Elaine and Lancelot won’t have to spend the winter in an indoor wading pool this year.

Iowa State’s trumpeter swans will remain on Lake LaVerne through the winter, thanks to an aeration system to be installed in late November.

“The system will prevent water from freezing on the surface in the winter,” said Catherine Brown, ISU campus planner.

Brown said the initial aeration system will keep the water moving on the western part of the lake, where the swans will nest and have access to feeding equipment.

“They will be better off outside than inside at the vet school’s wading pool,” said Bill Larson, superintendent of poultry science at the Poultry Management Center. “Trumpeter swans are native to Iowa and have traditionally wintered along Iowa’s rivers.”

Larson said people get concerned about the swans when the weather gets very cold. But, he said, the Department of Natural Resources has in the past kept trumpeter swans out all year, so Elaine and Lancelot will be just fine.

“Even though it’s better for them out in the wild, people don’t understand that,” Larson said.

The two trumpeter swans were released onto Lake LaVerne earlier this month following a dredging project which removed silt to make the lake deeper.

Last year’s senior class has been raising funds to buy the aeration system.

“Provided the senior class of 1995 has enough money, the lake will have three aerators,” said Robert Pate, member of the Swan Committee, a group comprised of the ISU Trumpeter Swan Committee and the Liberal Arts and Sciences Council.

According to Brown, a more comprehensive aeration system may be installed later that could improve water quality.

“The result would be a cleaner lake,” Brown said.