Welcome to the Barbee Lakes Property Owners Website
The BLPOA is a member/donor organization whose focus is recreation on the Barbee Chain of Lakes for us, our kids and grandkids.
A significant part of keeping the lakes fun is controlling the invasive weeds such as eurasian milfoil and curlyleaf pondweed. To fund weed control we need members and donations and that is why we need you. We also apply for grants to treat weeds and to fund other projects to improve lake recreation. We, along with many others, apply for Lake and River Enchancement grants from Indiana DNR to help fund weed control. DNR can only fund a small number of the applications so most years we are fully responsible for weed treatment and the costs are increasing significantly. In addition the BLPOA maintains signs on the lakes, sponsors events such as the Hotdog Boat and the Lighted Boat Parade. . BLPOA membership is $50/yr. The recommended donation is $2 per foot of shoreline. Please send the checks to BLPOA PO Box 175 North Webster, Indiana Or you can donate electronically at the Donations and $ page. BLPOA meetings are the third Saturday of every month from April through October of each year. They are held at the North Webster Community Center and begin at 8:30AM. The annual meeting is on the third Saturday of July and begins at 9am. Please come! The following is a contact list for various questions about the BLPOA: * President ......Lon Sloan.................res289@aol.com * Vice President.....Kathryn Schmidt........ kathrynschmidt65@gmail.com * Lake Weed Control ... Neil Schwartz ... neil72@embarqmail.com ... 574-834-7329. You can also contact the BLPOA via email at the 'contact us' page of this website or via mail at BLPOA PO Box 175 North Webster, Indiana Thanks to Socks Marina for sponsoring our Maintenance Boat!
Barbee Chain Water Level Gage
The Barbee Chain water level gage was placed on the bridge support between Little and Big Barbee in October 2017. You can view the gage from the Barbee Landing parking lot. The purpose is to give the Barbee Chain real numbers so we can track water levels. This helps during significant rain events especially for those cottages in lower areas. It also allows us to see how long it takes to drop back to lower levels. We drain 54 square miles including Ridinger and Robinson lakes. It was attached when the water was at a very low level, 8.0 on the gage. The normal level is 8.15 (consistant with the dam which keeps the lakes at this level most of the time). High water during 02/18 reached 10.7. Some cottages started taking water during this event at about 10.0 on the gage. The highest level on record was in 3/85 at 11.2. These numbers are in decimal form so tenths of an inch. That’s how water gages work. Some of this info comes from Mike Kissenger the county surveyor. To view high water events and gage readings click here. New Property Owners/Members
Please download the this PDF file and register with the BLPOA. Your registration allows us to be responsive to your needs and keep our records current. Thank you.
Want to Learn More about Lakes?The following presentation was made at the ILMS conference. It's about an hour but very informative.
You can see it here. Want to Learn More about Algae in our Lakes?Grace College has written an explanation and done research on Kosciusko County lakes. You can find details at https://lakes.grace.edu/blue-green-algae/
Barbee Stratification
Huh??? See how Dr. Nate Bosch describes stratification of our chain. Click here.
Information on Invasive Mute SwansCheck here for IDNR information on invasive mute swans. And additional mute swan information from IDNR select this. Another IDNR write up on mute swans is
www.in.gov/dnr/fish-and-wildlife/wildlife-resources/living-with-wildlife/mute-swans/ To get info on Michigan's mute swan program select this. The native trumpeter swan belongs on the Barbee Chain. |
2024 MeetingsPlease attend the BLPOA meetings. They are held at the North Webster Community Center on the third Saturday of each month from April thru October. The meetings begin at 8:30AM. If you have any questions before the meeting schedules start please use the 'contact us' part of this website or the BLPOA facebook page.
Special speakers include
See you there! The Lock is Broken!The lock connected to the dam between Sawmill and Tippecanoe is broken so it cannot be raised or lowered. DNR put the lock stationary in the up position as of 6/18 so it would not affect the Barbee Chain water levels. Apparently it was compromised. IDNR fixed it again in the up position on 6/22. If you see it again disabled please contact DNR in Syracuse.
2024 Barbee Chain Weed TreatmentAquatic Weed Control treated the lakes mid-week prior to Memorial weekend.
Starry Stonewart was treated on the Chain mid June. Weed Treatment including Starry Stonewart
Each year the Barbee Chain has invasive Curlyleaf Pond weed and Eurasion Millfoil treatments to minimize the impact and allow recreation in our lakes.
Starry Stonewort, an invasive aquatic algae, was discovered on Sechrist Lake in 2020 by Aquatic Weed Control during a weed survey. In 2021, Aquatic Weed Control did a detailed survey of our chain and found SSW in 5 to 8 acres of Sechrist. This algae is nasty. It is very difficult to boat thru (even with a kayak) and spreads easily thru fragmentation. The Sechrist areas will be marked with RED/PURPLE buoys. Please avoid these areas to minimize SSW spread. Click here for Sechrist and new affected areas as of end of 2022. These areas now include an area in Irish and Kuhn. SSW is also in Wawasee and Tippy. A complete survey was again done in July of 2023 and Aquatic Weed Control found 2.5 new acres of SSW, bringing the total to 11.75 acres for the chain. Irish Area 2 is new and Area 8 on Sechrist is expanded. The most current SSW location map is here. BLPOA paid to have it treated in 2020 and 2021. In 2021 BLPOA and Aquatic Weed Control submitted a plan to IDNR to treat SSW and were successful in acquiring a Lake and River Enhancement (LARE) grant from IDNR. This grant cut our treatment costs over $9,500. Eventually, the entire cost of the treatment will fall to us. It is imperative that we slow the spread of Starry Stonewort as much as possible. In order to preserve our lakes we must aggressively treat Starry Stonewort and keep our watercraft and lake activities away from areas with SSW. It will take everyone's cooperation. You can do your part by physically removing all fragments from your boat and cleaning it thoroughly. You can also help by educating your family, friends and neighbors about SSW. Starry Stonewort has four to six long branches growing around each stem, and it can reach over 7ft. tall in water more than 30ft. deep. It forms a dense, pillow-like mats along the bottoms of still, alkaline ponds and lakes as shown in the picture below. For more information you can google Starry Stonewort 
Sixth Annual "Lighted Boat" Parade - 2024
The lighted boat/pontoon parade is BACK for Labor Day Weekend!
Big Barbee/Kuhn - The parade will be held on SATURDAY, AUGUST 31, 2024. Irish/Sawmill/Little Barbee/Sechrist - The parade will be held on SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 1, 2024, This year’s theme will be “Light Up the Lakes”. You choose how you want to decorate your pontoon or boat. It’s all good if you are Lighting Up the Lakes. Participants and observers need to stay away from all buoys, especially in buoy with purple on it. They are there to warn you to stay out of the area because of Starry Stonewort algae. Start times will be posted a little closer to the parade days but in the past, it has started at dusk. Lisa Plumb, will be the parade marshal/host. her contact information is in the last paragraph and it will be on the BLPOA Facebook page, BLPOA website and on page 25 of the Barbee Chain of Lakes Directory 2024. There will be a Grand Prize for the best decorated boat/pontoon in each parade. To enter the contest send a private message (pm) to Barbee Lakes Property Owners Association Facebook page with your name and address. Each entrant will check in with the parade leader, Lisa Plumb, Lisa will be in a 20 ft. Bennington pontoon at the front of the parade. A picture of your pontoon and crew will be taken at that time. The pictures will be posted on our page and the number of likes for each pontoon will be counted. The pontoon with the most “likes” will be the winner. There will be one winner for each parade. You are encouraged to participate each night and you can only win once but remember you must go under the bridge. The Kuhn, Big Barbee parade lineup will be on the north end of Kuhn Lake past the old Christian camp. Don’t forget to check-in at the parade leader’s pontoon. Lineup for the Little Barbee, Irish, Sawmill and Sechrist parade will be on Little Barbee this year near the south end of the lake. Parade participants and observers out on the lake need to stay well away from all buoys in order to avoid all SSW areas. Again, if you would like to be in the running for the 1st place prize, send a message to the BLPOA page with your name and address. If you have any questions, you can email Lisa Plumb at LPlumb08@aol.com or text her 574-360-5045. We hope to see you there. See some pics of 2021 below. |
Some 2021 Lighted Boat Parade Pics....Wow to the Participants!
Some of the participants from the west side of the Barbee Chain. Taken on Irish
2019 Lighted Boat Parade Pics
Some of the participant boat pics include:
2018 Flotilla Pics
The 'Disney' theme Flotilla pictures of some of the entries are below.
Big Rain (5/31/2013) Makes Muddy Barbee Chain
A steep, large, tilled field with minimal vegetative buffer is easily compromised by the rain and crosses the road (left, top). The sediment flows into a large wetland on the southwest side of Irish (center, top). Water in this wetland is normally clear and you can usually see the bottom. After the rain the clarity in the wetland was about an inch as indicated on the kayak paddle (right, top). The muddy water quickly filled the large wetland (left, bottom) and, along with several other sediment sources, caused a muddy streak through Irish Lake and Sawmill (center, bottom) on the way to Lake Tippecanoe.
