Harwood Lake Association

So what is all of the excitement about?  Follow the link to: harwoodlake.org and you will see!

Harwood Lake Association website is live! This is not just any website – this is your website!!  It is intended to be about you and our lake.  It is designed to be informative, efficient, and dynamic!

• Informative about our Harwood Lake community, environmental considerations unique to Harwood Lake and its watershed, plus inform about nearby events that impact us all.
• Efficient by bundling multiple communication tools with easy navigation: website, newsletter, and centrally-located resource links.
• The Home page that includes a blog for the latest updates from around the lake, and will feature your photos and lake stories. All members are encouraged to contribute!

We look forward to continuing to grow harwoodlake.org as we grow the Harwood Lake Association for our community and “for the sake of the lake”.

Here we GROW!!

Harwood Lake Association

Summary of conversations with Bruce Campbell, Cass County Drain Commissioner, and Jeff Wentzel, St Joseph County Drain Commissioner May 1, 2020. 

Commissioners stated drain options under consideration: as single project or collective combination, yet to be determined:

• Corey Lake (Peterson) drain to Harder Road rebuild and increase capacity 
• Clear Lake drain rebuild and increase capacity 
• Corey Lake and Kaiser Lake Drain improvement
• Long Lake continue to pump their water into Clear Lake which could now handle Long Lake extra water with Clear Lake drain rebuild OR create open drain from Long Lake to Corey Lake – within St Joseph County (not an intercounty drain from St Joseph County into Cass County and Harwood Lake.)

Exact cost to property owners, yet to be determined.  Factors that will influence individual property owners’ cost include but are not limited to, amount due from government entities; individual property location, size, and benefit.  

Next Meeting: Commissioners are hopeful for a face-to-face meeting in the near future after Covid-19 restrictions lifted, as a Zoom meeting does not appear feasible.  They encouraged continued participation at meetings.  Bruce Campbell stated he would keep HLA apprised of meeting schedule. 

An appeal challenging the necessity to revise the current drainage district boundaries was filed by Roberts Campground in the St. Joseph County Circuit Court against the Corey Lake Intercounty Drainage Board on 12.16.2019. The appeal halted the next steps in the process of drainage boundary changes and drain project review. The appeal was dismissed by Roberts Campground 3.16.2020.

Happy Spring Harwood Lakers,

I hope everyone enjoyed their Winter!

A few updates from around the lake that took place while lake life was dormant during the cold dreary days of winter.

Inter-county Drain Commission Update

The Project continues to be on hold due to the Appeal submitted by Roberts Camp Ground to the St Joseph County Circuit Court.

Neighborhood Watch

I am happy to announce that Harwood Lake now has a Neighborhood Watch Program in place which is being headed up by Garrett Glodek. This is in coordination with the Cass County Sheriff Department who provided us with 4 signs free of charge and some informational data.

Lake Monitoring,

Unfortunately, Micorps/MLSA lost their funding for this program due to a gap in Grant Monies. What this means for us is that there will be no State funded Support or Data Keeping for the year. Also, no Training Programs Through MLSA / Micorps.

However, I have been notified that we can continue to monitor our water clarity (Secchi Disc testing) and also monitor for Invasive Species and do a Shoreline Assessment. We will need to save the Data and add it in next year so there is no gap in our data collection. We will not be able to do the Phosphorus Testing this year.

Recreation Passport,

The Law regarding the Recreation Passport that was to begin enforcement this year has now been put on hold due to COVID 19. This means for the time being there will be no penalty for not having the Passport required to use DNR boat ramps. This may change during the course of the summer. I will update if I see this change abruptly.

In Closing,

I look forward to seeing all the happy faces on the lake this Summer. Let’s work together in making this Summer on the Lake safe and memorable.

Happy Spring, Jim

Harwood Lake has a great start to tracking its water quality thanks to Jim Kings. Jim attended (self-funded) the Michigan Clean Water Corps (MiCorp)-Michigan Lake Stewardship Association 2-day training / certification programs for water quality testing plus registered Harwood Lake for statewide monitoring. 2019 – Included water clarity/transparency and phosphorous level testing conducted by Jim 2020 – Expanded testing and analysis of Harwood Lake water quality and supporting environment planned for 2020. Spe- cific testing – and need for volunteers – will be announced when warm weather returns! Water Clarity -Secchi Disc Testing: September 20th, the Summer testing came to an end. Jim Kings conducted and submitted for public record, 19 Secchi Disc tests. The year started with 9′ of clarity/transparency and finished with 15′ clarity – weekly results follows. The average depth was 11.5 feet (3.5 m) for the 2019 summer which puts Harwood Lake into the Oligotrophic range – Trophic State Index (TSI) provided after Secchi Disc Results. Phosphorous Level – Jim submitted water sample to DNR in Plainwell MI for Michigan Lake Stewardship Association (MLSA) to analyze; results pending ….. will keep you updated. As just a FYI: What is phosphorous and why test? Phosphorous is essential for plant life. It is also a constituent of agricultural fertilizers, manure and organic matter from sewers/ septics. A sign of excess phosphorus in a lake is excess algae in lake, as experienced by Driskell Lake in Jones MI. Testing phosphorous levels help us to be proactive and avert such negative consequences.