We all love living on and around Bostwick Lake. The quality of our lives and the value of our property is closely tied to the health of our lake. No one is perfect, and we all have an impact on the lake, but it is important to do what we can to minimize the negative impacts. In that spirit, we have compiled a list of things we all can do to help keep our lake healthy. Please see the files on this page for additional information.

Around the home

Position gutters to drain onto grass, soil or into a rain barrel. This lets the water filter into the ground rather than flowing directly into the lake or storm drain.

Clean up pet waste at home and when walking the dog. Don’t let cats roam free, they like to deposit their waste in beach sand. Dog and cat wastes contain high levels of bacteria harmful to people and the lake. Deposit pet poop in toilets or garbage cans.

If putting in a new driveway or parking area, use permeable pavement. They allow rainwater and snowmelt and the pollution they carry to drain into the ground rather than run off untreated into waterways.

Never dump toxic materials down stormdrains, or on road where it will wash into a stormdrain. Waste dumped in  stormdrains goes directly into the lake.

Ensure that contractors working around your home minimize run off or erosion into the storm drains and lake. When left bare, soil is easily washed away with rain, carrying phosphorus with it. Soil erosion can be prevented by keeping soil covered with vegetation or mulch and using filter fabric barriers between disturbed earth and the lake. Ensure that they alos promptly sweep up any dirt or sand left in the street.

Fireworks are a lot of fun, but they also put phosphorous, assorted chemicals, paper & plastic into the lake. Limit excessive displays and clean up the debris promptly to minimize the environmental impact. When you burn a flare on the fourth of July, do not burn it over the lake where the ash can get in the water. Burn it on shore, and promptly collect and throw the ash into the trash. Inserting the flare into a disposable pie pan is an effective way of capturing most of the ash.

Around the Yard

Get a soil test and follow its recommendations for fertilizer use. Most lake lawns don’t need fertilizer every year, and whatever excess is applied ends up in the water, feeding algae growth. You can save a lot of green being green. 

When fertilizer is needed, use no-phosphorus fertilizer Be sure to check the bags when you buy them. Look for the package formula of nitrate-phosphorus-potassium, such as 22-0-15. The middle number, representing phosphorus, should be 0. It is against Michigan law to apply a fertilizer with phosphorous on a lawn near a lake.

Use compost and mulch to improve soil health. These products release their nutrients slowly, providing long-term feed for your lawn and garden.

Landscape with native groundcover and shrubs instead of lawn. Plants naturally adapted to local conditions require less maintenance and fertilizer.

Avoid using pesticides and herbicides. They kill beneficial plants and animals as well as bothersome ones. When it rains, they wash into stormdrains and go directly into the lake. Bats, tree swallows, purple martins and dragon flies are excellent ways to control mosquitoes and biting flies. Non-toxic insecticidal soaps, dormant oil sprays and “helpful insects” such as ladybugs can keep pests at bay almost as well.

Leave grass clippings on the lawn. Grass clippings and other organic matter provide natural slow-release fertilizer and improve the lawn‘s ability to hold water. A mulching lawn mower will save you time and work because you no longer have to bag and dispose of the clippings!

Seed White Dutch Clover in your lawn. Clover naturally captures nitrogen from the atmosphere and makes it available to your lawn at no cost to you. It also is drought resistant and provides food for butterflies and bees.

Maintain a vegetated buffer along the lake. Buffer strips filter runoff, stabilize the lakeshore, prevent erosion and provide habitat for animals.

Install rain barrels to collect water from rooftops to water your lawn and garden. An inch of rain falling on a 1,000 square foot roof will contribute about 600 gallons of water.

Re-seed thin areas in the lawn to prevent erosion and keep soil from running off into waterways.
Wash the car at a commercial car wash where the water is collected and recycled. If you wash at home clean vehicles on lawn instead of pavement. This minimizes dirt and detergents entering the lake through the stormdrain system. If washing at home, use environmentally-friendly soap products and shut the hose off between rinses.

Maintain the car with regular tune-ups and check for leaks. Leaking fluids end up on driveways and roads and are washed into stormdrains and the lake during the next rain.
Dispose of oil and antifreeze properly. Keep it out of stormdrains.

A Few Words About Phosphorous:

Phosphorus (P) is an essential nutrient for all life forms, and is the eleventh-most abundant mineral in the earth’s crust. In surface waters, phosphorus is usually present as phosphate (PO4-P). Phosphorus is needed for plant growth and is required for many metabolic reactions in plants and animals. Organic phosphorus is a part of living plants and animals, their byproducts, and their remains. Generally, phosphorus is the limiting nutrient in freshwater aquatic systems. That is, if all phosphorus is used, plant growth will cease, no matter how much nitrogen is available.

Phosphorus typically functions as the “growth-limiting” factor because it is usually present in very low concentrations. The natural scarcity of phosphorus can be explained by its attraction to organic matter and soil particles. Any unattached or “free” phosphorus is quickly removed from the aquatic system by algae and larger aquatic plants. Excessive concentrations of phosphorus can quickly cause extensive growth of aquatic plants and algal blooms. Several detrimental consequences may result. Surfeit algae and plant growth can lead to depletion of the oxygen that is dissolved in the water. Water can hold only a limited supply of dissolved oxygen (DO), and it comes from only two sources — diffusion from the atmosphere and as a by-product of photosynthesis. Excessive growth leads to depletion of DO because of nighttime respiration by living algae and plants and because of the bacterial decomposition of dead algae/plant material. Extensive bacterial decomposition of detritus can create “dead-zones”, or areas of anaerobic conditions, especially near the bottom of the water column. Depletion of DO adversely affects many animal populations and can cause fish kills due to a dearth of this metabolic necessity.

In addition to low DO problems, excessive plant growth can increase the pH of the water because plants and algae remove dissolved carbon dioxide from the water during photosynthesis, thus altering the carbonic acid-carbonate balance. Because plants and algae provide food and habitat to animals, the relative abundance shifts of the different species affects the composition of the animal community. Drinking water supplies may experience taste and odor problems, and the costs of treating drinking water can increase. Finally, high nutrient concentrations interfere with recreation and aesthetic enjoyment of water resources by causing reduced water clarity, unpleasant swimming conditions, pungent odors, blooms of toxic and nontoxic organisms, interference with boating, and “polluted appearances.” The economic implications are significant for many communities. Phosphorus may accumulate in sediment, both in deposited clays and silts and deposited organic matter. In such cases, phosphorus and other nutrients may be released from the sediment in the future. This feedback loop results in internal phosphorus loading that may have originally been deposited in lake bottoms over a period of many years. Subsequently, a reduction in phosphorus input from the nearby streams and larger watershed may not be effective in reducing algal blooms for a number of years.