The forested areas in the watershed help to absorb nutrients into the ground water and can lessen or prevent runoff and erosion.  The roots of trees and shrubs take up water and nutrients for their own use, while binding the soil in place so that excess nutrients are not carried into the lake when it rains.  Forests with extensive canopies prevent some of the rainwater from reaching the ground, and diminish the amount of water that needs to be absorbed into the soil and roots.  The canopy also weakens the force with which the rain strikes the soil, causing less erosion
	There was an increase in forest cover from 1965 to 2003, which was probably because much of the reverting land had time to grow into mature forest.  This increase is a favorable change because in a mature forest there are more roots to take up nutrients and to prevent runoff and erosion.