Description:
Round Lake is located less than a mile from Little Traverse Bay, near Petoskey State Park. However, the tall dunes of the State Park prevent the lake from draining into the Bay. Instead, water from Round Lake flows east for over 40 miles through the Inland Waterway, and out the Cheboygan River into Lake Huron. However, this wasn’t always the case; before the dunes rose about 4,000 years ago, the lake flowed into Little Traverse Bay.
The 58-acre, Round Lake Nature preserve has 2,500 feet of shoreline on Round Lake. The original 40-acre preserve was donated to the Little Traverse Conservancy by the Wrigley Offield Family in 1980 with additional acreage purchased in 1984-86 by the people of L’Abre Croche. The preserve is often used by school and environmental education programs.
Monitoring and Research:
Round Lake is monitored every three years through the Watershed Council’s Comprehensive Water Quality Monitoring (CWQM) Program for dissolved oxygen, specific conductivity, pH, nitrate-nitrogen, total nitrogen, total phosphorus, and chloride levels.
It was formerly monitored through the Volunteer Lake Monitoring (VLM) Program. If you are interested in being a volunteer monitor for Round Lake, contact the Watershed Council at 231-347-1181.
The Zequanox® Study – In 2016, the Watershed Council was awarded a Great Lakes Restoration Initiative grant to evaluate a new control method for zebra and quagga mussels. The biocontrol product Zequanox® was applied to three acres of lake bottom in Round Lake in the summer of 2017. To learn more about this program, click here.
Additional Resources:
See additional resources on our Aquavist page.
View an interactive map at Michigan Fishweb.
