knowledge, identifies known and potential concerns, and offers recommendations to the conserva-tion management organizations responsible for the health of the watershed. This report will enable WLI to make management recom-mendations to the City of Whitefish and provide action-able measures for state resource managers to protect or restore habitat. The report will be provided to all re-source management entities and the general public to increase our collective understanding of the resource to make more informed resource management decisions. Long-term conservation requires a baseline of scientific, cultural, and historical knowledge of an area; an under-standing of its physical, biological, and chemical dynam-ics; and a program to monitor changes from the base-line. With these elements in place, adaptive manage-ment plans and education programs can be developed. The final report is a deliverable on behalf of the City of Whitefish—as the project sponsor—to provide a com-plete watershed assessment and restoration plan to the MT Department of Natural Resources and Conservation.

Example chart from the report-

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Summer Photos-

At the Whitefish Wine Auction, Brian Sullivan received the Individual Stewardship Award from Lori Curtis and Mike Koopal for voluntarily surveying and compiling elevation data for Whitefish Lake.

Dr. Jack Stanford & Dr. Bonnie Ellis (center) received Lifetime Stew-ardship Awards for their long-standing research in freshwater ecol-ogy. Dr. Richard Solberg, retired Director of the Flathead Lake Bio-logical Station and Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at The University of Montana assisted Lori Curtis and Mike Koopal in presenting the awards.

A City of Whitefish Staffer at City Beach inspects a boat or Aquatic Invasive Species prior to launch at City Beach. For three years, the City of Whitefish has approved an Aquatic Invasive Species Manage-ment Plan as recommended by WLI. One component of the plan is for boat inspections to take place at City Beach.

John Wachsmuth, a Conservation Specialist with Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks, joined Josh Gubits for a day of sampling for the Northwest Montana Lakes Volunteer Monitoring Program. John and Mike Koopal founded the Whitefish to Eureka Volunteer Lake Moni-toring Program that later merged with the Flathead Basin Commis-sion Lake Volunteer Monitoring Program to form the NWMTLVMN which includes 41 lakes and over 50 volunteers. John and Mike are also the co-editors of the Montana Lake Book, 2nd Edition.

Cliff Clark, a Geosciences major at The University of Montana, as-sisted Mike Koopal in a day of research at Tally Lake. In 2016, WLI will produce a report on Tally Lake— the deepest, and perhaps most interesting lake in Montana. Cliff is also working with WLI and his professors to describe how the retreat of the Flathead Lobe of the Cordilleran Ice Sheet at the end of the Pleistocene Epoch influ-enced the creation of Whitefish Lake with implications to local land-forms.

Whitefish Lake Institute Supporters

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Fellow ($5,000 and above) Collins, John & Anne Krummholz Fund Shaw, Mike & Marie Taylor, Don & Ruth Goguen, Mike Lane, Greg Shennan, Janna & Jamie

Guarantor ($1,000 and above) Apache Ecological Service Inc Chickering, Nick & Karen Quinn, Tom & Teresa Stack, Jim & Lisa/InvesTech Research Armstrong, Jim & Jo-Ann Gwiazdon, Michael Raudabaugh, Joseph & Beverly Viking Creek HOA Atkinson, Richard & Carol Hoag, Jim & Anna Sage & Cedar Whisler Family Fund Babiak, Timothy & Linda LaChance Builders, Inc. Soroptimists of Whitefish

Blake, Rick & Alicia Muhlfeld, John & Sunshine, Stephanie Visionary ($500 and above)

Battin, Sharlot in Memory of Margaret Murdock Grenier, Charles & Teresa Lion Mountain Homeowners Solberg, Dick & Jane Boyce, Dick & Sandra Gustafson, Mike Lion Mountain, Inc. Stanley, Christine Burke, Karen in Honor of Dr. Donald Feldman Houston Point Homeowners Association Lyman, Ched & Rebecca Tate Interiors Cowett, Mark & Connie Jenson, Mike & Barb Mance, Mark & Callahan, Katie Third Steet Market Fletcher, Susan Jones, Bill & Ann Ricklefs, Henry & Susan Weinberg, Dan/Angora Ridge Foundation Friends of Blanchard Lake Kramer Family Fund Roust, Ernest Whitefish Credit Union

Benefactor ($250 and above) Averill, Dan & Laurie Hardy, Jr., Les & Kay McMullin, David & Jones, Jennifer Sweeney, Frank Bell, W.P. & Family Haverstock, Brent & Karen Montalban, Cora Belle Watershed Consulting, LLC Blake, Cameron & Gray, Sandy Hildner, Richard & Suzanne Morrison & Frampton, PLLP Whitefish Mountain Resort Fund Bulkley, Brad & Ann Hoefle Family Partnership Nelson, Denny Erlam, Gerry Lindbergh Lake Homeowners Association Stinson, Alan & Lisa First Interstate Bank Lockhart Family Svennungsen, Nancy & Mark

Leader ($100 and above) Abell, Charlie & Susan Colbert, Neil & Corrie Hosek, Eric Norton, Rebecca Abell, Koel & Lazette Collier, Travis JCCS, PC Phelps, John Abell, Tarn & Marybeth Cuffe, Mitchell & Lanette Jette Lake Land Owners Association Reeb, Paul & Pam Abell, Terry Curtis, Walt & Lori Kibbe, Jim & Marion Reed, Doug/Whitefish Lake Restaurant Aronsson, Peter & Cheri Danczyk Family King, John & Maureen Ricker, Michael Averill, Brian and Fabienne Eckert, Will Knechtel, Murray Salt, Deb & Tim Baker, Richard & Shirley Eickman, Kim Koopal, Craig & Ann Sandner, James & Erica Bauch, Duane & Valerie Fields, Edwin & Maura Koopal, Jack Sawtelle, Bill & Linda Bay Point Country Homes Five Star Rentals & Property Mgmt. Koopal, Mike & Mae Stearns, Chuck & Braun, Rita Bennett, Robert & Caryl Flynn, Todd & Susan LaBrie, Bill & Alice Streibich, Nancy & John Brown, Bob Forestoration, Inc. Losleben, George & Johnson, Connie Tamarack Lake Shop Campbell, Luther & Dorothy Frandsen, John & Jennifer Lull, Steve & Wolfe, Meg Trousdale, David & Jeannine Center for Native Plants Getter Properties Malletta, Joe & Sue Turski, Patrick & Deborah Chadwick, Doug & Reeves, Karen Graziano, Peter McDermid, David Walters, Ed & Susan Chauner, Ron Harbor Mountain Properties Morrison, Sharon White, Jordan Chauner-Niendorf, Cyndi Harring, Giselle Nelson, Rick & Marilyn Whitefish Lake Golf Club Christian, Steve & Doreen Hartman, Dewey & Sandra North Country Builders Whitefish Legacy Partners

Sponsor ($40 and above) Applied Communications Fanning, Michael & Jill Madler, Marianne Ronseth, Al & Shirley Bailey, Merry & Bob Frost, Michael Magone, Larry & Barb Roosa, Karl & Elaine Bierne, Marina Follett, Doug & Ann McIntyre, Curt Ruffatto, Chris Birch Hill Homes Graf, Richard & Gayle McCann, Paul & Janice Ryan, Bill & Bev Blood, Lex Hartleib, John & Kathi Meislik, Rhona Sawtelle, Cami & Eric Bruzek, Bill & Judith Hollis, Daniel & Alicia Metzmaker, Jan & Pete Smart, Mike & Timmie Casey, Susannah & Daniel Howell, Jennifer Mikulas, Jean & Ram Spanninger, Philip Catzoff, Lynn Jenkins, Helen Moffatt, MaryAnne & Greg Steitz, John & Treadwell-Steitz, Carol Cavin, Ben Jones, Bob & Susan Moore, John & Janice Streeter, Mike & Bonnie Chauner, Linda Jones, Fufi & Gar m. O'Neil, Rob & Christy VanDenburgh, John Cleveland, Gail & Tannehill, Bruce Jones, Lisa Perkins, Courtney Verdon, Paul & Colleen Cordial, Shea Kintla Copy & Creative Pickert, Ross & Coleen Ward, Dick and Diane Corette, Kim Kunz, Colleen Pierson, Deb Wilson, Arlene & Gary Curd, Stephanie Lawson, Bob & Dyan Poehling, Sharon & Michael Woodruff, Nancy & Thompson, Steve Curtis, Kitty Lees, Tim & Suzanne Roest, Heather & John Daniels, Scott & Karen Linne, Mitchell & Gail Regev, Nir & Cherie

In-Kind Balancing Axe Forestoration, Inc. Nelson's ACE Hardware Shaw, Mike & Marie Christensen, Cora Gravityshots.com OTB Designworks Stillwater Fish House Croskrey Building LLC Green Space LLC Paddlefish Sports The Lodge at Whitefish Lake eBiz Services Mobile Logistics Mapping Phillips Architecture Two Bear Air Fidelity National Timber Resources Monzingo, Harold & Betty Sage & Cedar

Current Grantors Applied Materials Cinnabar Foundation Ila B. Dousman Fund, Inc. Whitefish Community Foundation Grants Fund Cadeau Foundation COCEEC Montana Environmental Education Assoc.

Current Research Funders City of Whitefish Montana Fish Wildlife & Parks Plum Creek Timber Company Whitefish County Water District

550 East 1st Street #103 Whitefish, MT 59937

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