CADILLAC â How warm are the local lakes, and are they getting warmer as the global climate changes?
Until recently, you d have to look at symptoms of warming lakes to answer that question, rather than a thermometer, as there was no formal project to track Lake Cadillac s temperature.
But Lake Cadillac has one now; according to Scott Heintzelmanâwho sits on a climate change committee as part of his work as Michigan Department of Natural Resources s Central Lake Michigan Unit Manager in the Fisheries DivisionâLake Cadillac got a thermometer installed about four years ago; it s on private property to try to prevent damage or theft that might happen.
It may be the same story in 2021.
DNR Fisheries Biologist Mark Tonello said unfortunately no work was done in the Cadillac area last year. The Central Lake Michigan Management Unit is the fisheries unit Tonello works within and it covers from the Muskegon River watershed up to the Mackinac Bridge. What that means is, every inland river, stream or lake that flows into Lake Michigan from there to the bridge has two biologists and one crew of three fish technicians. The problem is we have very few people to cover a huge geographical area, he said. In a perfect world, we would survey them all, all the time. Especially the places where we are actively managing like the places where we are stocking fish.
CADILLAC — We got a sneak peek of spring weather this week and the Michigan Department of Natural Resources wants to remind people of spring occurrence — fish kill.