Description:
The Burt Lake is one of Michigan’s premier inland lakes. The beauty of Burt Lake has attracted visitors for more than a century with its clean water, scenic shoreline, and superb fishing. Burt Lake’s tributaries are also a draw with their good water quality and trout fishing opportunities.
In spite of their grandeur, these valuable water resources have not always been appreciated. Impacts to Burt Lake’s water quality date back to the late 1800’s when lumbering occurred throughout the watershed and associated industries were built along the shores of the lake. Burt Lake was primarily seen as a resource to use for water supply, navigation, and waste disposal. Burt Lake’s tributaries experienced a similar fate with damage from erosion and sedimentation from logging.
Although 100 years and more have passed, water quality concerns still exist for Burt Lake and its tributaries. The pollutants that threaten Burt Lakes health today are not primarily from industrial sources such as tanneries and lumber companies, but from nutrients and sediments generated by different human activities such as shoreline development, recreation, fishing pressure, streambank erosion, and forestry activities.
Inventories completed as part of the Burt Lake Watershed Planning Project have surveyed a variety of land use activities contributing nonpoint source pollution to the lake and its tributaries. Reducing the amount of nonpoint source pollution and preventing future contributions to Burt Lake are essential to protecting the many high quality uses this resource provides, which include swimming, boating, and fishing.
Geographic Description:
Burt Lake is a large, deep, high quality lake located just west of I-75 in Cheboygan County. It is entirely contained within Burt and Tuscarora Townships. Burt Lake is part of northeast Michigan’s Inland Waterway and is the state’s fourth largest lake. The watershed of Burt Lake encompasses more than 250,000 acres. Burt Lake is ranked among Michigan’s top 50 fishing lakes. Cheboygan and Emmet Counties are scenic and are utilized extensively as vacation destinations. Recreational activities are primarily water-based and center on large, clean lakes such as Burt Lake.
During periods of high recreational use, both Counties’ populations increase more than three–fold. This tourist trade is vital to the local economy. There is a trend toward converting seasonal cottages to year-round homes. The combined pressure of these trends could result in water quality degradation unless management programs are initiated. The continued recreational attractiveness of the area depends almost exclusively on maintaining high water quality in the area lakes. It has been shown in areas such as Lake St. Clair that a decline in lake water quality can severely hurt a local economy by reducing tourist trade and by causing a decline in property values, which directly affect local tax revenues.
Additional Publications:
| Title | Link |
|---|---|
| Comprehensive Water Quality Monitoring (CWQM) | |
| 2022 Burt Lake Shoreline Survey | |
| 2022 Burt Lake Septic Solutions | |
| 2018 Burt Lake Watershed Management Plan | |
| 2016 Burt Lake Watershed Resource Inventory Summary | |
| 2016 Burt Lake Aquatic Plant Survey | |
| 2012 Burt Lake Tributary Monitoring Report | |
| 2011 Burt Lake Profile |
