2019 White Lake POA Annual Meeting and Picnic (and Peacock Triathlon)

The 44th Annual White Lake Property Owners Association Meeting was held on July 6, 2019.  This is an annual event for White Lake Property Owners and their guests where we connect with our lake neighbors, discuss what is going on at White Lake (mainly high water this year) and adjourn to a delicious brat picnic lunch prepared by Mike Coursey's grilling crew, Jane Terry's picnic crew and Leo Souder - the man who has everything - who cleans up the WLMD lot and brings all the coolers, garbage cans, tents and beer.

Meeting minutes are forthcoming.

As he has been doing for the past 10 years or so, Ken Pientka and his wife Marilyn host the Peacock Triathlon.  22 participants either did the entire thing or swam, biked or ran as part of a team on a beautiful Sunday morning.  Here are some pictures.

2019 Peacock Triathlon

Make plans for next year.  The 2020 meeting will be held on the 4th of July (It's always the Saturday closest to the 4th), so we will have the meeting and picnic (morning), annual boat parade (evening) and the Peacock Triathlon on Sunday morning.  See you then!

June 2019 Fish Survey at White Lake

by Eric Elfner

Updated July 9, 2019 to include additional surveys received at the annual meeting.

In 2002, the White Lake Property Owners Association sponsored a fish study where Aquatic Biologists visited the lake.  They went to different areas of the lake, shocked the fish with electricity and counted and measured what they found.

June 2019 - Nice Large Mouth Bass caught
and released on White Lake

For the past few years, we have talked about whether the WLPOA or the White Lake Management District should sponsor another shock survey to see how things had changed.  The fish thought it was a terrible idea, and when we spoke to Aquatic Biologists again, they told us that because the sample was so limited, we would probably get as good an idea if we surveyed fisherpeople and other observers of the lake to see what they are seeing.

In early June 2019, we sent out a survey to all property owners asking everyone to tell us what they are seeing when they fish or spend time on White Lake.  As of July 9, we have received 43 responses.  Thank you to everyone who took the time to respond!

Here is a summary of what we found.  Our first question was how important fishing was to the property owners.  27.9% said fishing was 'Very Important' to them and another 51% said it was somewhat important.  We also asked how the respondents were observing the lake and over 58% were observing by 'Fishing' or 'Fishing and Something Else'.

When we asked what months people were fishing and how often, the most common responses were 'Most Weekends' and 'May-October', but we have some serious people who fish every day and all year round.

Then we started asking what people were trying to catch.  Bass, Bluegill and Perch topped the list, but people were trying for everything else too, except Catfish.  The one we had not asked about, but one person reported was 'Rock Bass'.

Next we asked what people were actually catching.  Bass and Bluegill were the clear leaders at 84.38% of people reporting they had caught Bass and 75% reporting Bluegill.  The interesting thing is that all the other species, even the non-targeted catfish, were represented so there is some good diversity in the lake.  Rock Bass and Pumpkinseed were the two we had not asked about that were reported.

The survey left a spot for additional comments and we asked people to report size ranges there.  Here are some of those responses.

• Large mouth bass are typically 10" - 15" 
• Observe frrom pier and boat caught Bass 12"-20" Have observed 36" Muskies, Rock Bass
• Bass in the 1lb range. Hand sized bluegill and small perch
• Bass -1-4 lb, perch small, 41" inch musky, 1-3 lb northern
• Rock Bass 12", Pumpkin Seed 8", Bluegill 11', Bass 15"
• Caught some very large bluegill, but 80% of them looked like they have a parasite.

The last comment probably deserves further investigation.  If you have noticed that as well, please let us know.

Here are the results from the 2002 study.  It seems to support the results of our new survey and indicates that things have not changed that much.  The main conclusion of that study was that bass were the apex predator of the lake and suggested we remove any limits on bass.  The idea being if that predator were not so prolific, perhaps other species, like Perch, would increase in number.  Someone on the current survey made the very same suggestion.

If you would like to see the entire 2002 Fish Study, you can find it here:  2002 White Lake Fish Study

The White Lake Management District asked us to ask the property owners whether they supported the WLMD using Lake District dollars for fish stocking.  The question was worded like this:  "For the past seven years, the White Lake Management District has allocated dollars to fish stocking of White Lake.  It works out to cost about $34/year per property.  Do you feel that this is something the WLMD should continue investing in?

34 people (82.93%) who responded said 'Yes', the other 6 (17.07%) said 'No'.  We will share this and other comments from the survey with the WLMD Board of Directors.  If you want to discuss this and other important WLMD business will be discussed at their annual meeting on August 3, 2019.  We also be discussed preliminary results of this survey at the WLPOA meeting and picnic on July 6th.

Letter from the White Lake Management District

June 26, 2019

To All White Lake Areas Property Owners and Guests

First of all, I continue to personally thank all of you that have operated your boat on the lake this year.

Operating in a slow-no-wake fashion as you all have not only is respectful of all riparian property owners but also exemplifies the great stewards you all are in protecting our shorelines and preserving the structures that exist there to help protect it. Needless to say that if waves were to be created by our watercraft now, those shorelines and structures would be severely damaged causing more organic nutrients to be introduced which we all have done such a great job in trying to limit over the past many years.

Thank-you again to the White Lake Beach Resort for their proactive stance working to regulate and monitor the watercraft being launched at their boat ramp. In addition, they have monitored the use of that watercraft quite well to abide by a slow-no –wake operation during this year of high water. Kudos again to PJ, Sarah and staff.

As a reminder, the ordinary high water mark (OHWM) was established by the Department of Natural Resources at 95.8 feet in September of 1997. This will also be the level at which the pending slow-no-wake ordinance will be placed in effect later this summer. The public interest level set at the same time was 94.5 feet. There is no reason to set the slow-no-wake rule at that lower level however it may be possible to set that level for the initiation of water diversion.

The level of White Lake as read and reported by Ken Pientka on June 21st was 96.85. That means that we are still over a foot above (12.1 inches) the OHWM with intermittent rain still occurring. We appreciate you still operating at slow-no-wake speed until we again get to that OHWM level. As we get future readings, we will update everyone to the status.

On another note, our annual meeting will be held on Saturday August 3^rd at 8:30 AM at Fortify Bank. Bob Wunderlich is up for re-election for another term. If anyone is interested in having their name on the ballot along with his, please advise as soon as you can or of course being a write-in candidate is always an option.

Thank-you

Mike Johnson

WLMD Management District - Commissioner

June 2019 Newsletter and Info on Annual Meeting

Please follow this link to our June 2019 Newsletter with information about the annual meeting on July 6th.


June 2019 WLPOA Newsletter

Critically High Water Levels at Whte Lake - May 2019

If you have been to the lake lately, you already know that the lake is approaching high water levels that we have not seen since the 1980s.  This causes all manner of problems for the lake, threatening homes and other beach structure and pulling organic material from the shore into the lake where it decomposes, increasing phosporous levels and algea blooms.

It rose dramatically in the big rainstorms on Aug 27 and 28, 2018, continued to rise last fall and with the snow melt this spring.  The last reading in mid-may was 96.68, which is well above the DNR's ordinary high water mark of 95.7.

The White Lake Management District has taken on several initiatives to try to mitigate this difficult problem. They are investigating how quickly we could re-instate the pumping station on the southeast corner of the lake that was dismantled when the water receded in the 90s.  They are also investigating a longer-term plan to restore a natural outlet that used to exist on the southwest corner.

In the meantime, the WLMD is asking all White Lake stakeholders to respect their neighbors property and the health of the lake by observing slow-no-wake speeds until the lake recedes below the ordinary high water mark.  

We realize this stinks for everyone who loves skiing, tubing, jetskiing, etc, but the White Lake Property Owners Association Board supports this decision.  As you can see from the pictures, there are neighbors whose homes are severely threatened.  Making a wake is like throwing a bucket of water into their living room.





The chart below charts the water levels from 1976 through last fall (Thanks Stan Young and Tom Kielich), but does not account for the additional foot it has risen since the snow melt this spring.

Fall 2018 Newsletter and Annual Cleanup Oct 20, 2018

Please follow this link to see Fred's end-of-the season October 2018 Newsletter:

White Lake Property Owners Association Newsletter - Late Summer/Fall 2018

Also, remember the annual lake cleanup is scheduled for Saturday October 20th.  Meet at the resort at 8am.  There is no rain date and we'll have some challenges with the high water this year, but this is an important annual project for the health of our lake, so we will do what we can regardless of the weather!

Hope to see you there!

Water is Back Up after the Storms

The level of the lake was pretty high at the beginning of this season, but as it is prone to do, it dropped significantly as the summer went on.

On August 25th, the water level was 94.55 (that is equivalent to 794.55' above sea level.)  After the big storms went through early last week, it was up 95.30, up about 9".  We were there last week and on Sunday I noted that our pier deck was 14-16" above the lake surface, and on Wednesday morning there was only about 6" of difference.  Big change in 3 days!

When we got there on Sunday, there were 7-8' of beach past the sailboat and 6-7' of beach in front of our deck.  Wednesday morning after the storm it had risen 9" vertically and 4-5' up the shore.

Sam's boat is sitting about where the edge of the beach was Monday.