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The Sand Lake Observer Nine Years of Progress

Volume 3 Number 1 July, 2018 Big Sand Lake Association Index New Concepts…………….....1 Problems and solutions…..2 Progress………………………....3 Importance of Fisheries…..7 Global Warming……………...8 Notes and quotes………......9 Goals………....................…..10 NEW CONCEPTS Limnology, the study of lakes, is a difficult science because key processes span so many disciplines, ranging from molecular biology to chemical physics. While emerging concepts are replete with new terms, even scientists new to the field may have a hard time because key terms are rooted in German rather than the Latin and Greek common to other disciplines. A term commonly used in consideration of lake management is ecosystems services. It considers beneficial interactions of components of the environment. These are products of ecosystems that serve humanity as well. Marshes, for example, filter pollutants out of water that might otherwise degrade human health. Other services relevant to human wellbeing include more sustainable harvests of agricultural produce, mitigation of natural impacts such as flooding, production of fuel, production of clean fresh water, control of pests and environmental diseases, and better balanced processes like the control of nutrient cycling investigated here. Consider loss of a bacterial species with potential ability to clear hydrocarbons introduced from oil spills and underwater outboard engine exhaust. Decomposition of these pollutants is accelerated by the sweet smelling terpenoid hydrocarbons from pine trees. Microbes use hydrocarbons by a unique mechanism to sustain this metabolic capacity, a mechanism first described by the observer. Otherwise pollution by spills might persist even longer. Thus a negative impact might be logging off of the surrounding forests. Loss of conifer forests could also help sustain the chlorinated hydrocarbons responsible for the expanding donut hole. It allows increased penetration of our atmosphere by cancer-causing ultraviolet radiation. As said John Muir, everything is connected to everything. Elimination of major fish species that have evolved to work in concert with other fish species can degrade lake function. In Big Sand, loss of large northern pike probably helped small bluegills overpopulate the panfish population leading to degraded ecosystem function. Fortunately such function can sometimes be restored by returning the lost component, a vigorous top predator that eats small fish in this case. A related question not addressed is how stocking of fish like walleye, now unable to reproduce and only compete for limited food sources, affect the health of the lake. Big Sand is free of invasive common carp only because the bluegill population is still strong enough to prevent carp eggs and larvae from surviving. Loss of bluegills in nearby Clam Lake was the likely cause for establishment of a large carp population currently still being battled. A rough fish in America, it is prized in China. But sadly some rivers are so polluted that they no longer survive.

Picnic at Young’s Aug 11 at 11:30 4801 S Basswood Dr.

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Biodiversity is a measure of the number of competing species and generally has a positive impact on ecosystems. Threats to biodiversity include pollution from water runoff, structures that decrease the natural linkage between lakes and forests, motorboats that disturb benthic (lake bottom) processes like mayfly larvae production, and noises that impact fish movements. Limnology, i.e. lake science, has been strengthened since the early days of taxonomy, and supplemented with advanced demanding techniques such as molecular genetics, and the goal of many researchers is to sharpen understandings of system ecology with mathematical formulation of observable processes from first principles. This May, President Emmanuel Macron of France brought reduced biodiversity and global warming to global attention in his address to a joint session of congress. He emphasized the importance of issues such as ecosystem services by pointing out dire predictions of problematic warming within the next 25 years, and ending with the observation comment that there is no planet B (for us at present). In a similar bold move, Pope Francis underscored the need to maintain a healthy planet to the benefit of us all.

Water transparency and lake health. Clear lakewater is sometimes regarded as a property of an aquatic system in good health. Another view is that dissolved nutrients like nitrogen and phosphorus cycle through the food web fairly slowly. In the absence of significant surface water input, the total complement of biological organisms, microbes, larvae, plants, and fish, grow slowly as well. Walleye, with their large eyes, do best either in deep water where sunlight is strongly attenuated, or else in low visibility shallow water where algae or suspended particles reduce visibility. A healthy ecosystem is generally regarded as one with many niches, (habitats with similar food and shelter) populated with multiple species to give a redundancy able to cope with environments as they may change. This allows a stable steady state within a broad distribution of nutrient supply rates, and with an absence of new disruptive components or concentrations. Then, in the absence of excess harvesting, fish will have wide distribution of ages culminating with mature individuals that restrict overpopulated niches, and the advantage of having most of reproduction from mature species. These characteristics have presumably kept fish behavior in tune with changing environments prior to vulnerability from high-technology fishing.

One consequence of natural predation over a range of prey sizes is development of a hierarchy of niche properties. When each is filled with multiple species, the system becomes more resilient so that if one species suffers difficulties, another with similar properties can take its place. One well described example is that when wolves were restored to Yellowstone Park in Wyoming, resulting changes throughout the food web produced a larger distribution of healthy ecosystem components. Responses included more completely vegetated stream banks, and these ultimately led to a higher density of trout in the associated streams. In Big Sand, yellow perch might replace black crappie, or muskies replace northern pike without dire consequences. Thus biodiversity, rather than the amount of living material, is a better measure of system health than water clarity.

TO HEREPositive interactions is another beneficial factor caused by a mixture of habitats. For example ponds and open spaces created by beaver enhance nutrient exchanges among microbes, and diversity of food sources, can all help stabilize natural populations. Financially, balanced ecosystems can be beneficial as well. Conserving fishery stocks would likely improve profits of the fishing industry, and restoring wetlands could reduce costs of flooding. Examples of unbalanced systems include ones dominated by harmful algae by responding to increased nutrient runoff or rising global temperatures. Another is overpopulation of small fish due to loss of large fish-eating fish called top piscivores.

PROBLEMS AND SOLUTIONS.

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1. Overfishing. Typical ages of fish have become 80% younger worldwide and therefore smaller; reproducing young fish yield few progeny. Some species, including naturally reproducing walleye in Big Sand, have been lost. Solution: strengthen harvest regulations. 2. Loss of drainage. Resource exchanges of migrating species including suckers, walleye sunfish, crappie, and minnows have been lost reducing biocomplexity. The urge is strong, many have been seen crossing over the road in less than an inch of water. Solution: Clear debris clogging culverts under Sand Creek and follow with improving flow from Warner Lake. 3. Loss of connections with terrestrial resources. Shoreline development limits biological exchanges between the lake and surrounding terrain. Solution: advocate good land stewardship by cabin owners. 4. Powerboat turbulence. Waves disturb high value aquatic plants like wild rice, and turbulence disturbs sediments that produce insect larvae and other food for fish. Solution: dscourage deep-draft and high speed boating. 5. Lakeside structures. Overwater docks and activity around them spook fish limiting their shallow-water forage runs. Solution: minimize near shore structures. 6. Invasive Species. With purple loosestrife limited and under control, the soft water of Big Sand and low planktonic populations inhibitory to Zebra Mussels, and an absence of Eurasian Water Milfoil, the most noxious invasive macrophytes are absent. Problematic invasive plants include a stream clogging cattail hybrid called Typhus X, and the unpalatable bamboo-like Reed Canary Grass. Neither is presently grazed. Bordering roadsides and fields have an increased content of Spotted Knapweed. Solution: The observer uses biocontrol with good success and is scheduled for introducing two species against Spotted Knapweed. 7. Loss of top piscivore. Northern pike size is depressed and restoration is unlikely due to the twin problems of global warming and overfishing. Solution: Stock with muskellunge, a native to the connecting Yellow River and regulate harvest. It is a more aggressive top predator, less sensitive to warm water, and a prized trophy fish. Solution: Combine with restored harvest regulations. 8. Displacement of beneficial algae with Cyanobacteria. These bluegreen algae are low in the lipids fish require, toxic to dogs and humans, rejected by some filter feeders and are inhibitory to others. Solution: Encourage resistance to anthropogenic contributions to global warming. 9. Light pollution. Cabin owners have complained about outside use of electric lights, and the observer finds them distractive as well. Solution: Refrain from spotlighting toward the lake. 10. Reduction in panfish size. In the 1940’s gamefish size was limited and legal harvests were generally available. Solution: Restore previous size limits for panfish; seven inches for bluegills and sunfish, ten inches for crappie, and about 18 inches for Northerns.

11. Salting to remove road ice causes cars to rust out and affects lake ecology as well. Both trout fecundity and the size of hatchlings are reduced, and it kills Arthropods like Daphnia as well. Problematic concentrations began at 230 mg/L or about a tenth the weight of pea in a gallon of water. Solution: Convert to environmentally friendly deicers such as sugar beet processing wastes.

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12. Degradation of the natural environment. The last three recent annual meetings of the ASLO (American Society for the Sciences of Limnology and Oceanography) featured presentations by Native American elders on the connection between their religion and the environment. Solution: Bring concern of our Native American neighbors to the attention of lakeshore owners. PROGRESS 1. Invasive species. Five decades ago the preceding officer of our association questioned the Observer about fencing off Sand Creek to discourage infestation by carp from Yellow River. The Observer recommended to leave the creek open because DNR experts counsel was that successful invasion depended mostly on properties of the lake. The Observer had seen fish fins above the water from schools of fish on quiet days in both the West Bay and the lake proper. He suspected common carp. Then last summer a large dead carp was found floating in the water. It is now known that carp will not survive in clear water lakes where bluegills are present because they follow spawning carp to collect eggs and larvae. That advice remains because Big Sand is probably at low risk of invasions by carp and some other species due to soft clear water and low populations of poorly nourished zooplankton. 2. Wild Rice. Around 1980, Lolita Taylor, spouse of Chief Ollie and grade school teacher of the Observer, mentioned the loss of wild rice formerly seen on Big Sand. It is a protein rich food source for wildlife and component of the local Native American culture. A weed bed, since removed, extended east from the north shore to near the deep water produced rice as well. Journal reports had nitrogen limiting the growth of wild rice. However the Observer found that seeding large open transparent cylinders set on the bottom of Big Sand, even in sandy areas, grew well with added phosphorus. Plantings in protected areas with access to wind-driven waves also produced rice as did small patches of rice in the stagnant areas. These were probably fertilized by winter-killed frogs or fish often seen on the bottom during springtime. Calculations showed that wave driven currents could supply sufficient supply of phosphorus from the small concentrations available in the water to rice leaves floating on the top. Seeding efforts over the detritus (black muck) bottom of the West Bay by the tribe failed. As reported (Button, Burnett County Lakes and Rivers), the main problem was blocking of nutrients from Warner Lake creek by highway 70. Dams eliminated rice beds by raising water levels in many lakes. Now dams in many Wisconsin creeks are being removed to help restore marshes, reduce flooding, and resist invasive species. Hundreds have also been removed from rivers and creeks in Europe to help reverse the loss of fish. Rice might be restored in Big Sand by removing blockage to both the inflow and outflow, and eliminating an overpopulation of geese attracted by the environmentally questionable subsidy of corn farming to produce ethanol for gasoline. At a minimum we now have the knowledge to restore wild rice to the benefit of lake ecology and religious customs of our neighboring Chippewa Tribe. 1. Algal Blooms. Most organisms at the usable base of the food web are photosynthetic microbes, algae and cyanobacteria. Over the last three years the Observer found planktonic groups replaced by Cyanobacteria. They persisted all year long. Surprising was the relative absence of true algae and the predominance of Cyanobacteria. Also called bluegreen algae, they are of interest because many are rejected by filter feeders like Zebra Mussels, kill animals including dogs and horses, make people sick, and can form nasty smelly blooms. Moreover they lack saturated fatty acids needed by fish as well as the omega three unsaturated variety needed for higher organisms including humans. Scarcity of the common algae that zooplankton require and that also feed the fish, are probably responsible for the low

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productivity of fish in Big Sand. This summer a small green alga, possibly the Chlorophyte Quadrigula sp. Guadrigula sp. appeared as the main phytoplankter Fig. 1 Left: Pumping water samples from under the ice through a phytoplankton net. Right: Processing samples for photomicroscopy.

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Fig. 2. Anabaena sp. Micrococcus sp. Guadrigula sp. The major Cyanobacteria observed in Big Sand are Anabaena and Micrococcus shown above. Both can control their buoyancy. Expandable gas chambers let them sink to the bottom at night where they collect phosphorus and other minerals from the sediment. Expansion of gas champers floats them upward during the day to absorb light for photosynthesis. They can live with only carbon dioxide that they convert to organic compounds with sunlight, atmospheric nitrogen that they can turn into protein components, and phosphorus from the sediments needed for both DNA and energy transfer. Oxygen is, to these organisms, a toxic byproduct, it allowed the development of animals. Size of the buoyancy-controlling gas vessels target particular depths by sensing water pressure. In daylight, different species layer at various depths below the water surface according to their sensitivity to penetrating UV light. To the naked eye, Anabaena, which look like tiny green balls in the water, collect in a layer a foot or so thick a few inches below the surface on quiet sunny days. It is first to

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bloom in the spring, while Microcystis, a virulent toxin producer, appears later in the summer. Winter productivity is significant. Under the ice, it averages 42% of summertime productivity. Other Cyanobacterial species form problematic mats on the water surface which are uncommon but have been seen on Big Sand. Surprisingly Anabaena and Micrococcus are seen throughout the year. A third common Cyanobacterium, the filamentous Aphanizomenon has not been observed in Big Sand. The last major period of Cyanobacterial dominance was during a short warm period around 218 BC during the Roman Conquest. The previous dominance was two centuries before that, again during a warm spell. The chronology was established by analysis of toxin layers from sediment cores by the Observer’s Polish colleague Prof. Grazyna Kowalewska. Clearly harmful algal blooms were not normally present and correlate strongly with warm temperatures. 4. Lake ecology. An evolving description of nutrient and energy flow through the food webs of Big Sand is shown in Fig 3. It is based on creel harvests, properties of food webs, and visual and microscopic observations. The flow of food and energy among major components of the food web is shown.

Fig. 3 Food web componentssssood web for ood Big Sand Lake 5. Lake levels. From hydrology reports of nearby lakes, historical ground water levels in Webster, and topographical charts of the area, it appears that water levels in Big Sand are set by the water table as set by precipitation over a large water and has varied over only about a foot for nearly a century. Record rainfall this year on top of near the high water mark failed to produce a new high. The only known departure was very low water during the extreme droughts of the dust bowl days. Unlike most nearby lakes, for level to dramatically change, rainfall must undergo a sustained change over quite a number of years. 6. Leaked metabolites from microbes. By alternating between a supply of radioactive nutrients and one not radiolabeled, the observer introduced the method of isotope relaxation kinetics. From the rate of radioactivity change in microbes contained in a lakewater sample, leakage of cellular constituents could be measured. Microbes in an environmental structure or volume of water called, a metabolome, use basic nutrients and excrete cytoplasmic constitutes in the process. They can, in the case of hydrocarbon consumed, amount to a major part of that metabolized. Such metabolites are shared by microbial components of the metabolome for the mutual benefit of all.

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7. New view of nutrient transport. Specific affinity theory describes a novel formulation of the rate of nutrient accumulation by microbes where rate changes with the concentration of nutrient according to the formula of a rectangular hyperbola. Serendipitously it is consistent with general transport mechanisms recently obtained with tools that view single transporter molecules in action. It led to the

discovery of a new mechanism for nutrient transport by microbes. Designated vectorial partitioning, it resulted from work on oil spills. Transporters are responsible for moving molecules into all biological cells. Importance is that specific affinity theory improves the mathematical description of how some membrane transporters work. Among the new concepts was a much needed way to separate analytical response between standard additions of the nutrient in question and that from nutrient from natural sources already there. Figure 4. Left. Active transport of a nutrient molecule (green) across a cell membrane (yellow) through a tortuous path (brown). Transport is driven by structural changes in the geometry of the channel as it flips from transporter open to the outside to open on the inside with each substrate molecule that moves through. Fig. 5. Right. Rate of radioactive substrate uptake in the presence of substrate that is unlabeled. Markers show the resulting change in the kinetic curves. Important to water chemistry is a solution to the problem of relating nutrient concentrations in the water to the rate of growth of the microbes at the base of the food chain. Derivation of the mathematics were updated to accommodate new data that define the pathway that attracts nutrient molecules into the cell (Fig. 4.). Further, the formulation was recast to reflect how added radioactive nutrients reflect the effective concentration of truly dissolved nutrients naturally present in the water.

Efforts to do that date back about 50 years. A key plot is shown here. It describes rates of radioactive nutrient transport in the presence of similar molecules that are not labeled. Rates at small concentrations are shown by the first parts of the curve, and the rates at large concentrations converge at a single rate (not shown). Change in curve characteristics are defined by the markers. Further manipulations lead to this noninvasive new method of nutrient concentration analysis. THE IMPORTANCE OF FISHERIES. Fish harvesting has been a significant component of human development. Twenty-five million years ago,

Outside cell Inside cell

Electrochemical Potential

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Hominins in Tanzania collected catfish from shallow water. The first evidence of fishing in the Americas appeared as catfish backbones in the middens (refuge) of South America. Later, fish protein supplemented pyramid building in the Middle East, the crusades of Rome, the industrial revolution in Great Britten, and the Viking conquistadors from Scandinavia. Now most of our animal protein comes from grain-fed livestock. Half the fish consumed are farmed. Off shore pens supply salmon fed with bycatch from bottom trawls. And half the world’s huge fishing fleet are only profitable with government subsidy. In Big Sand, Chippewa residents speared breeding walleye in sandy shallows by torch light from pine knots. Later they were taken during spawning runs from Yellow River to Warner Lake through sand creek. Conservation was respected; large walleye were let pass because many were spawning females. Fishing spurred the tourist industry of the mid northwest In the 50’s. Big Sand was once known as the best fishing lake in the area. Then fish harvests succumbed to market fishing (photo above). Like the oceans, Big Sand could not sustain the levels of harvest. As lakes in Illinois, Indiana, and Iowa, and later Minneapolis/St. Paul were fished out, fisherpersons stayed in summer resorts, and returned with impressive harvests of fish. Then fishing became a respite from busy cities, and as such has a 115 billion dollar impact on the US economy, a thousand times more than the National Science Foundation budget for all of biology. With party boats, power boats, moving electronic images of lake bottoms, and the fish above them, mature fish stand little chance to attain. Meanwhile the Importance of fishes to ecosystem biodiversity is becoming lost along the way. Now half the world’s marketed fish are farmed, and large predatory fish like tuna have gone from a food source to an extremely expensive delicacy for the rich. Both degradation and restoration of lakes is a slow process. The impact of overfishing in Big Sand began around 1930 with the loss of large northern pike, and then reproducing walleye. The result was a decrease in the size and age of other species including panfish. A creel census reported that it took about 100 hours of fishing to harvest an 18 inch northern pike. Now, growth rates are down for all game fish; it takes about 5 years to grow a five inch bluegill. With fairly long life times (Table 1) for indigenous fauna, and short usage times of Big Sand users, declines in the distribution of fish sizes was insufficiently fast to garner action. Table 1. Lifetimes of some fauna of the Big Sand area in years.

Northern Pike 20-30 Dogfish (Bowfin) to 30 Snapping Turtle to 47

Bald Eagle 20 -50 Otter 30 Leopard frog 2 to 4

Clam Mya arenaria 25 Painted Turtle to 20 Bluegill Sunfish 10

Kingfisher 15 Largemouth bass to 25 Muskellunge 10 to 20

Black Bear to 30 White tailed deer 6 to 10 Beaver 10 years

With recasting of state budgets, and retirement of old time experts on lake stewardship agencies took little notice of the decline as well. As lakes further south were fished out fishers appeared from Southern parts of the northern Midwest. Now fishing has become an accessory respite from busy cities, and a viable alternative to disappearing farms in the north. Lake users demanded better catches with the effect exacerbating the problematic switch to reproduction by small immature fish. Although discouraged in Big Sand, the question for many lakes is how the extensive stocking of game fish like walleye that do not reproduce effect the ecology of our lakes. GLOBAL WARMING. Enough ice has melted in Antarctica since 1992 to cover Texas with 13 feet of water. Glacial melt in Greenland was enough to change currents in the north Atlantic and cause a weakening of the Gulf Stream. Complete loss of glacial ice has been projected by the end of the century. Northward

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movement of various species is unprecedented. Unrecognized by native residents of the arctic, Canadian Indians had no name for the grasshopper when they recently appeared.

Global warming skeptics have used changing weather patterns associated with the Arctic and North Atlantic Oscillations to suggest that we are experiencing normal climate variability rather than true global warming. However enough meteorological data has now been collected to unequivocally state that global warming is a fact. Geophsysicists at the University of Alaska were worried about global warming in 1970 and talking about engineering solutions such as spraying sulfuric acid into the atmosphere to reflect heat. Possible unintended consequences abound. Most scary to the observer is that rate of the heat collecting gas carbon dioxide increase is the fastest known in human history.

Severe weather was first recently linked to global warming when Hurricane Harvey began with a warm Gulf of Mexico. Resulting strong updrafts increased horizontal winds due to corollas effect from the rotating earth. The air accommodated extra moisture due to high temperature and evaporation from the warm Gulf. Winds were very strong around the funnels that formed. The storm moved northeast, dropping hail and heavy rain at record levels. And the severe weather predicted from global warming several years ago is now more apparent. For example, at this writing two severe “hundred-year” storm events in the southeastern US happened in the last three years.

A key aspect of global warming is heat absorption by greenhouse gasses such as CO2. It lasts a long time in the air and oceans. The cataclysmic meteor hit that killed off the dinosaurs also caused limestone to produce much atmospheric CO2. High levels are now thought to have sustained for thousands of years before dropping to recent levels. Scientists calculate that life on earth might be able to handle an increase of 1.5 degrees C (3o F) pretty well, but two degrees is a problem. Parts of British Columbia have already warmed three degrees. In lakes, water warms more than the atmosphere due to heat absorbed by the sediments and trapped. So Northern Pike, the traditional top piscivore (fish eating fish) in Big Sand is in danger. Replacement with a more heat tolerant fish like muskies to keep food webs in balance and fisherpersons happy seems like a useful strategy. NOTES AND QUOTES. •Wetlands decrease nitrate pollution five times more efficiently than the next most effective method: replacing farmland with pasture. •The European Union and other countries have agreed to ban commercial fishing in a large swath of the Arctic Ocean. •The unusual strength of Hurricane Harvey caused destruction of 12,000 homes in Texas. •Canada could see an 80 percent increase in the rate of rainfall; eleven inches came from one recent storm near Big Sand. •Stories of individual successes by scientists are common in the news, but science is a team sport. •Science has become a way to make money not to solve problems or improve life quality.

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•Carbon emissions are set to spike due to increased industrial requirements for energy from coal in China. •There are far more species of aquatic microbes than metabolic pathways. Most species simply use different combinations of photosynthesis, sulfate reduction and nitrogen fixation to coexist. •Forty years ago there were two basic types of living organisms known: prokaryotes and eukaryotes. Prokaryotes are microbes with only a few, sometimes just one, molecule of DNA. Plants and animals are eukaryotes because their DNA is stored in chromosomes with many copies. Now Archaea comprise a third kingdom. Distinction is based on substantially different mechanisms for using DNA to guide protein synthesis and unique molecules used in their construction and metabolism. •Ice over on Big Sand was on Nov 10, 2017, however spots thawed and some stayed open till Dec 1 over about two feet of sand bottom. There was no terrestrial water input or detritus layer to provide extra heat. A strip of water a few hundred yards long stayed open along the North West shore in two or three feet of water as well and one cabin owner fell in. Perhaps wind-driven circulation brought heat up from the warm sand below, preventing a layer of cold water to form at the surface and freeze. This is a previously unknown phenomenon to the observer. •Climate change is unlike any environmental problem we’ve faced. We can’t fix it the way we’ve started to fix smog or the ozone hole. National Geographic. June 2018.

•A warming earth comprises danger to all. Because it is manmade, solutions are possible and we need to get to it.

GOALS. Research to date has identified many issues, problems, and potential solutions. Implementation has lagged behind. The challenge is to navigate the impediments to actions that may move our lake in the direction of the productive system it once was. While most lakes have responded to human settlement by loss of transparency, significant levels of pollution, problematic levels of invasive species, and major reductions in harvestable fish. Big Sand, by comparison, is in pretty good shape. The goal is to reverse the direction and rate of decline in a way that suggests good stewardship for all lakes. To do this, it would be helpful for our association to understand issues in enough detail to make effective decisions and but participate in their enactment. * * * * * * Research for the Sand Lake Observer was provided by the Button family.

Question: Are you satisfied with the efforts of the Big Sand Lake Association? Yes O No O

Comment: Don K Button, Big Sand Lake Association. dkbutton@alaska.edu

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