SYRACUSE - The Dewart Lake Protective Association is proposing an ecozone on Dewart Lake that would prohibit waking and create an idle zone.
A public meeting will be held Aug. 11 to discuss the proposed ecozone that would create a no-wake zone on approximately 55 acres of part of the south shore side of Dewart Lake. The meeting is scheduled for 10 a.m. at Logan Scout Camp Dining Hall, D14 Lane, Syracuse.Ken Brehob, co-chair of the watershed committee for the DLPA, encourages people interested in fishing, swimming and boating on the lake to attend the meeting.
"The ecozone would require watercraft users to go further out in the lake from the shore, to go at faster speeds," Brehob said.
The proposed ecozone is a shallow area less than four feet, that has a natural shoreline. Most of the rest of the lake has a sea wall and contains a good variety of native plants, Brehob said.
The proposed ecozone would still allow people to swim, fish and park their personal watercrafts in that area. However, lake users would be prohibited from going fast and producing wakes or waves if the proposed ecozone is approved.
A wake is the region of turbulence immediately to the rear of a solid body of water caused by flow of air or water.
The Dewart Lake Protective Association proposed the ecozone in 2005, Brehob said.
The proposed ecozone has been discussed for two years by the DLPA, and the organization approved at its June 2006 annual meeting to continue to pursue the proposed ecozone.
"We are trying to protect the native shoreline and vegetation in the area. When boats go fast, propellers get caught in weeds and stir them up from the bottom of the lake," Brehob said.
He said shoreline erosion and clumps of native vegetation have been observed in the lake because of watercraft waves, especially during high water.
Brehob said, by law, boats cannot make a wave within 150 feet from the shoreline.
Indiana Department of Natural Resources representatives will attend the meeting, as well as J.F. New and Associates who completed the diagnostic study on the lake in 2005.
DNR funded the study that studied a baseline on the physical and biological properties of Dewart Lake.
Brehob said one of the lake management's priorities of the 2005 diagnostic study was to control boating on the lake to protect the shoreline and shallow areas from soil and native plant erosion.
For questions about the meeting, call Brehob at 574-658-3636.
