By Bryce Nielson, The Real Character
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I just got back from a “world class” beach in the Dominican
Republic. I guess I have a different
idea than Garden City. I am not
criticizing the Mayor, or the people who want beaches, I just believe that they
are uniformed about Lake dynamics and the factors involved creating the present
situation.
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| Bear Lake 1915-1925 |
Bear Lake was formed of 200,000 years ago when earthquake
activities created a large depression that filled up with water. Over the eons the water has worked to change
the shoreline by wearing off protrusions along shore to minimize obstruction
for its natural currents. This erosion
process created a mix of silt, sand and rocks.
Historic pictures (boy scouts fishing with a net, 1917) of the lake showed
no beaches because the water didn’t fluctuate.
When Lifton was installed in 1918 the exposed areas due to drawdown had
no vegetation. Nothing would grow there
since there were no nutrients. Then man
began to have impacts by his activities.
When I first arrived at Bear Lake as a biologist in 1974,
there were no beaches. When I drove
around the lake there were rocks along the shore. That didn’t seem to make sense since a
previous study reported that if you were to look at the top 25’ contour around
the lake only .0001% of that area was covered with rock. This condition persisted until 1990 when the
lake dropped below 5915’ and sandy areas were exposed for the first time in 40
years. High water didn’t recover until
1998. The next drop occurred in 2001 and
persisted most of that decade. In 2011
the lake was again nearly full. Now it is in a transition phase.
Over the years there has been a constant battle of lake bed
access, permits, designated areas and laws.
HB 140 is just an extension to these activities. The Town of Garden City has had a “cash cow”
in the past charging a trespass fee to park on the publically owned beach that
is not even in the city limits. Now
there are discussions about creating a “World Class Beach at Bear Lake”. That will never happen regardless of how much
money they throw at it for various reasons.
Exposed sandy substrate will always be changing with time,
weather and lake levels, and ice, none of which are static. The ‘dry” beaches left when humans decided to
impact the shoreline with filling wetlands for houses, diverting water away
from their property, destroying vegetation and replacing it with lawns and the
resultant chemical fertilizers that enriched the water. There is no active irrigation ditches in the
Town proper. What is running out on the
beaches comes from a gravel aquifer filled with water and no place for it to
go. It is also water carried by wave
action into natural depressions that change constantly. The vegetation will
persist despite efforts to burn, dig and poison it. Bear Lake doesn’t have the cleansing tides of
the oceans which make true beaches. Try
as you may, with illegal filling/disking activities and taxpayers dollars, Bear
Lake will persist.
As for HB140, I wish our politicians and people who claim to represent Bear Lake would
had never pushed for State Laws to control things which we at a local level
could have done.
Where was the Bear Lake Regional Commission in protecting
local rights? If it were up to me I
would place no restrictions on the land below the high water line. It is not damaging the lake biologically,
even if someone pees there or a drip of gas falls on the sand. There has been more wildlife destruction by
the State’s senseless battle on Phragmities.
People today pick up trash and don’t leave it because they have more
consideration for the environment than us older people do. There have been no significant injuries (can’t
say that about the highway where vehicles are allowed) because people are
careful there and police themselves. And
I don’t feel sorry for the lakeshore homeowners who do not like anyone in front
of their place on publically owned land.
Existing regulations with Utah Sovereign Lands and the Corps of
Engineers will protect the lake bottom.
That is enough.
I have always loved Bear Lake for its natural diversity and
beauty throughout the year. Just leave
Bear Lake alone because she will be here long after we are all gone……
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