Smith Lake Environmental Preservation Committee

03/21/2026

Join us for the SLEPC Smith Lake Cleanup on Friday, April 10th!
Register Now!

Please help keep Smith Lake one of the cleanest lakes in the country!

10/16/2025

The SLEPC 2025 Fall Newsletter has been released, and it is on the way to our members' mailboxes. You can see the digital version here:

10/11/2025

The Lakeside Life - Smith Lake Alabama

10/11/2025

Smith Lake Alabama

10/10/2025

Thank you for your help, Dive and Seek Recovery and Scuba! It was a very productive day and we got a LOT of trash out of the lake.

10/10/2025

THANK YOU to all the volunteers that worked hard with us at the SLEPC Smith Lake Cleanup! We got a LOT of trash and old dock floats out of the lake today!
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09/23/2025

🍂 Smith Lake Fall Cleanup is Almost Here! 🍂
We’re putting up fliers around Cullman to spread the word. If you know good places to post them, let us know in the comments! Together, we can keep Smith Lake clean and beautiful. 💙🌊

05/23/2025

🐢🌍 Happy World Turtle Day! 🌍🐢

Today, we’re celebrating turtles around the globe—and raising awareness for one of our own: the flattened musk turtle (Sternotherus depressus), a critically endangered species found only here in Alabama, with its home right in the Smith Lake watershed.

This unique, small turtle faces threats from habitat loss, pollution, and human activity. As stewards of Smith Lake, we have a special responsibility to protect the clean, silt-free waters this species depends on.

💚 What can you do to help?
Keep shorelines natural and reduce erosion.
Avoid using harmful chemicals that run into the lake.
Support local conservation efforts.
Help us spread awareness!

Let’s honor World Turtle Day by protecting the fragile ecosystems that make Smith Lake a haven for wildlife. Together, we can ensure the flattened musk turtle has a future here.

05/16/2025

It was a great day for a Smith Lake Cleanup! Thank you to the volunteers and Alabama Power “Renew Our Rivers” for helping keep Smith Lake clean!

05/10/2025

Planning to build your dream home or getaway on Smith Lake? The natural beauty and cleanliness of Lewis Smith Lake are probably what attracted you to it. Keep that in mind, and remember to protect the lake and its natural beauty and cleanliness as you build.
Here’s a checklist to help you protect the lake, so that neither you nor others on the lake destroy its health or beauty:
• Keep all the natural vegetation (trees, undergrowth) you possibly can. Remove the minimum amount of natural vegetation from the property as needed for the place you are building. This is a hard one since most builders and contractors want to remove all trees and other plants for uncluttered access to the property. Saving this natural vegetation is worth fighting for.
• Keep a “veil of trees” between your building and the lake. Having a great view of the lake is important, but the lake needs natural filtering and runoff protection from rainwater provided by the tree roots, so keep some trees on the lakeside to frame the view from your new place and help keep the lake healthy. Equally important is having a great view of the shoreline’s natural beauty FROM the lake! The trees and other plants are missed when a property is clear-cut, and it becomes an eyesore on the lake.
• Keep a natural vegetative buffer between your building site and the lake. A natural vegetative buffer is the best, most environmentally effective way to keep the water of Smith Lake clean. Riprap is a poor substitute. Alabama Power recommends only a 15’ buffer zone, but for a truly healthy lake, at least 25’ buffer is much better.
• Eliminate as much lawn as possible. Only plan for as much lawn as you need for whatever use(s) you’ll have in mind, like a badminton court, co****le pitch, or firepit.
• Lawns are the #1 enemy of a clean lake for two very important reasons:
o Lawn grass roots aren’t deep enough to provide sufficient natural filtering and runoff protection from rainwater.
o The runoff of fertilizers, w**d killers, and pet waste (E. coli) contaminates lake water.
• Use a CLAY-rated silt screen during construction to avoid sediment runoff into the lake. Most of the dirt around the lake is clay, and clay particles are much finer than silt particles, meaning it can wash right through the typical silt screening used in construction and run right into the lake. A CLAY-rated silt screen will stop any dirt runoff from entering the lake.

05/10/2025

Just a few days left to register! I hope you can join us! Keep Smith Lake Clean!

Please help keep Smith Lake one of the cleanest lakes in the country!

04/27/2025

The SLEPC Smith Lake Cleanup for April had to be rescheduled due to the threat of inclement weather. The Make-Up day is Friday, May 16th. We hope you can join us! Please register below:

Please help keep Smith Lake one of the cleanest lakes in the country!