[[ Volunteering ]]
[[ Membership ]]
Newsletters: [[ Volunteer Archives ]] [[ Tidings Archives ]]
TIDINGS
NEWSLETTER ARCHIVES
August, 2000
VOLUME V
ISSUE VIII
Monthly Speaker Series
The Lake Merritt Institute is planning to start a monthly speaker series that will be open to the public. To begin (hopefully) in September, the series will focus on Lake issues such as:
º The Master Plan
º How Other Lakes are Managed Fishing (including stocking, the hatchery, events and management)
º Water Quality (including oxygen and floating trash)
º Biology (including endangered species)
º The County Flood Control Gates and
º How Volunteers Keep the Lake Clean (and do other things).
º Speakers will include natural resource managers from other Lakes, city officials, representatives from other non-profits and professional natural resource managers.
Who knows, we may even have a panel of speakers on a single topic. We will try to obtain approval to use the large room upstairs at the boating center, and may have desserts, coffee and tea. Watch for a separate bulletin listing time and dates. Volunteers may be needed to help with the preparations.
New "TIDINGS" Format
Beginning this month, the monthly "Tidings" newsletter will include regular news categories, including such topics as:
º Water Quality
º Biology
º News
º City Projects (The Master Plan, Bulkhead Wall Restoration, Wetlands, Dock Repair etc.) and
º The Monthly Speaker Series
Due to space limitations, not every topic will be covered every month, but we will try to cram in as much as we can.
Water Quality
Have you ever wondered why water clarity in Lake Merritt is higher during the period from about April to October, and why the water often appears cloudy at other times of the year? Well, there are several reasons, but they may not be what you think. Essentially, our Lake switches back and forth between a plant dominated body of water and one dominated by plankton (for more details, see the spring, 2000 issue of Lake Line - a publication of the North American Lake Management Society). In the fall and winter, runoff carries large quantities of nutrients into the Lake, creating ideal conditions for the growth of phytoplankton (microscopic plants). The Lake appears brownish and murky. But when the rains end, when temperatures begin to rise and day length becomes longer, the widgeon grass begins to grow. This is a rooted planted that produces seeds, and grows in underwater forests across large areas of our Lake bottom. It uses up the available nutrients, plankton growth declines, and VOILA - we get visibility of 8 - 10 feet. But in late July the widgeon grass dies, and when the rains bring more nutrients in the fall, the plankton (and the murky water) both return. So as you jog around the Lake, watch the plants, they are the key to water clarity.
NEWS
National Rowing Championships To Be At Lake Merritt: Mark your calendars: On Friday, August 11, the lane lines will be set for the races (hopefully Public Works Maintenance will have finished removing all the widgeon grass by then). On the 15th, practice sessions will begin, and from Thursday the 17th through Sunday the 20th the National Rowing Championship races will be held right here in Oakland at Lake Merritt. And you thought this was just a local resource! For four days the narrow, sleek shells will be zipping across the waters, watched by media and locals alike. So let us be good hosts: Wave to our aquatic guests, and cheer them on. But don't expect them to wave back, or they'll go off course!
City Projects
Status of the Master Plan
The request for proposals to research and write the plan is due before Council in late July. If approved, the job should be put out to bid in August and a planning team hired in September or October. Stan Wolfe has been hired by the City Office of Parks and Recreation for several months to get the planning process off the ground, and he will be working with the City to hire the planning firm and begin the process. Hopefully this will lead to an action plan that will be prioritized based on need and funding, and that can be implemented ASAP. Let's see now, about those bathrooms.
Status o' the Bulkhead Wall Repairs
Much of the funding from Audie Bock has been used to test and analyze shoreline soil conditions, a prerequisite to any repair work. Remaining funds are being used to fix those areas of wall that are most in need of repair, such as where it has already caved in or is about to fall into the Lake. First priority has been given to:
1. The worst sections between the Embarcadero and E. 18th Street (where the pathway will rebuilt)
2. The Boating Center where there has been a significant failure and
3. To areas where the Office of Parks and Recreation have identified a need for repairs (such as the sidewalk between the Nature Center and the Embarcadero. Wow!
Website copyright © 2001-2002 Lake Merritt Institute. All rights reserved.
Website created by Galatea Design and maintained by neontetra.com.