The Pickerel Lake Conservancy (PLC) has announced the purchase of 80 acres of property in the Chekapa Creek watershed. This will be preserved as natural wetland and prairie and will create significant protection for the water quality of Pickerel Lake.
According to Mark Schulze, PLC President, “The PLC has taken another step to expand our footprint into the watershed to protect the water quality for the long term. 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.”
PLC has acquired the 80-acre Stanley Gruby farm and homestead property, now known as the Chekapa Creek Watershed Project, thanks to the generosity of donors to the Conservancy’s Watershed Protection Fund. The Watershed Protection Fund was established in 2018 by the PLC to support permanent protection of water quality on Pickerel Lake. Property acquisition allows the establishment of permanent vegetative buffers in sensitive areas of the lake’s 19,779 acre watershed to prevent erosion and runoff from contaminating the lake.
Chekapa Creek, which drains from One Road Lake four miles east of the property, is one of Pickerel’s two major tributaries. Chekapa meanders the entire half-mile length of this property and is joined near the east end of the property by another southerly flowing ephemeral stream. These features make this acreage a vital segment of the Conservancy’s initiative to protect Pickerel’s water quality for future generations. (See details and map)