Get 'buff' on the Pend Oreille shoreline
Lake Pend Oreille can be considered the centrifugal force, the feel-good glue that keeps our community stuck together.
It is right in the middle of the community, too big to miss, and one of the deepest lakes in North America. Together, we can protect and conserve this precious resource and keep Lake Pend Oreille blue, sparkling, and thriving. One of the best (and beautiful) ways to do this is to encourage the use of vegetative buffers along the shoreline.
Vegetative buffers capture stormwater that runs off from our mountains, highways, streets, and sidewalks; it filters out the pollutants, and then slowly releases the water into the lake, thus protecting the waterways from the high-powered flows that can undercut and erode shorelines.
“Obvious benefits [of buffers] include such things as aesthetics and reduced erosion,” says Dr. Frank Wilhelm, Assistant Professor in the Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources in the College of Natural Resources at the University of Idaho. “Mature buffer strips that are fairly large can make it feel like you’re the only one on the lake — not in an urban setting even if you are.”
The shallow margin of our lakes is an integral part of an aquatic ecosystem. In fact, approximately 90 percent of the living things in our water are found in these nearshore areas.
Wilhelm cites buffers as very important for their role in providing wildlife corridors for movement around a lake as well as from the lake to upland habitat. Predators can hide in taller vegetation, so nuisance geese are less inclined to wander through the buffer to get to a lawn.
Fish in streams love vegetative buffers, too. The shade provided by vegetation helps to keep the water cool. Clean and productive tributaries to lakes are a key component to healthy fish habitat.
Worried about your view? We have solutions for you!
“Species that are low-growing with components of grasses, perennials, and woody plants are ideal for maintaining a view lane,” suggests Greg Becker, District Conservationist for the Natural Resource Conservation Service. “You can also plant trees in clumps instead of a uniform pattern to leave open views. That’s really how things grow in nature anyway.”
If you love your lawn, whether you live on the lake or not, there are some things that you can do to better protect water quality, fish, and wildlife. If you currently use fertilizer to supplement the nutrients in your soil and keep a green lawn, a good thing to do is conduct a simple soil test.
These tests are inexpensive and easy to use; they are available at the University of Idaho extension offices. Wilhelm explains that there are usually enough nutrients in your soil already to sustain turf grasses — and they don’t take up any more than they need. Excess nutrients that go unused by plants runoff — down the storm drain, the ditch, the stream, and eventually the lake.
Vegetation is a critical factor in defending the sparkling water that trickles melts off snow-capped mountains, through the forest, the berry bushes, the ferns, and the sedges, all the way to the lake.
If you do live on the lake, get buff! Help us protect fresh water for the benefit of all. A clean lake, after all, begins at your doorstep.
For more information on vegetative buffers or the clean water campaign, visit www.tristatecouncil.org