Mountain Lakes Dams To Be Restored

Long-existing plans to restore the historic dams at Mountain Lakes are now moving ahead. Last week, engineers and historians did a walk through to discuss various details of the plans. The dams were built around 1900 in order to harvest ice, which was stored in three-story barns just below the lower dam.

The photo shows the old spillway, now reinforced with loose rock to prevent it from collapsing. There was some uncertainty about whether the lakes could be dredged as part of the restoration, but the township is now more optimistic about funding, including the possibility of tapping into the upcoming federal economic stimulus package. A great deal of silt has accumulated in the lakes over the past 100 years. Two small dams upstream that used to trap the silt are completely filled, and now the upper lake has six feet of silt, with only one foot of water on top.

Light Recycling

Shadows of late afternoon stretch across the lower Mountain Lake, emptied last summer in preparation for restoration of the dam. Snow may be a chore to shovel, but it can otherwise lift the mood by recycling winter's meager allotment of light.

I learned the value of this the hard way, through years spent in southeastern Michigan, when the mind was slowly drained of color and light by an endless progression of gray clouds above the landscape's drab offerings of brown. By February, all memories of color stored from autumn had faded, and the mind grew desperate for spring green. After two weeks of gray, a patch of blue sky would come as a revelation, and occasional snows brought the gift of recycled light, making winter seem brighter in much the same way a wall of mirrors makes a room appear larger.

Snow cover, like the polar ice caps, glaciers and white roofs, also helps reflect solar radiation back out into space--a strategically important bit of reflection on a planet growing ever more absorptive of the sun's energy.