Why do fish jump? Why don’t lakes freeze all the way down to the bottom? Which lake plants are invasive? What are those water bugs? Is that lake healthy? Whether you fish, paddle, swim, snowshoe, ski, or just gaze upon your favorite lake,A Lakeside Companionwill deepen your appreciation for the forces that shape lakes and the teeming life in and around them.

You’ll discover the interconnected worlds of a lake: the water; the sand, gravel, rocks, and muck of the bottom; the surface of the lake; the air above; and the shoreline, a belt of land incredibly rich in flora and fauna. Explained, too, are the physical, biological, and chemical processes that determine how many and what kinds of fish live in the lake, which plants grow there, the color and clarity of the water, how ice forms in winter and melts in spring, and much more. Useful advice will help you look out for your lake and advocate for its protection.

The author, Ted J. Rulseh,writes the newspaper column “The Lake Where You Live” and is active in lake-advocacy organizations, including the Wisconsin Citizen Lake Monitoring Network. The editor and publisher of several books on the Great Lakes region, he is the author ofOn the Pond: Lake Michigan Reflections. He lives in the lake-rich region of northeastern Wisconsin.