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We Need AIS Research
AIS are confounding our management organizations and fouling our lakes. Everyone is frustrated with the AIS issue. We have cobbled together a system of prevention and management that substantially...
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An Ounce of Prevention
A LAKE MANAGER’S NOTEBOOK – An Ounce of Prevention Following the discovery of zebra mussels in Lake Independence, a Three Rivers Park District official was quoted as saying1, “the district is looking...
View ArticleWhat Works (and Not) in Managing Lakes
A LAKE MANAGER’S NOTEBOOK- The profession of managing lakes began about 40 years ago. At that time, the United States was confronting huge water quality issues and the need to remedy these problems...
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Salt and Mirrors
A LAKE MANAGER’S NOTEBOOK Salt is bad for our lakes. Chloride, the offending element in salt, has been accumulating in metro lakes for the past half century, corresponding to the use of de-icing road...
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Unchanging Lakes
For the past four or five decades, Minnesotans have invested an enormous sum of money aimed at protecting and improving lake quality. More recently, we have amended our constitution to tax ourselves...
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What About Lakes?
The Clean Water Land and Legacy Amendment, adopted five years ago, dedicates about $100 million per year for 25 years toward cleaning up our waters – lakes, rivers, streams and wetlands. Of these...
View ArticleWhy Phosphorus?
When discussing runoff pollution and the various ways to mitigate its impacts, phosphorus is often the first, or at least the most prominent, pollutant mentioned. However there is often confusion...
View ArticleWill Buffers Clean Our Lakes?
As a lake manager and scientist, I want to comment on buffers’ benefits for lake quality. There is a great deal of rhetoric and hype surrounding the buffer bills circulating in the legislature. As an...
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Fixing Lakes – Fast or Slow?
The state of Minnesota recently released their report, “Swimmable, fishable, fixable? What we’ve learned so far about Minnesota waters.” Minnesota is halfway through a watershed-by-watershed...
View ArticleZebra Mussels II
Last summer in this column I advised lake associations, “If your lake has zebra mussels, don’t waste much time, effort or expense on controlling them. Solutions may be coming, but for now they are not...
View ArticleWhy So Negative, Critical?
I have been writing this column for about a year and a half, and I’m sometimes asked, “Why are you so negative and critical? My career has paralleled the modern environmental movement, which has...
View ArticlePatience, Symptoms and Workarounds
I suppose there is no perfect strategy for lake remediation programs. In the case of nutrient impaired lakes – those lakes with excess phosphorus resulting from land development, causing algae blooms –...
View ArticleLessons from Starry Stonewort
We didn’t see this one coming. Starry stonewort, a new invasive plant, was recently discovered in extensive areas of Lake Koronis (Stearns County) and in nearby Mud Lake. Minnesota’s “State Management...
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