Sustainable Shoreline Action Plan – Chautauqua Institution

Lake Shoreline Naturalization and Stabilization

An overall master plan and sustainable strategy for naturalizing and enhancing the 1.5-Mile lake shoreline at the Chautauqua Institution. Chautauqua Lake has been plagued with water quality issues over the past many years due to high-nutrient run-off and Blue-green algae issues. This action plan identified numerous areas where specific mitigation efforts were needed, either due to shoreline erosion impacts from lake waves or for stormwater run-off issues from uphill sources.  Over the past century much of the original Institution shoreline was straightened and hardened, and this comprehensive effort aimed to re-naturalize as much of it as possible. Mitigation efforts introduce large natural boulders, pockets of new wetlands with new aquatic habitat locations, extensive native shoreline plantings to assist in stabilizing the shoreline bank and rain gardens for intercepting the stormwater run-off.  Wherever possible, existing pipe outflows are being consolidated or eliminated, and others shortened at the lake edge to establish rain garden areas for proper filtration of the stormwater outflows.