December 2024: Connected Waters
We often think of Lake Katherine (and our stewardship roles supporting it) as a discrete individual entity defined by where the water in it begins and ends. We witness high water periods when it takes away some of what was dry shoreline followed by low water times when it gives back to the shoreline area. Those maximum boundaries become “the lake.”
But then, when we are out for a boat ride or canoe or kayak paddle, we see that what is on land sometimes becomes part of the lake. Trees growing close to the shoreline die and then fall into the water creating important structural complexity attracting fish and the insects they feed on. If we stay long enough into the autumn or are year-round residents, we see how red, orange, yellow, and brown leaves of the deciduous trees in the forests surrounding the lake fall and carpet the lake, tons of vegetation that eventually sink and are broken down and become an essential part of the food web that supports all plant and animal life in the lake.
Exploring the shoreline, we discover several wetlands connected to the lake, bogs and swamps mostly, transition zones between open water and forests beyond. If we could see below ground, we would realize that. lake is an above ground expression of a vast pool of groundwater that shrinks and expands with annual precipitation levels. Venturing into the forests beyond the lake edge, we find large and small marshes and bogs that sit not much higher in elevation than the lake itself, with their own water fluctuations, fed by the same groundwater and precipitation that governs the lake levels.
Thousands of years ago, a few of those marshes and bogs once connected Lake Katherine to three other lakes, Lee Lake to the south, Miller Lake to the west, and Lake Tomahawk to the northwest. In more recent times, while surface water is not directly shared between the lakes (except for some Lake Katherine water going into Lake Tomahawk through the man made canal), it was clear that each lake was part of a larger aquatic system, the wetlands between them stepping stones. These “connections” are best seen from aerial photos and topographic maps. A bit of “high ground” separates the lakes and the wetlands between them, but the elevation changes to high ground are minimal.
Lake Katherine and Lee Lake
Lake Katherine, Lake Tomahawk, and Miller Lake
The canal constructed between Lakes Katherine and Tomahawk goes through a forested wetland that connects to the small pond called Dollar Lake and then another forested wetland. There are extensive forested wetlands and bogs between Lake Katherine and Miller Lake. The small marshy wetland that was the Lee Lake connection to Lake Katherine was forever blocked by the construction of the railroad grade that is now the Bearskin Recreational Trail.
The bird’s eye view from well above the lake is convincing. Two aerial photos from the 1930’s show the wetlands between the three lakes nicely. While our lake has its boundaries where open water ends, those boundaries are tentative, fuzzy, and porous when it comes to the movement of animals, the contributions of plant materials from dry land, and the flow of energy that sustains life in and around the lake. Our stewardship role as lake property owners is thus best shaped by the same holistic view - the lake AND what surrounds it.
