Del Peterson and Mike Lyner attended on behalf of Lily Lake Association...
Guest Presenter: Julia Bohnen, MN AIS Research Center
Julia talked about invasive hybrid phragmites, which can infest ditches, wetlands, and shoreline areas. There are 400 populations in Minnesota and it has been found locally in White Bear Lake and Chisago Chain of Lakes. Learn more about it at: https://www.maisrc.umn.edu/phragmites
MN AIS RC will also be hosting a webinar about phragmites Wednesday, May 14, 12-1pm: https://www.maisrc.umn.edu/news/phrag-webinar
Local government updates:
Washington Conservation District (www.mnwcd.org): Matt Downing coordinates county-wide AIS activities, including hiring watercraft inspectors, monitoring high priority lakes for new infestations, and coordinating with lake associations on their AIS management activities. He is also part of the WCD lake and stream water quality monitoring team. For questions, contact Matt at mdowning@mnwcd.org.
Comfort Lake – Forest Lake Watershed District (www.clflwd.org): Garrett Miller will be coordinating AIS activities within the CLFLWD portion of Washington County. The watershed district contracts with Chisago County to conduct watercraft inspections and hires Steve McComas to conduct plant surveys on major lakes. CLFLWD provides $500 plant grants to residents for native shoreline plantings. The district also completes large-scale projects to improve water-quality in lakes and streams. For more info: garrett.miller@clflwd.org.
Rice Creek Watershed District (www.ricecreek.org): The watershed district supports AIS management activities that also benefit water quality – primarily carp and curly-leaf pondweed management. RCWD provides cost-share grants and plant grants for native shoreline plantings and raingardens and completes large-scale projects to improve water-quality in lakes and streams. For more info: BCarreno@ricecreek.org.
East Metro Water Resource Education Program (www.mnwcd.org/emwrep and http://eastmetrowater.org): Angie Hong coordinates this education partnership, which is shared between the county, watershed districts, cities and WCD. For more info: angie.hong@mnwcd.org.
Other watershed district contacts:
Brown's Creek WD (www.bcwd.org ): Karen Kill – kkill@mnwcd.org
Carnelian-Marine-St. Croix WD (www.cmscwd.org): Jim Shaver - jshaver@cmscwd.org
Middle St. Croix WMO (www.mscwmo.org): Mike Isensee – misensee@mnwcd.org
Ramsey-Washington WD (www.mnwcd.org): Sage Passi - sage.passi@rwmwd.org
South Wash. WD (www.swwdmn.org): Matt Moore - matt.moore@woodburymn.gov
Valley Branch WD (www.vbwd.org)
Non-gov. contact info:
Minnesota Lakes and Rivers Advocates: www.mnlakesandrivers.org
Non-profit organization and advocacy group for lake associations and shoreline landowners. Jeff Forester - jeff@mnlakesandrivers.org.
Lake Association Updates:
Contact info is included for follow-up questions
1. Bald Eagle (White Bear Lake)
Have 30 zebra mussel monitoring plates. Found 1 zebra mussel in the lake last year, across from a launch. Multiples dives and investigations from Justin Townsend (Rasmey Co), Keegan Lund (DNR), and Steve McComas (Bluewater Science) found no other ZM. Not sure if there are any treatment options.
The lake has also done two alum treatments in the past 6yrs to bind phosphorus and reduce algae growth.
Gary Krejcarek: gkrej@comcast.net; Katherine Fleming: kdfleming@comcast.net
2. Big Marine (Scandia / May Twp)
Working with PLM (contractor) to gradually eliminate Eurasian watermilfoil in the lake.
See map and spreadsheet as an example of how to track plant surveys and treatments
Michael Blehert: mblehert@q.com; Rich Burton: richardburtonmn@gmail.com; Jeff Dahlberg: jld1dahlberg@gmail.com
3. Bone (Scandia)
Lake has improved from a grade “F” water quality to “B-“ in past ten years thanks to projects upstream in Chisago County near Moody Lake.
City of Scandia will be building trails in the woods north of the lake by the launch.
There was not enough curlyleaf or EWM in the lake to treat last year. Waiting for update from CLFLWD and Steve McComas on this year.
Dave Bakke: davebakke@gmail.com
4. Clear (Forest Lake)
Working with RCWD on carp removal. A carp barrier was installed in the lake 20 years ago that has prevented all reproduction. Fish surveys show that all of the current carp are 20-50 years old. Will work with Carp Solutions to box net them and feed to wolves.
Planning a whole-lake Eurasian watermilfoil treatment with fluridone, recommended by the DNR after limited success with other strategies. It will cost $50-55,000 but will last for 3-5 years. After that, they will need to do spot treatment. The treatment process is lengthy – will take all summer.
Doug Ramseth: dramseth@gmail.com; Gary Lee: garyandevalene@gmail.com
5. Demontreville/Olson (Lake Elmo)
Lake association became a 501c3 in 2018 to help raise more funds.
They are saving up for a full-lake fluridone treatment. Will test the EWM ahead of time to determine its genetics and make sure the treatment will work. The two lakes are 80% littoral, so the DNR does not allow them to treat all EWM currently.
Link Lavey: link.lavey@gmail.com; Gerry Goracki: gbgoracki@hotmail.com
6. Forest (Forest Lake)
5500 watercraft inspections conducted on the lake in 2018. 53 boats entered from lakes infested with starry stonewort. Would like to work with other lake associations to develop a starry stonewort rapid response plan.
Lake association would like to increase membership. 975 homes on the lake but only 1/3 are members.
Recommend that other associations talk to their cities to request funding support. Shoreline owners contribute higher property taxes to city budgets.
Presentations from 2019 annual meeting include info about AIS and lake water quality improvement efforts: http://www.ourforestlake.com/assets/flla-4-23-19_web.pdf
Jerry Grundtner: jagrundtner@msn.com; Beth Burlingame: eaburlin@gmail.com
7. Elmo (Lake Elmo)
New lake association – incorporated in 2014
Lake is deep, making it harder to treat AIS with herbicides. Instead, they’ve been using scuba divers and removing the biomass. They’ve seen progress.
Half of the shoreline is part of Lake Elmo Park Reserve. The county lets them bring biomass there to dispose for free. City provides some funding as well.
Would like ideas on how to communicate with residents and build membership.
Elizabeth Niehaus: Emnle3@hotmail.com; Wendy Griffin: wlgriffin9@gmail.com
8. Lily (Stillwater)
Primary goal is reducing phosphorus to get off the impaired waters list by 2021.
• Numerous projects in Stillwater, including raingardens. Second year of Adopt-a-Raingarden program.
Will eventually do an alum treatment after they’ve reduced incoming P.
Del Peterson: delpeterson9@gmail.com; Mike Lyner: mike.lyner@gmail.com
9. Silver (Maplewood/North St. Paul)
WCD will be doing watercraft inspections on the lake in 2019
Very little AIS found on the lake during point-intercept survey. Treating 5-6 acres with diquat in 2019.
New spent-lyme filtration basin installed in 2018 will treat 70% of incoming flow to lake to remove phosphorus and improve water quality.
Rick Gelbmann: rickg50@yahoo.com; Joyce Germscheid: joyce.germscheid@hotmail.com
10. Square
Five years trout-free now that DNR has stopped stocking. Water clarity has improved, though not quite to pre-trout levels.
Doing treatment for curly-leaf pondweed. No other AIS in the lake.
90% of shoreline property owners are dues-paying members. All shoreline owners have voting rights even if they don’t pay.
Scott Alexander: alexa017@umn.edu
11. White Bear Conservation District
White Bear and Minnetonka are the only lake conservation districts in the state. They have taxing authority within the five communities that border the lake. Rates range from $0.90-2.00 per person depending on the community.
As a conservation district, they have many additional responsibilities but can also generate much more revenue. See website for more info: www.wblcd.org
Mike Parenteau: Mikep4@q.com