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Wednesday, August 29, 2018 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
Buoyed up by volunteers in Suttle Lake project
By Jim Anderson
Correspondent
Looking at the Three
Sisters and what’s left of
the year-round snow on the
slopes is pretty scary. Several
of the historical snowfields
are gone, melted by long peri-
ods of intense heat making
for hotter days and warmer
nights.
Yes, there’s still plenty of
water under the Three Sisters,
but it’s being sucked out of
the ground at a pace no one
has ever seen before. Years
ago, Forest Service geologist
Larry Chitwood told a group
of visiting geologists there
was 40 years of water stored
under the Three Sisters, but
Larry never envisioned the
hundreds to thousands of new
lawns, golf courses and farms
that are thirsting for this pre-
cious resource.
In order to keep an eye on
the water left on and under
the Cascades, and its impact
on the high lakes fisheries
and aquatic ecosystems, there
had to be someone with a
method of continually collect-
ing water data. The someone
who saw that need is retired
OSU limnology professor
Frank Conte, living in Camp
Sherman.
Knowing that money to
purchase the necessary equip-
ment would be a long and
drawn-out process for gov-
ernment agencies, he decided
a local group could do it bet-
ter and quicker, so he got a
whole bunch of people gath-
ered into his living room in
his Camp Sherman home
and said, “Welcome. Here’s
what I’d like to see all of us
do…”
And from that beginning
he established the High Lakes
Aquatic Alliance Foundation
(HLAAF) which today is
about 45 strong. With Conte’s
guidance, the foundation
purchased a solar-powered,
$40,000 NexSens CB-450
data buoy in July 2016 and
placed it in Suttle Lake.
The buoy, manufactured
by the Fondriest Foundation,
located in the Ohio River
Valley region, is equipped
with everything aquatic scien-
tists require to understand the
condition of the lake’s water.
To keep aquatic ecosystems
healthy as well as the fish
and other plants and animals
dependent on it, HLAAF
makes sure the agencies need-
ing the data are getting it.
Nate Dachtler, USFS
fish biologist for the Sisters
Ranger District, depends
on the data from the buoy
for a great deal of his
work.
“For Sisters Ranger
District, the bouy helps col-
lect important water qual-
ity information on Suttle
Lake that we don’t have the
time or funds to collect,” he
said. “Historically the Forest
Service and others have col-
lected water quality informa-
tion on Suttle Lake, so this
helps build that baseline data
and can be used to look at
changes in water quality in
the lake over time.”
Warm Springs fishery
biologists receive the same
data, and have helped remove
the dam at Lake Creek to
make fish passage easier.
Conte explained why he
chose to use the CB-450: “My
selection of the Fondriest
environmental aquatic buoy
system is based upon the
fact that the solar-powered
buoy can be placed anywhere
in Suttle Lake and later on
the Lake Abert water sur-
face. The data collected by
the buoy’s chemical sensors
can be made into electronic
emails by the solar computer
on board and sent from the
buoy to the solar satellite as a
graphic picture. All of this is
done at no cost to us.”
HLAAF is made up of
a group of volunteers dedi-
cated to sustaining the health
PHOTO BY CONRAD WEILER
The High Lakes Aquatic Alliance Foundation data buoy in Suttle Lake, with the photographer’s grand-daughter,
Chayse Teeple, looking it over.
and nutritional values of
the lakes and their tributar-
ies for the benefit of living
organisms inhabiting these
waters. Conrad Weiler, of
Camp Sherman, is the foun-
dation’s photographer; and
Dave Huni, a graduate of
Cornell’s engineering school
and retired USAF officer, is
the director of hydrology.
The CB-450 can handle
just about everything a lim-
nologist and/or fish biologist
needs to understand about a
body of water, among them:
the amount of chlorophyll in
the water, pH, photosyntheti-
cally active radiation (PAR),
luminescent dissolved oxy-
gen (LDO), oxidation reduc-
tion potential (ORP), restivity
of the water, total dissolved
solids (TDS) and much more.
If you come upon the
buoy, or make a special visit
to Suttle Lake to view this
remarkable piece of equip-
ment, stay away from it by at
least 10 feet. There are pieces
of equipment protruding
beneath the surface that can
be damaged.
Before summer makes
way for the cold of winter,
HLAAF will have a day when
Dave Huni will be at the buoy
to give an on-site talk to a
group of people interested
in hearing how it works and
what the data means to fish
biologists and limnologists.
The Rotary Club of
Sisters would like
to thank the many
supporters and friends
who helped make
the Sisters Rotary
Hoedown on July 28
a rousing success!
Our Partners:
Circle of Friends, Seed to Table,
Sisters Band of Brothers,
SHS Flight Science Program
Our generous sponsors:
25 Years Experience…
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WITH SPECIAL THANKS TO:
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www.bullseyecarpetcleaning.net
Jeff, Theresa, Ann, Jamie,
Shiela, Terri, Shanntyl
Platinum: The Bartolotta Family
Gold: Ray’s Food Place, Niblick & Greene’s,
Mid Oregon Credit Union
Silver: Les Schwab Taylor Tires,
Capstone CPAs, Therapeutic Associates
Kelly and Alicia Lettenmaier, Ramona
Hulick – Turmon Auction Services, Audrey
Tehan and Prineville Band of Brothers,
Hoyt’s Hardware & Building Supply,
SPRD Zumba dancers, and to the many
businesses and individuals who donated
to the silent and live auctions.