This is a place to ask questions and share with your Duck Lake neighbors. Please keep the discussion cordial.
Duck Lake
Property Owners Association | Highland, MI
This is a place to ask questions and share with your Duck Lake neighbors. Please keep the discussion cordial.
Duck Lake 
March 30, 2020 at 8:24 am
Please post the WRC phone #, email, so every Duck Lake resident can let them know of our being woke to the fact we are not getting that one vital service we pay for that will insure a quality boating season
Thanks to everyone who will take the couple of minutes to indeed contact the WRC and hold them to the job we pay them to do!
March 30, 2020 at 8:41 am
I believe they start boarding lakes in April, it is still March. Also, they may be limited in personal and how their operations go during the virus outbreak. There will be plenty of rain to come this Spring. Don’t get your blood pressure up. There are more important crisis going on then boards on a lake.
March 30, 2020 at 8:15 am
Does anyone know, YET, if the person who is supposed to be responsible for insuring the boards are in place on the dam is indeed doing their job?
Regardless if this person is a county employee or a volunteer, if they are incapable of doing this simple task, it is time to formulate a plan to get someone in that position that takes this job seriously.
Seems every year we play this game.
This needs to be addressed asap!
No reason why any excuse is acceptable as to why Duck Lake, every season, has to endure losing the precious free resource of rainfall. We do pay for this service and half the time we get lip service in place of the full lake that Mother Nature drops from Heaven.
Time to get people in place who can keep an eye on the ball and insure we get what our taxes pay for.
March 19, 2020 at 12:42 pm
Byron, are the boards in the dam yet?
March 23, 2020 at 6:44 am
Not trying to pass the buck, however Ole is the expert on the Dam Project
March 23, 2020 at 12:40 pm
I am out of town for a while. Can someone just go to the dam and see if the boards are higher than the lake level and report back or email me? WRC hasn’t gotten back to me yet. No surprise there.
March 24, 2020 at 1:40 pm
Went down to the damn
No boards in it at all
Water just pouring out
Iām going to try and get ahold of Jason Say also
March 19, 2020 at 12:41 pm
oops i meant to ask Byron on the previous message.
March 19, 2020 at 8:55 am
Ole Anderson, do you know if the boards are in the dam?
March 19, 2020 at 12:51 pm
I’m in Fl for a while, so all I can do is tell you that on March 13 the lake level was 5″ below summer level and one inch above winter level. I have an email into Jason Say of the WRC. I suspect that they will move to summer level lake boards around April 1 which gives us a month of spring precipitation and runoff to bring the lake up.
March 19, 2020 at 1:19 pm
Good question because our little cove area is like mud/ muck the water level is so low.
March 17, 2020 at 8:41 am
Now that we received a very positive 1st year report for the lake system that is in place, is there any talk about the status of the fishery and what we can do to make it even better? Having the state plant more walleye? overall improvement. Just wondering how we can kick this off and move in a positive direction. I will gladly help however I can.
March 17, 2020 at 12:08 pm
Maybe put a bounty on carp.
March 17, 2020 at 12:39 pm
Excellent idea Gerald!
March 17, 2020 at 6:15 pm
A bounty on carp. What a great idea.
I am the carp guy you will be seeing out there soon.
Sure, I’ll take a bounty to offset my costs.
Also can use anyone who wants the carp for fertilizer. Or whatever else. Iol
I do get tired of burying the carp after awhile. Especially when we reach the seasonal average of 203 + carp.
Can also use a local, private land to bow hunt come fall.
š
March 18, 2020 at 8:25 am
Thank you Jeff keep up the good work.
March 18, 2020 at 9:14 am
Jeff,
Do you know if there has ever been a carp shoot tourney on the lake? Might be an interesting way to get rid of more carp quickly.
March 17, 2020 at 6:24 pm
It is my maybe uninformed knowledge that if we allow the state to plant fish into Duck lake. We have to then allow open public fishing on duck lake. I would rather pay for our private stocking, as led by Bryon’s team.
March 18, 2020 at 8:40 am
I looked at the Michigan DNR sight, and could not find anything that says, if the state stocks your lake it has to be made public. Also it does not say, if a lake is private if they will even considering stocking the lake. Moving forward I did look at the Lake Stocking data on the DNR website, and it shows the lake was stocked in 2008, 2010, 2-15 with walleye, and 2012 with perch. All 4 years they were stocked were by a private plant permit. My guess is that is how we would continue to stock the lake.
February 20, 2020 at 9:52 pm
Couldn’t make last night meeting. If anyone attended and is willing to take the time and make the effort to inform other non – attendees as to what was discussed concerning the Lakes Restoration update, it would be appreciated.
February 24, 2020 at 11:19 pm
Hello Sir,
This is a cut and copy of the original report that is posted (was put up in January) under the water quality tab on this web site. After you click on the water quality tab, next click on Aeration System Information & Updates. Next click on the top report labeled Restorative Lake Science Report. If you follow those steps you will have access to all 85 pages of last years tests and the results. Being 100% honest 80 or so of them are numbers reported from all of the testing conducted throughout the year. If you can decipher them and wish to inspect them, they are all there. The below is the very last few pages were Jennifer compiled all of that and gives it a thumbs up, thumbs down, or a too soon to tell. In short, we (Duck Lake), have exceeded all expectations for its first full year of LFA (linear flow aeration). This is a long process, and I’m sure we will have some more bumps to come, but the first report gives a good sign that good things are coming our way…..
For Dissolved Oxygen:
The mean dissolved oxygen concentration (DO) is much higher post-aeration than pre-aeration and this
difference is likely significant due to the nearly equal standard deviation. The DO concentrations are quite favorable for a healthy warm-water fishery. This indicates that even with similar water temperatures, the DO concentrations were higher due to LFA.
For Secchi Transparency:
The mean Secchi transparency was higher post-aeration than pre-aeration and means that the LFA
system may be allowing the water column to remain clearer but the standard deviations are high enough
to question true increases in clarity and thus more future measurements are needed to ascertain effects of
LFA on clarity.
For Nutrients (Phosphorus and Ortho-Phosphorus):
The mean total phosphorus (TP) concentration was lower post-aeration than pre-aeration which is
favorable. The mean ortho-phosphorus concentrations were 0.4) from 35.3% to 51.0% which is highly favorable less than one full
year post-aeration. These changes represent consolidation of the lake bottom sediments.
Conclusion on Efficacy of Aeration for Duck Lake:
Based on the goals listed in section 1.2 above, the LFA system has reduced both submersed aquatic
vegetation biovolume and water column phosphorus and organic soft bottom. Additionally, the LFA
system has slightly increased Secchi transparency. The relative increase in diatoms may provide the lake
zooplankton with a more desired food source relative to less palatable blue-green algae. The total
suspended solids have remained very low in the lake.
Hard to believe we are only a month away from the system getting back to work! See you all out on the lake soon,
February 20, 2020 at 9:52 pm
Couldn’t make last night meeting. If anyone attended and is willing to take the time and make the effort to inform other non – attendees as to what was discussed concerning the Lakes Restoration update, it would be appreciated.
November 25, 2019 at 5:39 pm
FYI: On November 22, 2019, Water Resources measured the level of Duck Lake and it was within 1/4″ of their winter level which is 6″ below the summer level and 8″ below the allowed upper summer level of +2 inches. Now is the time to get those leaves off your beaches!!!
November 14, 2019 at 11:09 pm
Hi – can you tell us when the bubblers will be turned off for the winter. We are on a canal and are concerned about uniform ice formation. Thank you
November 15, 2019 at 8:01 am
Hello, we do not have a confirmed date set for the bubblers to be turned off. We are in line and we do know that they have to be turned off in the next few weeks as by law they cannot run past Nov 30th. With the water being one temperature on both the top and bottom (as a result of the bubblers) I believe this has helped the lake freeze sooner and I have little doubt it will help the ice freeze up safely when the bubblers are off. If winter continues what late fall has started, I think we are going to have a lot of ice time for all of our favorite winter lake activities. I appreciate your patience and hope to see you out on the lake this winter.