27 June 2023
On my Friday morning stroll in Schenley Park (23 June 2023) the very first thing I spotted from the Higher Path used to be that Panther Hole Lake appeared truly extraordinary. Once I set out to the brink I discovered why. The lake had tired out.
Panther Hole Lake used to be in-built 1892 through damming Panther Hole Run and directing its outflow to a sewer pipe containing its unique drainage, 4 Mile Run, plus sewage. Final week one thing went flawed on the outflow level and the lake emptied.
Inside of quarter-hour of my Friday name to Pittsburgh 311, workers from two Town Departments arrived at the scene. Through mid-morning the Division of Public Works and Pittsburgh Water and Sewer Authority had been running to mend the outflow.
These days (27 June) Panther Hole Lake is most definitely filling once more however I’m out of the city and haven’t had a possibility to peer it. Should you seek advice from the lake this week, go away a remark to let me understand how it appears to be like.
In the meantime, this episode does now not repair Panther Hole Lake’s underlying issues of summer season algae blooms and its unnatural concrete edge that prohibits lakeside crops. The algae blooms partially for the reason that lake is shallow. The lake is shallow as it’s passing during the commonplace lifestyles cycle of a lake, illustrated on this diagram from NHLakes: The Lifetime of a Lake.
As soon as shaped, lakes don’t remain the similar. Like folks, they undergo other lifestyles levels—adolescence, adulthood, outdated age, and dying. All lakes, even the most important, slowly disappear as their basins fill with sediment and plant subject material. The herbal growing old of a lake occurs very slowly, over the process masses or even 1000’s of years. However with human affect, it will probably take simplest many years.
… Ultimately, the lake turns into a marsh, bathroom, or swamp. At this level, the drying-up procedure slows down dramatically; limnologists aren’t positive why. Ultimately, the lake turns into dry land.
At this level eutrophic Panther Hole Lake is “outdated” and relatively like a marsh, a state that may ultimate a very long time with out a lot exchange. However the lake’s 130 yr historical past is stuffed with human intervention, from development in 1892, via two “renovations” (1909 and 1957), and plans made in 2010-2016 to renovate once more. The ones plans fell via ultimate November and put Panther Hole Lake on cling.
Final Friday’s drain-out will most likely restart the making plans procedure. In the meantime, the marsh has attracted an American bittern, a sora, and nesting red-winged blackbirds. Two Canada ducks and an excellent blue heron had been unbothered through Friday’s low water.
Curious concerning the lifestyles levels of a lake? See:
(footage through Kate St. John, diagram courtesy nhlakes.org)