The mystery of why Ear Lake has risen 4.2 metres (14 feet) in three months has been solved the snowpack.

That's the reason, according to Yukon water inspections officer Brad Finnson, that the sand of the popular nudist beach, located off Robert Service Way, is now under several feet of water was due to Mother Nature and not human activity.

'The water is rising because the snow pack was high from the record snowfall we had last year,' said Finnson. 'It may rise a bit more.'

Finnson said the water, which has been rising an average of two inches per day for three months after draining for several years, was due to the melting snowpack draining into the lake and had nothing to do with human activity.

He said allegations that lake levels have been changing over the past few years due to a gravel company operating on the lake were false.

'It didn't have anything to do with the gravel plant. That guy deserves to be exonerated,' Finnson said.

Late last month, the owner of Annie Lake Trucking, Bud Hunziker, said people have been blaming his gravel pit operation for years for the lake's declining water levels.

'They've been whining for 15 years,' he said.

He said the fact the water is rising even though he is using 'the same pump, the same line and the same amount of water' was proof his operation wasn't responsible for lake levels.

'I've always told people it was Mother Nature (who was responsible for the lake levels); I just happen to be here,' he said.

Hunziker said his company uses a settlement pond to return all the water, less 10 per cent, to the lake, a claim supported by Finnson.

Hunziker said he has 'never, ever' seen the water levels this high in his 20 years at the lake.

Bruno Semi, whose cabin is the only residential dwelling on the lake, said the water, which is now past the tree line, is higher than he's ever seen it in more than 12 years.

He said the water has vastly changed the landscape.

'I could walk across the lake two months ago,' Semi said. The path along the lake bottom he used to walk his dog on is now under several metres of water.