WWU monitors say Lake Whatcom water quality showing signs of improvement

“When humans make changes, anything that kinda disturbs the watershed, those activities have the potential to release sediment, that can run off into the lake. That sediment often contains pretty high levels of phosphorus,” Angela Strecker, director of the Western Washington University Institute for Watershed Studies, told The Bellingham Herald. “There are potential other sources ... but human conversion of land is one of the main sources ... the lake sits at the lowest point of the watershed, so anything that happens in that watershed is gonna get funneled down to the lake. The lake takes the brunt of all the things that we do, all the actions that we take within the watershed.”