The mission of the Hayden Lake Watershed Improvement District is to protect and enhance the quality of the water and the environment within the Hayden Lake Watershed.
The Hayden Lake Watershed Improvement District (HWLID) comprises all sections of land that intersect the Hayden Lake Watershed at any point. As such, the District includes the vast federal lands of the north-east portion of the watershed. It also incorporates some areas just beyond the watershed boundary. The representative body, that being the HWLID Board of Directors, began its work of protecting and enhancing the quality of Hayden Lake and its watershed in January 2015.
The District works in partnership with the Hayden Lake Watershed Association to accomplish its mission. It maintains a small, efficient operational structure, enabling it to focus expenditures on projects relevant to the watershed. Therefore, independent contractors complete all work in the District such that the District has no employees.
The Work of the District
- Lake management is a continuing District effort. The Hayden Lake Watershed Association transferred lake management responsibility to the District to ensure that the work could continue sustainably. The lake management staff continue to monitor activities on and around the lake, which have the potential to affect the lake adversely. They also undertake the primary duties of water-sample collecting and testing for the District’s two research projects. And, numbered among their priorities is spreading awareness to lake residents and visitors regarding management practices that protect the lake.
- Communication and public outreach are also a District priority. The Communication Manager maintains communication channels with watershed residents and visitors to the lake. Well-informed stakeholders are essential to the ongoing protection of the watershed.
- The District manages two research projects. In the South Shore Runoff Monitoring project, the researches measure the concentration of total Phosphorus in the runoff. The North Arm Nutrient Monitoring project seeks to understand the contributors to Cyanobacteria (Blue-Green Algae) growth.
- Each spring, the District sponsors debris removal from the lake. Winter weather often dislodges trees and derelict docks from their hiding grounds. These become obstacles on the lake or unwanted additions to shoreline property. Property-owners may tow such ownerless debris to a designated central location from which a District-hired contractor will remove and dispose of them from the water. Find the 2019 Debris Removal Permit here.
All residents and visitors to the watershed can participate in the Association’s and District’s mission by joining the email distribution list and visiting our Facebook page. Both the District’s and the Association’s monthly meetings are open to the public and offer avenues for deeper involvement.
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