well i finally got my water test results back, they look alright. the lady that came out took two tests in the lake one in the wetland and one in the small creek we have (~2ft wide). The lake looks rather healthy and i am satisfied there other than the more than likely problem of winter D.O... She mentioned that the wetland has a Tannic Acid problem, she said its a little higher than normal which i counted from google earth 250 pine trees in the immediate area. i have attached the results for anyone interested.
Warning: Rant incoming. I had what i believe a really good idea to enhance the lake. I thought it would be great to dig a 1 or 2 ft channel from the lake to the three small ponds located in the swamp. so that lead me to a lot of research over the last week about what i can and cant do without permits and realized i cant do a thing without one. on the DNR and MDEQ websites they have a guide to general permits and i cant even put artificial structure in my lake without a permit!!!! what is that bs. on top of that i would need a permit to pull those pine trees out of the swamp, i would need a permit to excavate in the swamp (kind of agree with this one) and they give you two permit choices for maintenance dredging of your own private lake! a small permit below 25 cubic yards and another permit for 25 to 100 cubic yards, and you can only pull one permit every 5 years!!!! on top of that i have heard some stories about how hard it is to get the correct permits pulled. now i understand that the DNR/DEQ are looking out for the environments best interests but i feel they also slow the pace of restoration and enhancement with all these laws and permit requirements. instead of me being able to hop on the excavator we keep on the property and restore/enhance the wetland and lake to what it was originally 30 years ago, i would have to spend thousands of dollars, get water quality testers to monitor, and wetland and environmental consultants to help me push my case just to restore to what it was before! (used to be a 2.5 acre lake with 16 acres of wetlands touching it, but now is 6.5 acre lake with 12 acres of wetland and a 100 ft buffer between the two. i figure i will research some more over the holidays and in January get in touch with a consultant that has navigated this type of project before before i push forward with trying to pull a permit.
