Ecological Services
About Us
Ecological Services is committed to providing safe waters for Lake County communities to swim and recreate in, monitoring the status of vector-borne diseases in the mosquito and tick populations, and being a technical resource for the community on ecological concerns. Ecological Services is also dedicated to outreach activities and hosts several workshops, webinars, and citizen-science opportunities to engage and educate the community.
Services provided are either of a technical or educational nature and are provided by a professional staff of scientists to government agencies (county, township and municipal), lake property owners’ associations and private individuals on all bodies of water within Lake County.
Quality of Our Lakes
Protecting the quality of our lakes is an increasing concern of Lake County residents. Each lake is a valuable resource that must be properly managed if it is to be enjoyed by future generations. To assist with this endeavor, the Health Department has a Lakes Management Unit (LMU) to that provides technical expertise essential to the management and protection of Lake County surface waters.
The Ecological Services monitors the quality of the county's surface water in order to:
- Maintain or improve water quality and alleviate nuisance conditions
- Promote healthy and safe lake conditions
- Protect and improve ecological diversity
Additional Information
Each year, more than 40 volunteers with the Volunteer Lake Monitoring Program (VLMP) help the Health Department monitor the county's numerous lakes. A primary goal of the VLMP is to familiarize volunteers with lake processes and the cause and effect relationships that exist between their lake, its watershed, weather and human activities.
For those teachers interested in exposing their students to all of the ways that our daily activities affect the water in our county, the LMU provides:
- Educational materials addressing water quality.
- Presentations to groups on a wide variety of topics relating to water quality.
Cattail Chronicles Newsletter
A newsletter about the issues affecting surface waters of Lake County published by the Lake County Health Department's Environmental Services program.