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New land purchased by the Pickerel Lake Conservancy was previously owned by Stanley and Sadie Ruby. Chekapa Creek, which is the main waterway into the lake, meanders through the property. Photo courtesy of the Pickerel Lake Conservancy.
The Pickerel Lake Conservancy has purchased 80 acres of land in the Chekapa Creek Watershed to protect the quality of water in the Day County lake.
The area will be preserved as a natural wetland and prairie.
“Chekapa Creek is a primary tributary flowing into Pickerel Lake, and this protection will have a meaningful impact on the water quality of the lake well into the future,” Mark Schulze, president of the conservancy, said in a news release.
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In a phone interview, Schulze said as soon as Pickerel Lake area residents saw the property was for sale, they knew it would be a great buffer to prevent harmful nutrients and runoff from getting into the lake.
The $240,000 purchase was made possible through donations to the conservancy. The group had part of the money available when it made an offer and secured the balance within 48 hours, Schultze said.
This map shows Pickerel Lake and the land to the east that was purchased by the Pickerel Lake Conservancy. Map courtesy of the Pickerel Lake Conservancy.
The purchase expands the number of acres held by the conservancy. Schulze said a 10-acre tract of land was gifted to the organization in recent years. It also helped a local farmer secure a 15-year federal Conservation Reserve Program contract to keep 38 acres of buffer along the Chekapa Creek, he said.
Now, the conservancy can establish permanent vegetative buffers in sensitive areas of the lake’s nearly 20,000-acre watershed to prevent runoff and erosion from contaminating Pickerel.
The group has also partnered with Pheasants Forever to purchase 240 acres of watershed land for conservation purposes.
“I’d be surprised if there’s another lake conservancy that has 30 years of testing,” Schulze said.
Pickerel Lake has zebra mussels
As a prairie lake, Pickerel is relatively shallow, reaching 45 feet at its deepest, Schulze said. Agriculture runoff contributes to the nutrients in the lake. In addition to nuisance weeds and vegetation, he said, Pickerel is one of several in the region with zebra mussels.
Since the discovery of the mussels, the clarity of the water has improved, he said.
“Water testing would normally be 6 to 7 feet clear,” he said.
Recent testing shows clarity has increased to 10 feet.
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“It’s clear and it makes you happy, but now kids have to wear shoes or protective footing,” Schulze said.
Swimmers can cut their feet on the mussels, which are an invasive species, he said.
Schultze said the conservancy, which was previously the Greater Pickerel Lake Association, dates back to the 1990s. Work in the early years consisted of testing the water in the lake and that continues, he said.
Chekapa Creek meanders the entire half-mile length of the recently purchased property and is joined near the east end by another southerly flowing ephemeral stream. The features are important to protecting water quality, Schultze said.
The conservancy is working with Cory Zirbel, project manager for the Prairie Coteau Watershed Improvement and Protection Project at the Day Conservation District, to enroll much of the property into conservation programs.
The conservancy plans to place a monument on the land paying tribute to the Gruby family. Stanley and Sadie Gruby settled on the land in 1938. The couple managed the RayKota Beach lakeside resort at Roy Lake from 1957 until 1961 and East Shore Resort, formerly known as Hyde Park, on Pickerel Lake from 1962 to 1964.