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Wednesday, November 16, 2016 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
Studying the health of Suttle Lake
By Jim Cornelius
News Editor
A monitoring buoy in
Suttle Lake has gathered its
first partial season of data on
lake conditions.
Volunteers recently
removed the NexSens CB-450
data buoy from the water to
store it for the winter. It will
go back into the lake once
winter conditions slide into
spring, so that key data can be
collected to help shape how
the Forest Service manages
the lake toward reintroduction
of sockeye salmon.
The buoy is equipped
with a number of sensors to
gather measurements on con-
ditions affecting the lake’s
food web and salmon stocks.
According to Dan Kelly of
Environmental Monitor,
these include a Lufft WS501
weather sensor; Hydrolab
DS5 sonde and two LI-COR
sensors tracking photosyn-
thetically active radiation
(PAR). The weather sensor
logs data on air temperature,
humidity, barometric pres-
sure, wind and global solar
radiation. The sonde is out-
fitted to track temperature,
conductivity, pH, dissolved
oxygen and pigments. An
LI-190R measures PAR
above water, while an LI-192
tracks it below the surface to a
depth of five feet.
All of the sensors are pow-
ered by three 10-watt solar
panels and send measure-
ments to a NexSens data log-
ger housed within the buoy.
The logger is equipped with
cellular telemetry to broad-
cast real-time measurements
to managers at the High Lakes
Aquatic Alliance Foundation.
An impetus behind the
project is a noted decline in
the size of kokanee caught in
the lake.
In 2003 the kokanee —a
land-locked cousin of the
sockeye —measured about 18
inches as adults, but in 2016
adults were found to be only
five to six inches long. The
buoy will help provide vital
information as to why this is
happening, and (hopefully)
help correct it.
Frank Conte, a retired USO
limnology professor is the
founder of the organization.
Conte and HLAAF members
and partners put a great deal
of effort, money, engineering
and dedication into creating
the monitoring buoy.
PHOTO BY CONRAD WEILER
The Suttle Lake buoy provides data directly to volunteers.
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Dave Huni has been vol-
unteering as a technical con-
sultant for the project. He told
The Nugget that the measure-
ments taken by the buoy can,
“tell you what kind of runoff
(is going) into the lake” and
provide information on algae
growth and food sources for
fish.
Volunteers will also trawl
for fish and “look at real-life
measurements in the fish and
the algae and compare that
with what the data is.”
The buoy didn’t go into
the lake until July 7 this year,
and the volunteers took it out
at the end of September. Huni
said that the group wants
to get the buoy in the lake
for a “full growing season”
next year — April through
September. The monitoring
may go on for several years.
“Three years would give
us a good picture on what dif-
ferent things are going on, one
way or another,” Huni said.
Efforts to save sockeye
salmon got into high gear
around 2012 with the removal
of dams and other objects that
were blocking sockeye from
reaching Suttle Lake, like the
culverts that were under Road
12. Forest Service fishery
biologist Nate Dachtler and
his crew modified several of
the obstructions and other fea-
tures that prevented salmon
from reaching the lake.
Sockeye salmon, aka red
salmon, or blueback salmon,
is an anadromous fish found
in the northern Pacific
Ocean and rivers such as the
Columbia. Native peoples
and the European-American
pioneers depended on them
for food.
They can grow to three
feet in length and must spawn
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PHOTO BY CONRAD WEILER
Retrieving the HLAAF buoy from Suttle Lake.
in freshwater lakes, streams
and rivers where they remain
until they are ready to migrate
to the ocean. Sockeye use pat-
terns of well-lit, open surface
waters in the lake, away from
the shore. This is the main
photosynthetic body of the
lake. Because sockeye can
change their position in the
water column, also adjusting
timing and length of feeding
and choice of prey to mini-
mize the likelihood of preda-
tion, it is vital to understand
these factors —which the
HLAAF monitoring buoy
helps to do.
Sockeye, unlike other spe-
cies of Pacific salmon, feed
extensively on zooplankton,
organisms drifting in the
lake. Individual zooplankton
are usually microscopic, but
some, such as copepods and
aquatic insect larvae, as well
as flying adult insects and
shrimp, are larger and visible
See BUOY on page 23
Put Thanksgiving Lessons to
Work in Your Financial Plans
Th anksgiving is almost here. Over the years, this holiday has taken on a
variety of meanings, most of them centered on family, caring and sharing.
You can carry these same values past Th anksgiving into your daily life – and
you can certainly incorporate them into your fi nancial strategies for taking
care of your loved ones. So, here are a few suggestions:
• Protect your family. If something were to happen to you, could your
family pay the mortgage? Could your children still aff ord to go to college
someday? To protect your family’s current lifestyle and long-term goals, you
may well need to maintain adequate life and disability insurance. Your em-
ployer may off er these types of protection as employee benefi ts, but the cov-
erage might be insuffi cient for your needs. Consequently, you might need to
supplement your employer-paid insurance with additional policies.
• Invest in your children. If you have young children, and you’d like to
see them go to college someday, you may want to start putting money away
toward that goal. You can save and invest for college in a variety of ways, but
one popular method is through a 529 plan, which off ers high contribution
limits and potential tax advantages. Plus, a 529 plan gives you signifi cant
control and fl exibility – if you establish a plan for one child, but he or she
decides not to go to college, you can name another child as the recipient.
• Be generous. You don’t have to be a millionaire to make meaningful fi -
nancial gifts to your family. For example, if you have grown children, con-
sider helping them fund their IRAs. You can’t contribute directly to a child’s
IRA, but you can write checks to your children for that purpose – though, of
course, they are then free to do whatever they want with the money. It’s not
always easy for a young person to “max out” on an IRA, which has an annual
contribution limit of $5,500 for workers under 50, so any help you can give
your children in this area should be greatly appreciated.
• Safeguard your own fi nancial independence. Almost certainly, one of
the most undesirable outcomes you can imagine is to become fi nancially
dependent on your grown children. Even if you save and invest diligently
throughout your working years, you could still be vulnerable to fi nancial de-
pendency if you need an extensive period of long-term care, such as a nursing
home stay. Th ese costs can be enormous, and Medicare typically pays only a
small percentage, and usually for just a limited time. To protect your fi nan-
cial freedom, you should explore ways of addressing long-term care costs. A
fi nancial professional can explain those alternatives that may be appropriate
for your situation.
• Communicate your wishes to your family. At some point in your life, you
will need to draw up your estate plans, which could include a will, a living
trust, a durable power of attorney, a healthcare directive and other docu-
ments. To be fair to your children and other family members, and to avoid
hurt feelings, you should clearly communicate your plans and your wishes
while you are still around.
Th anksgiving means more than turkey and football. And if you can suc-
cessfully apply the lessons of this holiday to your fi nancial plans, both you
and your family will have reason to be thankful.
This article was written by Edward Jones for use by your local Edward Jones Financial Advisor.