This dashboard provides a snapshot of key water quality indicators for Lacamas, Round, and Fallen Leaf lakes. By tracking these factors, we can monitor environmental changes and detect trends in harmful cyanobacteria (toxic algae) blooms. Understanding this data helps protect aquatic life, recreational users, and overall lake health.

This graph shows the percent of our weekly water samples that contain species of harmful cyanobacteria. It's an indication of how likely we are to observe cyanobacteria in the lakes in any given month. The data shows that an excess of cyanobacteria is present in the summer and early fall when temperatures are high and when water levels are low.

The pH measures how acidic or alkaline our lake water is. Much like plants in your garden need soil that is relatively pH neutral, most aquatic life also needs water that is pH neutral. However, harmful cyanobacteria blooms can increase the pH above 9, creating an environment that harms fish and other beneficial aquatic organisms. When pH levels are 9 or above on this chart, there's likely elevated cyanobacteria in the lake.

This graph shows water temperature at Lacamas, Round, and Fallen Leaf lakes. There is typically minimal temperature variation across all our testing sites. Elevated lake temperatures correlate with toxic cyanobacteria blooms.

Cyanobacteria, the microscopic organisms responsible for toxic algae blooms, come in a variety of shapes and sizes. We test for 6 common cyanobacteria species in our lakes. Our volunteers put water samples under microscopes and diligently record any excess of cyanobacteria in the sample. The pie chart shows which species we detect the most often.