Submitted by Eric Chandler.
Be advised, 12-years ago, a 5-year-long study by Citizen Volunteers, experts one and all, resulted in a comprehensive “Waughop Lake Remedial Action Plan”. In 2012 that plan was given to the City of Lakewood, free-of-charge. And, it was ignored.
Since then, the City has paid contractors almost $300,000 to have a new study, a new Remedial Plan, as well as the subsequent three (3) chemical treatments of Waughop Lake. These treatments occurred during a 4-year period (i.e., March and July 2020 and June 2023).
Result? The “jewel” has shown it no-longer supports a once-robust wildlife population, particularly waterfowl, which is clearly evidenced by the annual Christmas bird counts done by the Tahoma Audubon Society. These citizen volunteers have performed this task on the last weekend before Christmas every year for nearly all lakes in our city.
Of course, these counts will vary from year-to-year, but because they are done at nearly the same time every year, using the same methodology, they are, scientifically, a valid measure of environmental trends.
In 2017, following the elimination of sewage being dumped from Pierce College, there was a robust return of waterfowl as shown by the Tahoma Audubon Society’s Annual Christmas bird counts:
- 2017—14 species with a total of 997 birds.
- 2018—12 species with a total of 109 birds, a dip, but that kind of variation is to be expected. This was an aberration, especially considering the next year (2019) count.
- 2019—11 species with a total of 889 birds.
However, following the March and July 2020 chemical treatments of Waughop Lake there was an extraordinarily disturbing result for the next three years. According to the Tahoma Audubon Society’s Annual Christmas bird counts:
- 2020—There was a complete absence of birds on Waughop Lake. Only 120 Cackling Geese showed up at Ft. Steilacoom Park, and……only on the grassy fields.
- 2021—Only two (2) species, with a count of only three (3) birds showing up.
- 2022 – Only dive (5) species being counted with a total of 87 birds, with 80 of those being Canada Geese, and even they flew over the lake. That means the bulk of the waterfowl that showed up using the lake count was only seven (7) birds !!
And…..here we are after Christmas 2023, following another chemical treatment in lake June 2023.
Be advised…..Tahoma Audubon Society’s 2023 Christmas bird count for the lake is still abysmal. Of the 24 species counted since 2017, only 12 species have returned, and the numbers are extremely low. As far as the nine (9) waterfowl species go for this year…..
Lake Total — Only four (4) species, five (5) birds, showed up in/on the lake:
- Highest was American Coots species at 2 Birds;
- With the rest of the waterfowl showing up (only 3 Species) with only one specimen each (i.e., Common Goldeneye, Common Merganser, and a Double-crested Cormorant);
- And, of the 1,034 Waterfowl that were counted, not a single one of the 1000 Cackling Geese, the 20 Canada Geese, the 5 Mallards, the 3 Glaucous-Winged Gulls, nor the single Hybrid Glaucous-Winged Gull, landed in the water, or even near the lake;
- Because, they all flew over, heading for the grassy areas at the State Hospital, the park’s sport fields, or other more habitable waters. Whereas, pre-treatment, they did use the lake.
WHY? Because the City of Lakewood absolutely ignored 11-years absolutely ignored 11-years of citizen warnings that such a calamity would happen on Waughop Lake.
Well…as you can see…..it did.
Didn’t it?
PS… by the way, I am not affiliated with the Tahoma Audubon Society. They have graciously provided me with their data, and I have constructed an Excel spreadsheet (click here to download a copy) that I have used to make this report. I am more than happy to share it.
This result was foretold by Waughop Lake’s volunteer citizen lake water quality monitors and subsequently ignored by the City Council members, City Manager and City staff. Waughop Lake now needs to be restored to its natural functioning as a fit sanctuary for native aquatic plants, fish, migratory waterfowl and Fort Steilacoom Park attendees.
Lakewood’s elected officials and staff responsible repeated rejections of the citizen input smack of hubris, the NIH syndrome, and an apparent inability to admit they were wrong the first time, the second time… And then used the taxpayers’ money to repeatedly damage the public’s property. Under other circumstances they’d be held liable.
And we keep re-electing these goofballs.
Start referring to lake improvement as an engineering project and the staff will be all over it and find grant funding as the City does for all the civil engineering road improvements. It does seem they are swayed by consultants calling it science. An actual fix, i.e., vacuuming out most of the bottom sludge with the bulk of the contaminants and topping or replacing it with clean healthy material, would be more expensive up front, but all, not just the birds, would benefit.
Eric, thank you for your article. This same disregard toward water is happening across Pierce County, and it’s important citizens know about it, because one day it will affect everyone in the form of polluted and befouled drinking water. Something has happened to Pierce County: its leadership in general has become disrespectful of our natural world as well as of its own citizens.
So, I’m not crazy. I was a fixture on the lake and surrounding area for years photographing the birds – which adorn my den to this day. But each year I felt the birds were abandoning the park because it was becoming too populated with humans and the improvements to please us humans. Eventually the birds were hard to find and then so was I. I remember the studies and the comments from each side, and I reported some early reports in the paper i was publishing, The American Community Journal. Do we now take a different tact and bring back the birds – one of the most important former features of walking the park? I am so happy to learn I was not imagining things. Now, about the Pterodactyls I used to see…