The Silver Lake Improvement Board (SLIB)
Silver Lake’s water quality is dependent on many factors. The lake is officially managed by the Silver Lake Improvement Board (SLIB), a governmental board established by the Michigan’s Natural Resources and Environmental Protection Act (NREPA, Public Act 451 of 1994), Part 309. This management can include regular monitoring of the water quality and the development of programs/treatments designed to improve the lake and it’s fishery. The SLIB also has the power to assess property owners with lake frontage or deeded access to Silver Lake for its operational funds. There were 530 properties within the SLIB assessment district in 2023, each of which can be taxed annually for the expense of the improvement board’s plans and activities.
Often Improvement Boards hire the services aquatic scientist and engineers to effect better water quality in the lake for which they are responsible. The current firm hired by the SLIB to provide professional lake management services is Restorative Lake Sciences (RLS). A new 5-year management plan has been developed by RLS in coordination with the SLIB. This latest plan was presented in a Public Hearing, reviewed for practicality by the Improvement Board, and then adopted by the them in April 2023. This plan included two primary initiatives that will be executed throughout the coming years –
1) TimberChar Initiative which involved the distribution of 600 total individual TimberChar (formerly BioChar) filters that remained in the lake through the summer season as well as larger filter configurations on the lake’s primary inlets. They will be reused each year moving forward, with roughly one third of them being collected each Fall for testing, and then replaced with new filters for the next season.
(For additional TimberChar info check out this.)
2) Carp Population Reduction Initiative – Reducing the carp population in Silver Lake is important, as this species of fish is invasive and due to their activities near the lake bottom helps to prevent the establishment of any aquatic vegetation (this vegetation is largely missing in Silver Lake, and is necessary for the revitilization of our lake’s fishery.) The plan calls for culling the carp through employing an electrofishing contractor. The process involves stunning the fish in the shallows and then netting and removing the carp from the lake.
It was reported that the Carp Cull in 2023 did not net the expected results despite three night’s efforts through electrofishing. The program was repeated in 2024 with results similar to the previous year’s.
Side note – there are ongoing discussions relating to fun ways the community could get involved with culling the invasive carp in the lake, like maybe a carp cull tournament with prizes for largest fish removed and greatest weight removed when the carp are active close to shore on Silver Lake. These initial thoughts evolved into FoSL’s Annual Kids Carp Cull Contest where we are holding our 2nd Annual event in June 2025.
The SLIB/RLS 5-yr plan also includes annual themed educational efforts for the community and most importantly, systematic monitoring of the water quality in Silver Lake across the spring/summer/fall season of the lake (in both the basin (the main lake body). and its tributaries (the various creeks and streams that flow into Silver Lake)). This monitoring involves collecting and testing water samples throughout the season and across a variety of locations. The results of these tests are reported annually (usually late fall) to the SLIB by RLS.
The latest report on Silver Lake water quality and the progress on the five-year plan is The Silver Lake 2024 Aquatic Vegetation, Water Quality, and 2025 Management Recommendations Report with Biochar Efficacy Results. This report 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.
SLIB Reports/Plans
The following are SLIB Reports as provided by RLS and others –
1. Restorative Lake Sciences – Silver Lake 2024 Water Quality/2025 Management Recommendations Report with Biochar Efficacy Results
2. Restorative Lake Sciences – Silver Lake 2023 Water Quality/2024 Management Recommendations Report with Biochar Efficacy Results (revised report)
3. Current SLIB/RLS 5-year plan – SLIB/RLS 5-year Management Plan (2023-2027)
4. Restorative Lake Sciences – Silver Lake Runoff Evaluation 2022
5. Restorative Lake Sciences – Silver Lake 2022 Water Quality
6. Restorative Lake Sciences – Silver Lake 2021 Water Quality
7. DNR – 2020 Fish Study – Silver Lake Oceana County
8. Restorative Lake Sciences – Silver Lake 2020 Water Quality
9. Restorative Lake Sciences – Silver Lake 2019 Water Quality
10. Previous SLIB/RLS 5-year plan – SLIB/RLS 5-Year Management Plan (2019-2023)
11. December 2013 Silver Lake Evaluation
12. 2011 Silver Lake Water Quality Monitoring Report_Progressive Engineering