Land Usage around the Lakes

By: Rhianne Zarek

Environmental Studies

State University of New York- College of Environmental Science and Forestry

Land usage is described by the Environmental Protection Agency as 

“...the human use of land. It represents the economic and cultural activities (e.g., agricultural, residential, industrial, mining, and recreational uses) that are practiced at a given place.” 

(EPA, Land Use).  

The typical land usage people see everyday include residential, agricultural, forested, and industrial.

Lake Ontario  

Lake Ontario is a Great Lake and is the biggest out of the three lakes in the LOOOP. With a population of 2.8 million in the U.S. and 2.8 million in Canada in its watershed, the land has been greatly influenced by human activity. People are drawn to its shores and many vacation to lake houses along its shoreline, creating a strip of medium intensity residential area with the influx of population near its shoreline. Away from the shoreline and in the hills is where forage agriculture becomes more prominent, with products such as hay and grass silage being the top crop in the area (Our Great Lakes, NOAA).

Oneida Lake  

Oneida Lake is the second largest lake in the program. Much like Lake Ontario, Oneida has medium intensity developed area near its shoreline, with more cropland occuring in the watershed than next to the lake. The area to the north of Oneida Lake is heavily forested, while south of the lake is a combination of pasture/hay and crop land (WMS Map: Oneida Lake - Land Use).

Onondaga Lake  

The final lake is Onondaga Lake, the smallest of the three in the LOOOP, and closest to the City of Syracuse. Unlike the other two lakes, Onondaga Lake has high density residential areas directly adjacent to the lake and within its watershed. The watershed is also highly industrialized, with lots of transportation routes (roads).  A public park at the north end of the lake offers some greenery, but there is certainly less agriculture directly next to the lake when compared to the other two lakes.

Our takeaways...  

Important factors that influence land usage in our watersheds include the locations of cities, the geomorphology of the region, and quality of soils and environmental conditions for farming. For example, the Great Lakes region is known for its “bountiful and diverse agricultural production. Its fertile lands and waters provide ideal conditions for corn, soybeans and hay crops..”(Great Lakes Agriculture). We know that this is true due to the amount of agricultural products produced in western and central New York, including apples and grapes that are made into wine. Although we need residential, agricultural, and industrial areas to live and work in, the areas can influence the quantity and quality of water entering the lakes.For example, farmers often use fertilizers to enhance or increase their crop;  large amounts of rainfall can carry fertilizers into the lakes and contribute to algal growth and formation of harmful algal blooms. Runoff from roads or from nearby residential homes can also change the water quality, making it inhabitable or even toxic to wildlife and humans . Even more so, in higher density residential areas, there are more impervious surfaces where water cannot seep into the ground, this increases the amount of runoff into lakes and watersheds which directly affects water levels and causes flooding.

References:

• “Land Use.” EPA, Environmental Protection Agency, https://www.epa.gov/report-environment/land-use.

•  US Department of Commerce, NOAA. “About Our Great Lakes : Lake by Lake Profiles.” About Our Great Lakes - Lake by Lake Profiles: NOAA Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory - Ann Arbor, MI, USA, https://www.glerl.noaa.gov/education/ourlakes/lakes.html.  

• Agriculture Office. Profile of Agriculture in Ontario County, NY. Cornell Cooperative Extension of Ontario County, June 2015, http://cceontario.org/resources/profile-of-ontario-county-agriculture.

• “WMS Map: Oneida Lake - Land Use.” About Oneida Lake - Land Use, https://andyarthur.org/wms-map-oneida-lake-land-use.html.  

• “Great Lakes Agriculture.” The Nature Conservancy: A World Where People & Nature Thrive, https://www.nature.org/en-us/about-us/where-we-work/priority-landscapes/great-lakes/great-lakes-agriculture-/#:~:text=The%20Great%20Lakes%20region%20is,of%20the%20country's%20dairy%20products.