Last month the Lake George Association finished up a demonstration project that was the first of its kind on the shores of Lake George. The Friend’s Point Homeowners’ Association had contacted the LGA about a problem area on their property along the Lake. Due to the clay soils and southern exposure, a section of shoreline approximately 150’ long was eroding into the lake, causing turbidity in the usually clear waters. Concerned about the situation, members of the homeowner’s group reached out to the LGA for help.
“We were really excited to partner with the Friend’s Point homeowners on this project,” said Randy Rath, the LGA’s project manager. ‘They had considered other approaches such as rip-rap – but they were really interested in doing what was best for the Lake. Bio-engineering is not new. But we haven’t seen a lot of it around here just yet. So this is a very important demonstration project for our area,” said Rath.
A view of the Friends Point shoreline before the work commenced. (Click all pictures to see full-scale.)
Bioengineering uses vegetation for shoreline stabilization. Rather than traditional ‘hard’ or ‘structural’ approaches such as concrete walls, bulkheads, or rip-rap, bioengineering approaches typically have lower costs and longer-term benefits to the shoreline and water quality, making these methods a great choice for Lake George. The bank and shoreline are stabilized, and fish and wildlife habitat are also improved. However, more structural type approaches are often chosen because people are more familiar with them. While effective, they tend to be more expensive, need replacement over time, and can have detrimental environmental impacts.
The shoreline being stabilized with native vegetation.
“At the Friends Point location there was significant wave action, so we couldn’t just plant some plants on the shoreline and expect that to hold up to the forces of Mother Nature,” said Rath. “We used a stormwater product called ‘Grow Soxx’ made by the company Filtrexx. Essentially, we recreated a shoreline for the plants to grow on. But we had to be sure that our new shoreline wouldn’t be washed away like the old one. So we anchored it using a geogrid and large duckbill anchors into the ground. Then, once the new shoreline was in place came the fun part, planting it with native vegetation. The hope is that in a few years the shoreline will look natural again. You won’t even know that we were there.”
Lake George Association staff worked to create the shoreline buffer.
In addition to the shoreline work, on the same property there was also a drainage culvert in need of repair. Runoff coming out of the end of a pipe was badly eroding soil out into the lake in addition to the erosion problems right along the shoreline itself. The LGA again worked with a similar material for a solution to this problem as well. The gully being created from the stormwater runoff was graded, and then lined with the ‘Ditch Chexx’. The ‘Ditch Chexx’ were filled with a compost mix and grass seed, which will grow and stabilize the culvert. This should stop any future erosion from this location as well.
The new ‘Ditch Chexx’ culvert.
“We are really pleased with the results of this project so far,” said Rath. “We will go back to the site in the spring to check it and see how it all fared through the winter. We hope to start to do more and more projects using similar bioengineering approaches. It gives us the best bang for our buck in terms of protecting water quality and a healthy lake ecosystem overall, so we hope to get more property owners on board with this type of technique.”
Photos courtesy of the Lake George Association.