Water Clarity & 4th of July activities

Theft report:

• Last week I was informed, second hand, of a theft of a gas tank on the west side north of H2.  They apparently cut the gas line, also.

 Water Clarity:

• I measured the lake clarity last Sunday.  I measured 8' of clarity.

4th of July events to look for:

• Informal annual pontoon race, starting on the SW corner of the lake at 3pm.  It just sort of happens.  No one wants to take ownership.  It's pretty funny to see a bunch of pontoon boats racing around the island.
• Fireworks display at twilight in the SW corner of the lake.

Sunset on June 30th. (click for larger image)

Regards,
Jim

Tonight's sunset on Bald Eagle Lake

Here are a couple of pictures of tonight's sunset. The first one is through a windmill in the yard. I thought it was a nice composition. (Click on the photo for a larger image.) Cheers!

BEAA Quick update

All is quiet on the theft front.  No new thefts have been reported to me.

I tested the water quality yesterday.  The Secchi disk reading showed a small drop from 9.5 ft to 9 ft.  There is some noticeable algae in the water.  Still, the clarity is fabulous.  If we hadn't had the Alum treatment this spring and, with all the rain, I think we would be seeing an appreciable difference in the clarity.  Serious high water, now. The water is now touching the bottom of our dock.  There is at least one homeowner that went down to use their pontoon boat and they can't get it out from under their canopy because the water has come up so much.  Too bad we can't send some of this to California.

I also read that the Stillwater bridge is closing on Monday at 10 am, which is bad for me, because I work in Somerset, WI.  A 23 mile commute becomes a 42 mile commute.

It was a good day on Saturday sailing on an E Scow in a regularly organized event by the Bald Eagle Yacht Club (BEYC).  We sailed two races.  There are 6 E Scows on the lake, now.  A rather new group of boats.  They are sailed on Wed, Sat, & Sun. If your interested in joining the group as a boat owner or a crew member, they are always looking for additional members.  No sailing experience required.  Let me know and I can pass on your info.


We were on the lake Friday night and enjoyed a beautiful sunset.
(Click on a photo to get a larger image.)

No new news on the island development.

If you have anything you want others to hear about, let me know and I'll forward it on.

Regards,

Jim

Bald Eagle Lake watershed, water resource issues, and Carp

Lately, I have been asked about the size of the watershed.  I looked it up in the Bald Eagle Lake TMDL study, published in 2012.  According the the study, the watershed for our lake is about 10:1.  So, since our lake is about 1,000 acres, the watershed is 10,000 acres. The following image is from the TMDL study.  It shows our watershed outlined in red.

 

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 Tom Weyandt posted a few links on our Facebook page that might be of interest.

Since White Bear Lake's issues, there has been a more attention paid to water resources.  Here are the links Tom posted:

Four interesting articles about ground and surface water in our area.
http://www.mprnews.org/story/2014/04/28/ground-level-our-legacy-of-contamination?from=hp
http://blogs.mprnews.org/cities/2013/09/water-supplies-in-the-east-metro-by-the-numbers/
http://www.mprnews.org/story/2014/03/31/ground-level-beneath-the-surface-permits
http://minnesota.publicradio.org/projects/2014/01/ground-level-beneath-the-surface/

Tom also posted the following report:
                                                                                                                                             

Carp Forum April 28, 2014 Dr. Peter Sorenson, U of M Invasive Species Program
Dr. Sorenson started with a history of the spread of the common carp from the middle Europe region throughout the Roman Empire as a food source for the population and occupying Roman forces and then expanded further by Roman Catholics for the same purposes. Ultimately, carp was brought to the U. S. as a government attempt to provide food and sporting opportunities. First brought to Minnesota and stocked in Como Lake in the late 1870's. Interesting tidbit was that the railroad cars used to transport the stock had to be guarded to prevent theft.
Dr. Sorenson was adamant that past attempts at control such as commercial fishing, use of poison and draw downs haven’t worked in the past and as sole controls won’t work in the future. Carp can migrate significant distances, a single female can lay up to 3 million eggs, they grow up to 9 inches in the first year and can live as long as 60 years. Carp eat plant material and can dig up to 12 inches into a lake bed to seine out small material to eat.
His research over the past 8 years has shown that carp spawn in shallow areas of lakes and most importantly they migrate into shallow ponds in the spring. These ponds become nurseries, a refuge for the young of the year. In the winter the adult fish go out and spend time in very specific areas in deep water portions of adjoining lakes. Radio tagging of adults have shown that they use the same areas year after year. The fish disburse across the entire watershed in the summer.
Extensive work was done and Dr. Sorenson and his students were surprised to learn that they have not been able to find a single young of the year carp in the deep water lakes over many years of searching. While the carp do spawn in these lakes evidence has shown that game fish, particularly sunfish, gorge on the eggs within 3 days of their being deposited by the female carp. Since it take 5 days for the eggs to hatch this predation has resulted in elimination of carp fry in the deep water portions of the watershed.
The key finding of the research was that successful recruitment of the carp was taking place in several shallow ponds and marshes and that it is possible that a great deal of carp population control could be achieved by solving the problems created by these small areas. Markham Pond south of Saint John’s Hospital and Casey Lake northeast of White Bear Avenue and County Road C, were the primary places where the fry were developing and overwintering. Population studies showed close to 11,000 young carp in Casey and 35,000 in Markham. Small fish were radio tagged in these areas in warmer weather and then their migration into the larger bodies of water was monitored. Recently 3,000 young fish were tagged and only 27 were found to be migrating to the larger bodies of water.
Dr. Sorenson and his staff of graduate students have been testing various methods of preventing adult carp migration into the nursery wetlands and steps that could be taken to eliminate their use by carp fry. Deepening the ponds and using winter aeration to allow use by game fish, particularly sunfish, are two techniques that hold promise. Some work with chemical controls and winter draw downs is also being attempted. Barriers have been installed to limit adult carp migration into those nursery areas.
The results in reduction of carp numbers and percentage of biomass in the deep water lakes have been impressive. Estimates early in the 8 year long study showed 7-8000 carp present comprising 177 kg/ha of biomass. The most recent data showed about 3,000 carp comprising 61 kg/ha.
Primary funding for the research has been provided by the Ramsey Washington Metro Watershed Districts and the Clean Water Legacy Funds. Dr. Sorenson pledged to continued his research and control efforts so long as those fund remain available. He repeated his common theme during the presentation that while the results have been encouraging the efforts must expand and continue for many years into the future.
H.B. Fuller hosted this event in their fantastic facility.

                                                                                                                                             

Final note on the spring dinner. We had about 150 people attend.  Dellwood Country Club was a great host.  The food was delicious.  Fun was had by all.  AND, we made some money for the association.

Dam update... Tom did some investigation in Washington County about ownership and came up empty.

Until later,

Jim Moore
President, Bald Eagle Lake Association

A new era is arriving... Alum treatment.

Most summers I charter a sailboat on Lake Superior from Superior Charters. One of the things I love the most about these trips is the absolute crystal clear waters.  You can see forever. Clarity in Lake Superior is said to be over 100 ft in places.  Well... We won't see THAT, but it will certainly be a lot better than we have ever seen.

So, what's the status of the Alum treatment, you may ask??

On May 5th, the Alum treatment will begin. It will encapsulate 1200 lbs of phosphorous in the water and drop it permanently to the bottom of the lake. This will result in an amazing transformation in the clarity of the water. We'll be able to see results almost immediately. We will be the jewel of Ramsey County. No longer will we have to live with green slimy stinky water. The treatment will require 10 days for the application of the chemicals. The contractor will suspend operation during the fishing opener weekend and resume the next week. If you happen to be on the lake while this process is active, please give the boat room to work and don't water ski through the milky waters. There will also be a tank at the boat launch and trucks delivering chemicals on a regular basis over this period.

There will be a second treatment in two years to complement the first treatment. It is hoped that this will keep the lake clear for up to 20 years. Infiltration of new chemicals from the various inlets will degrade the lake over the years. To minimize this, we all need to do our part to keep nasty chemicals out of the lake. Consider a rain garden or a rain barrel to slow down the movement of water into the lake. I have access to rain barrels if anyone wants one. Free. It may take a few weeks to get one. They are 55 gallon blue and white plastic barrels used in the food industry. I'm going to use one and spray paint it brown so it isn't so obvious.

For many of us that have worked on it for so many years, this is a really big deal.  We are all very excited to see this finally come to a head. It's been great to have all of the support of everyone in this endeavor.

Have a great summer on the lake. Hope to see you out there.

It's springtime?? Dam status. Spring dinner in three weeks.

Such crazy weather.  As I sit here, I look out over the lake, which apparently still has over 30" of ice on it.  I see our Island neighbors have a car parked in front of their house on the ice. The lake was ice free last year on May 2nd.  Any guesses what it will be this year?

Our annual spring dinner is coming up in 3 short weeks. Some of our board members have been busy investigating the deterioration of the dam at the north end of the lake and trying to figure out if there is anything we can do to improve the chances of public funding of the rebuild of the dam.

So, what's going on with the dam?
At present, we are waiting to see how funding goes with the current session of the MN legislature.  Our dam is 7th on the list for DNR funding. There appears to be a good chance that the specific funding request will happen this year.  But, there is still a shortfall and Hugo will not proceed until they have all the funds.

The dam continues to degrade and need inspection and repair by Hugo city staff.  You might want to stop at the dam and inspect it yourself.  At present, no one is expecting total failure in the near term, but monitoring is necessary.

What can you do?
Tom Weyandt stated it well on our Facebook page:

• The estimated cost of the replacement is $600,000 with $258,000 coming from MnDot for the road and $250,000 from the DNR controlled Dam Safety Fund. There is no reported source for the $98,000 shortfall. The Bald Eagle project is seventh on the list of dam repair funds sought by the DNR. The DNR funds need to be approved in a bonding bill being considered at the Capital. 
• At this point residents biggest impact would come from contact with area legislators. Sen. Roger Chamberlain sen.roger.chamberlain@senate.mn, and Rep. Matt Dean rep.matt.dean@house.mn and Linda Runbeck, rep.linda.runbeck@house.mn represent the area. Others can be found at http://www.leg.state.mn.us/leg/legislators.aspx. Consider contacting them and anyone else you can think of to try and assure that the funding is approved, increased to cover the projected cost, and that the Bald Eagle Project is one of the ones that gets funded in 2014.

 Spring Dinner
You should have gotten the party invite in the mail.  Please send it back as soon as possible.  Special thanks to those who donate to the silent auction items and to Kristi Gavin and Keely Huberty on their efforts toward making the dinner a success.

We look forward to seeing you at the dinner on April 22nd, starting with happy hour at 6pm at Dellwood Country Club.  If you haven't gotten an invite, send me an email to me at: 
 

Reminder of the Alum Treatment Public meeting at White Bear Lake City Hall this Thursday evening

Looking forward to seeing you all.

Regards,
Jim Moore

Meeting with Hugo Staff and Mayor regarding the Bald Eagle Lake dam replacement

On January 29th, we ( Board members:  Jim Ascheman, Gary Krejcarek, Rick Gwynn & I) met with Hugo City staff and several leaders about the dam project.  In the meeting we went over the project and the history of the dam and who the owner may be.  Ownership presents a problem.  No one will claim ownership for it.  Full funding becomes the task to be accomplish.  We're part way there. We told Hugo we would do what we could to get support for more funding.

Current funding status:

• Total estimated cost: $600,000
• MnDOT Bridge Funds: $252,000
• DNR Dam Safety Fund request $348,000 of which they have recommend $150,000

Hugo is still in discussions with the DNR to see if they will up the ante.  Not hopeful, though.  The DNR funding is dependent on the bonding bill during the 2014 legislative session.

So, with current funding projections, the dam is short about $200,000.  Other possible sources are Ramsey County, White Bear Township, and the Rice Creek Watershed District (RCWD).

So, the task of the board is to make contact with all possible stake holders to see if we can get additional funds, which we will do over the coming months.  As is most likely typical with government decision making, this will take some time.  I'm not hopeful of a spring project, but I'm a pessimist.  Budgets have to be made and funded.  We need to get commitments before the next funding cycle.  If you can help, let the board know.  Maybe you have some extra cash under your mattress.

Check out my video of our last blizzard.

Regards,
Jim Moore