Current News/Updates –
The Silver Lake 2024 Aquatic Vegetation, Water Quality, and 2025 Management Recommendations Report with Biochar Efficacy Results was presented by Restorative Lake Sciences at the Silver Lake Improvement Board’s meeting 12/2/24. Happily we saw improvement across 2024 in water quality and some new aquatic vegetation growth in Silver Lake.
BioChar (now TimberChar) Filters – Thanks to all the community members who participated this year and last placing filters on their dock and lifts. Old filters were collected/replaced in October, and the plan is to get all filters back on the lake when docks and lifts go back in the lake next spring.
Here’s some background info on the program provided by the Silver Lake Improvement Board (SLIB) –
* TimberChar installation instructions – flyer / video
* sample photos of preferred installation configuration are here – Photo 1, Photo 2 and Photo 3.
If you need more info or want filters this year, drop a note to friendssilverlake@gmail.com,
2024 Fourth of July Boat Parade – Thanks to all who participated in the 2024 Boat Parade, a great time was had by all…we’re planning next year’s event currently. If you have ideas on how we can make our next parade better, please drop a note with suggestions to friendssilverlake@gmail.com. We hope you’ll join us next year!
2024 FoSL Annual Meeting –
Thanks to all who attended our Annual Meeting Saturday June 22nd, we had a crowd of nearly 50 attendees who heard updates from the Silver Lake Improvement Board, the DNR/Silver Lake State Park, the Oceana County Sheriff’s Department, and our own FoSL Year-In-Review. We also had the opportunity to hear from the candidates for Golden Township Supervisor in the upcoming primary (their answers to our candidate information questions can be found here). And we also had a spirited discussion about where FoSL should concentrate our efforts in the coming year. Last, we held our annual Board Election where Jason Dodge and Dave Elrod were re-elected, and Steve Dykstra returned for another stint with FoSL.
If you missed the meeting please know we’re always eager to hear from you about the issues you think should be driving our community forward, please drop us a line at friendssilverlake@gmail.com with you ideas.
1st Annual Silver Lake Kids Carp Cull Contest – we held our inaugural event this year and helped remove 117 nuisance carp from Silver Lake. Check out the complete report here. Removing nuisance carp from Silver Lake helps promote the efforts to improve water quality, establish native aquatic plants and improve our fishery.
2024 SLIB Water Quality Efforts – The Silver Lake Improvement Board efforts in 2023 included the BioChar Initiative which involved the distribution of 600 total individual BioChar filters that remained in the lake through the summer season. When removed at the end of the 2023 season one third were recovered for testing (to determine their effectiveness) and the filters that were taken for testing were replaced with new filters. The testing revealed that the filters were estimated to have removed 0.4 ton of phosphorus from our lake last Summer!
Who We Are –
Friends of Silver Lake is a non-profit association of property owners and other parties interested in the betterment of the Silver Lake community (Golden Township, Oceana County, Michigan). Our purpose is to discuss, promote and act upon ideas that contribute to keeping the greater Silver Lake community more beautiful, enjoyable, secure, and valuable. We promote the improvement of waters, roads, walks, beaches, and other area environments, advocate for various improvements, and assist in raising funds for such purposes.