These past few weeks I have received numerous calls from residents living along the Lake regarding both lake algae and weeds.

The typical lament is "Arrrgh! Do something! DO SOMETHING!”

Most people are not happy with my response, which in a sentence is, “We are doing all we can.” Not that there isn't more to do, there is.

I do, however, have plenty more to say about this lake which many do not want to hear.

Clear Lake is alive It is communicating with us, and it is “doing what it does.”

The lake is alive. Clear lake is the oldest lake in the northern hemisphere, between one and two million years old. It is amazing and diverse and is a living being. In fact, it may be one of the most biologically diverse lakes in the world ... with a diversity studied by biologists around the globe. It was written about by Rachel Carson in the pivotal book “Silent Spring” where she spoke of the real and potential effects of human activity on wildlife. In essence, Clear Lake is 68 square miles of nature behaving and communicating.

Clear Lake is communicating with us. What is the lake saying? First and foremost, the lake is telling us that our actions, over time, have consequences. Long-term loss of habitat plus people (and their actions) resulted in excess nutrients flowing into the water. To quote Dr. Harry Lyons, biologist and Clear Lake expert, the lake is saying “I am too fat! I have too many nutrients.”

This condition of “extra” nutrients did not happen overnight.

Clear Lake is “doing what it does.” And what is that? It is turning nutrients into life. Clear Lake's excess nutrients (nitrogen, phosphorous, etc) would be better and more enjoyable to us in the form of wildlife: fish, grebes, otter, etc than algae. These nutrients would be more useful and healthy on the land and in gardens rather than in the water. Instead the nutrients are going into the water and creating extraordinary growth of algae and weeds. This is the lake “doing what it does” only this year, it is particularly difficult.

The lake is alive, it is communicating and it is doing what it does. We impact the lake. We humans create or affect many of the nutrients that flow into it and we, especially over time, have taken actions which affect the form the nutrients take.

To encourage the nutrients to turn into wildlife (instead of weeds and algae) requires that we foster favorable habitat ... namely tules. More than 70 percent of the natural tules around Clear Lake have been removed. If they were here providing aeration, habitat and nutrient removal, the lake would look very different today. Instead, we have lawns and bare soil leaching even more nutrients into the water and the result is lake weeds and algae. So tules are important. See this video: http://www.youtube.com/v/j9rDEyzvMFU?fs=1&hl=en_US.

What we do to the land affects the lake, especially the flow of nutrients into it. Grading land, tule wetland removal, illegal marijuana grows in the wildlands, or even legal fertilized gardens and resulting runoff, septic leach fields, and illegal dumping all impact the nutrients that affect the watershed.

Many projects are under way that are intended to address the flow of excess nutrients – though they are mostly long-term efforts. These projects include preventing sediment runoff from grading and stormwater runoff, agriculture runoff regulation, expansion of the sewer system, getting septics onto sewer systems, cleanup of illegal dump sites and a large project, the Middle Creek wetland restoration.

Over time these actions decrease sediments and other nutrients in the water and at this point they also increase the clarity of the water early in the season, which has the unfortunate side effect of encouraging early season weed growth. The next step is to recreate habitat around the lake so when the lake “does what it does” it will turn into hummingbirds, grebes, otter, fish and even more tules instead of weeds and algae.

If the lake is communicating that our long term actions have consequences, the lake is also telling us that it will respond to our efforts as well. I, for one, would rather see the nutrients in the form of otter and osprey and chi than algae. This is why I put my energies into the projects that I believe will help make this happen. I know that there is not a short-term fix but take comfort in the fact that even one persons efforts can make a difference. Imagine what would happen if we all worked on these projects.

If you want to help the lake, help preserve and restore its natural habitat. At minimum, do not remove tules. They aerate the water, remove nutrients and create beneficial habitat.

What else can individuals to help? Actions include:

• Participate in (or form!) a watershed group;

• Dispose of debris properly;

• Preserve and restore tules;

• Remove (or do not add) extra nutrients;

• Remove and avoid propagating invasive plants and animals;

• Help build awareness about our relationship to the health of our lake.

Working together, we can make a difference.

Denise Rushing represents District 3 on the Lake County Board of Supervisors. She lives in Upper Lake, Calif.