The east end of Waverly Lake looked like this on Wednesday, Aug. 27, 2025.
Three weeks after two harvesting machines cleared the surface of Waverly Lake of unsightly plant growth, on Wednesday the scum was back on the east end of the lake.
A bike ride took me past the lake on the Salem Avenue side Wednesday afternoon. The end nearest the floating dock and boat ramp looked pretty green.
This was after a company hired by the Albany Parks Department spent several days scouring the lake with its aquatic harvesters at the beginning of August.
The middle of the 10-acre lake and the western end still looked fairly clear, even after several days of the kind of summer heat that seems to stimulate the growth of algae and aquatic plants.
The lake was created by the excavation of material for the construction of the Pacific Boulevard overpass in 1939. A commenter on this site recalled that as late as the 1960s it was deep and clean enough for classes in SCUBA diving. Those days are not coming back unless the lake is thoroughly dredged. The chances of dredging are south of nil.
The good news: If experience is any guide, the worst of the surface crud will disappear when cold weather returns in the fall. (hh)
The central and western sections still looked fairly clear on Wednesday, at least from this vantage point on Salem Avenue.
Armchair “expert” opinions incoming in 3, 2….
WOW! A preemptive ankle biting dog attack. As far as substance? NONE!
Armchair expert here. This looks different than what was dredged. We had the slimy growth that was growing from the bottom up. This looks like a different issue. Maybe they are both encouraged by shallow and warm. I agree with dredging. Late ’70s the inlet was MUCH deeper. It’s literally surface exposed now.
You didn’t mention that Waverly Lake was the original site for the Timber Carnival and the July 4th fireworks before it moved to Timber Linn Park.
I’ve fished that lake since 1992, and never was there an issue of algae and weed growth of the last 6 to 7 years. It’s only appeared since, when the amount of waterfowl have increased ten fold. The feces of waterfowl is an injection of fertilizer to this small pond. Timber Linn pond does not have this issue. Also another prognosis may be that use of fertilizer around swan lakes may contribute to this as well. Also, the lake has been filling with sediment over the years from winter flows. If we’re to rid the abundance of algae and invasive weeds? Maybe I little more research into the above mentioned might help.