WHPA has invested significant resources in monitoring water quality. This includes professional limnological studies and water testing. The objective is to better understand the optimum water quality monitoring needs, as well as the impact over time of the natural and man-influenced aging of the lake. The hope is to better understand the relationship between land use and changes to water quality.

Closely coupled with water quality is the monitoring of aquatic vegetation. We’re learning the habitat for aquatic vegetation is significantly influenced by both water chemistry and the availability of suspended, dissolved and deposited nutrients. Nutrients find their way into the lake via stormwater, groundwater and atmospheric deposition. These nutrients, typically phosphorus and nitrogen, dramatically influence the plankton and macrophyte plant communities. Monitoring the aquatic plant populations can provide warning of changes in the landscape as well as the presence of aquatic invasive plants or animals that would require quick response to mitigate. Of course, mitigation is always problematic. The best defense against aquatic invasives is to prevent their arrival as aquatic “hitchhikers” on all water vessels and trailers or as bait. The Aquatic Invasive Species Inspector Program is our first line of defense against the appearance of any of these aquatic invasives.

See information under Lake Threats on how important this program is to keeping invasive aquatic plants out of our lake.

These dual areas of focus – water quality and aquatic vegetation – are both areas where there is a large financial investment for the purposes of understanding where and how we can take preventative measures, provide proactive and pragmatic solutions, and monitor our progress.