 Edenville Township and the Wixom Lake Improvement Board recently completed a pilot program to aerially spray evaluation plots on Sanford and Wixom lakes for the purpose of controlling growth of woody trees in the lakebeds.
Please be advised that flood debris removal on the Wixom and Sanford lakebottom lands has begun and will continue through the summer. You will see equipment and crews on the bottomlands of both lakes removing uprooted trees, loose stumps, dock parts, boat lifts, hazardous substances like gas cans, watercraft, and other man-made objects within the 100-year floodplain. Trees and stumps attached to the lake bottom will be left in place. Some mowing of vegetation on the lake bottom will be done as part of this project, but only enough to allow crews to find and remove debris.
 Central Michigan University (CMU) Biology Department and CMU Institute for Great Lakes Research will have multiple researchers out in the Wixom and Sanford lake areas as well as some surrounding tributaries and dams performing surveys for native freshwater mussels (i.e., clams). They will be working from the banks, canoes or boats and may use SCUBA to access sites. CMU will be out determining site access prior to June and surveys will begin the week of June 1st, 2022. CMU completed similar surveys in the Secord and Smallwood lake areas during the summer of 2021.
Walleye fishing season begins Saturday, April 30th. There will be three available fishing locations at the Four Lakes dams beginning this weekend: Secord Dam, Smallwood Dam and the Tobacco side of Edenville Dam.
On January 20, the Midland Daily News (MDN) had a front-page article about increasing sightings of coyotes in and around Sanford Lake. A local resident also advised FLTF of abundant coyotes hunting and living among the recently sprouted trees on the Wixom Lake bottomland. The MDN article included comments from individuals proposing hunting as a way to deal with the coyotes.
Uncontrolled growing vegetation, especially as it relates to invasive species and large mono-species tree growth on the bottomlands is a concern of many lake owners and Four Lakes Task Force. Bottomland vegetation is part of the environmental restoration plan that FLTF is implementing. However, we have determined that it is not feasible to implement a Four Lakes-wide program this year for these reasons:
Summer will be a busy time on the Four Lakes, with work continuing to stabilize the dams, remove debris and vegetation from the lakebottoms, and activate new monitoring instrumentation. Here’s a rundown of what to expect:
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©2021 | Four Lakes Task Force is a US 501 (c)(3) public charity, EIN 27-4698447.
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