Instead of a membership meeting in November, a tour of the Virginia Beach Pumping Station located on Pea Hill Creek was arranged for members of the LGA on Wednesday, November 6, 2024. After a very informative presentation given by Planning Section Manager for Virginia Beach Public Utilities, David She, P.E, participants were taken on a tour of the facility which culminated with a demonstration of what it looks like when the intake pipe is flushed to clear the screen. A video of the demonstration is above.
Living on Lake Gaston means having aquatic plants growing along the shoreline and in the water as well. It's good to know something about aquatic vegetation such as, is it desirable vegetation for fisheries, wildlife and water quality or is undesirable vegetation? Not everyone can identify aquatic plants without some tools to help with the identification. Many times folks will say "we've got lilly pads growing in the water", but not every floating aquatic plant is a lily pad! The attached LKG Aquatic Plant ID Booklet is intended to help folks identify what aquatic vegetation is present in the water around their dock, shoreline and elsewhere around the lake. Take a look and see what aquatic vegetation you can identify in LKG!
The video from the August 8th monthly membership meeting is available for viewing on the LGA's YouTube channel. Please like the video and subscribe to the channel to be notified when new videos are posted.
No one wants to jump off a dock, run a jet ski, a boat, a paddle board, or kayak into one of these. Multiple fish attractors recently "washed up" near a boathouse in Windward Shores (see photo).
Using old Christmas trees, or manmade material such as PVC pipe to create fish attractors is not uncommon. Ensuring that these structures do not pose a safety issue to recreational users is an issue. For this reason, we discourage any and all fish attractors to be placed in Lake Gaston.
While Dominion Energy owns the shoreline and the lake floor, the appropriate State Agencies (NC Wildlife Resource Commission & VA Dept. Wildlife Resources) have responsibility for management of the fishery. Dominion will not give permission to any individual or group to place fish attractors in Lake Gaston. They recognize that this is a potential safety issue for recreational users. They will refer these requests to the state agencies.
The Lake Gaston Association (LGA) is opposed to the placement of fish attractors due to the mentioned safety concerns. We have asked that NC and VA agencies deny any requests to place fish attractors in Lake Gaston. We realize that in certain special circumstances state agencies or their partners may deploy fish attractors for research purposes and that these will be placed in adequate depth, secured, and identified with a buoy.
Lake Gaston recreational users all share a common interest for safe use of the lake. For this reason and the safety of all, we discourage the practice of deploying fish attractors.
