News

RCWD surveyed the lake for EWM on June 6th and created the 2017 EWM Delineation Map.  The first thing to note, is that it's a bit different from the 2016 EWM Delineation Map and some homeowners have experienced a reduction in EWM.  Also, the water was still quite high on June 6 and EWM may have still been emerging. 

Per RCWD, aquatic plants can change from year to year based on many factors.  In Long Lake, those factors include water clarity, common carp, and management with herbicides.  Water clarity can vary in Long Lake dependent on seasonal rainfall and temperature.  When high rainfall and hot weather generate algae, there is less sunlight for plants, and you'll see less milfoil.  Common carp are excellent "ecosystem engineers" - they change their environment through their behavior.  Their feeding behavior decreases water clarity, and uproots plants.  Long Lake is known to have a very high carp population, especially in the winter, and we have an ongoing plan for carp control.

We are working with LRI regarding treatment options, but in the meantime want feedback from homeowners regarding the delineation map.  If you feel you have an EWM issue that isn't referenced on the map, please add a comment to this news article with your address so we can note it. 

RCWD has communicated that they will be performing their delineation mapping either this week or next week.  We'll keep you posted on their results.  

Through our recent door knocking activity, several residents expressed concerns about what can be done about lake algae blooms in the summer.  

Some of you may be aware of the Long Lake Targeted Water Demonstration Project being facilitated by RCWD.  Out of the $7.2M budget, $4.8M has been allocated to the Hanson Park Water Management Project.  Along with providing flood control, this project will also improve water quality with the construction of an iron-enhanced sand filter which will reduce phosphorous loading downstream to Pike Like and Long Lake by 150-250 pounds annually ~ this is estimated to 20-50 tons of algae growth eliminated!

The Hanson Park Pond collects water from Silver Lake, Mirror Lake, and stormwater runoff that ultimately runs into Pike and Long Lake on it's way to the Mississippi. 

The Iron-Enhanced Sand Filter will be completed this summer, but won't be operational until 2018.  

Please visit the RCWD link above for the latest updates and more info.  

Long Lake is not the only Ramsey County Lake dealing with Aquatic Invasive Species (AIS).  As a result, the lake associations within the county are banding together to approach the county for support in remediation.

LLIA President, Rich Kusick, attended the Ramsey County AIS Task Force Meeting on May 4th, which was also attended by Ramsey County Representative, Connie Bernardy.  This year, Ramsey County receives $98,472 from the State of MN for AIS Prevention Aid.     

Since the AIS Prevention Program’s inception in 2014, Mike Goodnature of Ramsey County Park & Rec Dept. had been overseeing the program and distribution of funds.  In 2017, the County decided to hire a full-time employee, Michelle Prosser, to oversee the program and funds.  With this, they decided to form a “Task Force” to help determine what should be done and where the funding should be used.   They no longer are giving money to each lake association to use at their discretion for AIS education and prevention.  The County is keeping the money and will be outsourcing/hiring monitors to be at the County’s boat ramps as well as looking for volunteers to fill in the gaps.  Previous year’s cost per hour for monitoring was $10-12 per hour.  With the new program, the County has decided to outsource the training and scheduling of monitors at a cost of $18 per hour.  As you can see, starting with $98K, paying a new full-time government employee to oversee the program and then raise the cost of monitoring 50% for outsourcing it, there isn’t much money left to do anything else.  There was also a discussion regarding the increased need for education and prevention of other AIS such as Starry Stonewort and Flower Rush.  They are also very disruptive AIS and need to educate and prevent them from spreading into our lakes.  http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/invasives/aquaticplants/index.html

We thought the task force was going to have some input on how the money was going to be budgeted and hoping to get some for AIS treatment.  Unfortunately, we really have no say in budgeting and they were looking for the task force to help the new director, Michelle Prosser, with new ideas and running the program.  There is NO money available to be used for any treatment.

Long story short, we will need to find other sources of grants and cost sharing on our own.  LLIA, along with other lakeshore associations, are working on coordinating an effort to work together to come up with ideas of where to find these funds.  All lakeshore representatives were in agreement that each lake association shouldn’t have to come up with their own ideas of innovative treatments and funding sources.  Seems like we’re each being asked to re-invent the wheel and we’re not specialists in the field.  There was agreement that this should ultimately be a State funded and managed program for all lakes in the state/county. 

Rice Creek Watershed District (RCWD) performed a CLP Delineation Study on April 7, 2017 to check the distribution and density of the weed.  Very little was found and where it was found was low density as referenced in their map, which can be viewed here: Long CLP Apr2017.jpg 

As a result of this study, it has been recommended by the DNR that treatment of low density CLP is an expensive endeavor with limited return and they advise against large scale herbicide treatment. 

Being that we have virtually no offshore treatment areas that qualify as a group for this type of treatment, that would leave homeowners to decide if you want individual treatment.  If you are interested in treating your lakeshore, please email us and we can help facilitate a group discount (20+ homeowners).  Homeowners will be responsible for the cost of approximately $220-$300. 

At this point, LLIA will be focusing our efforts on milfoil.  If it is found that CLP has expanded greatly in the spring, limited shoreline treatments may make sense and we’ll review at that time.

RCWD will be performing a mapping of milfoil in the coming weeks and we’ll provide more information as available. 

Please email us at llianewbrighton@gmail.com with any questions or concerns. 

Check them out at http://llianewbrighton.org/Bylaws

We've sent a survey to registered members regarding setting up a Board of Directors.  If you're a Lake or Easement Owner, please register with the site (by clicking Join Us) and we'll provide a link to the survey to elicit your feedback and interest in participating.  

As always, we're just an email away at llianewbrighton@gmail.com.

Meeting minutes have been posted to our site at http://www.llianewbrighton.org/Meeting-Minutes.

Ramsey County Parks & Recreation will conduct prescribed burns of some county-owned prairies and woodlands this spring. Burns are planned to begin in April and run through June. Experienced county staff and contractors work carefully to manage smoke conditions while conducting burns, however, some residents may smell smoke. 

We are looking to judge interest in the Ramsey Conservation District holding an Aquatic Invasive Species (AIS) Volunteer Ambassador training. 

As an AIS Ambassador you will undergo training by the MN DNR.  This will prepare you to educate the public about invasive species at public accesses.  While the AIS Ambassador role is strictly educational, it plays an important part in reminding boaters of the importance of protecting our waters.

Please contact LLIA here with names and contact information if you be interested in attending this training.  If we have at least 20 people sign up, the Ramsey Conservation District will host an AIS Ambassador training here in Arden Hills.

If you have any questions, please let us know at llianewbrighton@gmail.com.

Rich Kusick

President
LLIA

Warm temps and wind are the conditions needed to erode lake ice from lake surfaces.  Throughout February and March we experienced temps above freezing, according to the National Weather Service.  On Monday and Tuesday winds reached high levels, up to 20-30 MPH with gusts up to 50 MPH, which contributed to our early ice out.  

If anyone has statistics prior to the 2015-2016 season please email them to llianewbrighton@gmail.com and we'll put them on our site.