Arts
On a pleasant morning last week, Sara Sommer and Chris Ester paddled to the deepest point of Luna Lake, a 64-acre lake in northern Forest County surrounded by National Forest. Sommer and Ester, both Forest Service employees who work in the watershed program, unpacked what they brought on board. Sommer joked it looked like a “mad chemistry lab.” Since 2013, the Forest Service has been collecting water samples here on Luna Lake. Some samples are just straight surface water. Others are sent through a filter rigged with a cordless drill. Chlorophyll tests require using air to push water through a special container. All samples will be sent to labs for precise testing on their chemistry. It might seem strange, people who work for the forest so concerned about the water. But Sommer said there’s no gap between forestry and water issues. “It’s all interconnected. Water and forest management and water quality, it’s all connected. I really think everything is connected,” she said. In fact, more