Spring Did This Happen To You? This woeful tale is miserable enough to make you feel good about your own ice damage! Do we have zebra mussels?

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1 Spring 2015 Did This Happen To You? This woeful tale is miserable enough to make you feel good about your own ice damage! Do we have zebra mussels? Water quality testing. Second in a series of articles on the recent Property Owners Survey. Watercraft Inspections 1

2 LWIA is protecting your investment. Become an LWIA Member Invasive Species Control Cormorant/Pelican Lobby Watershed Cleanup Watercraft Inspection Communications Grant Procurement Social Events If you are not a member, you need to be! Your membership application is included with this issue. Send it in today! For further information write to our membership office: membership@lakewashingtonassn.com

3 SPRING NEWSLETTER, 2015 Lake Washington Improvement Assn. PO Box 68 Dassel, MN Contact Us General Issues: Cormorant Issues Cover: Steve Grotbo tells a sad story about winter ice damage. 10 Watercraft Inspection Program inspections@lakewashingtonassn.com Membership Changes membership@lakewashingtonassn.com A zebra mussel hunt? Lake Alerts alerts@lakewashingtonassn.com 11 Invasive Species Program Invasive@lakewashingtonassn.com Watershed Project watershed@lakewashingtonassn.com New water quality testing approach. Lost and found lostfound@lakewashingtonassn.com 12 The Lake Washington Newsletter is published three times a year (Spring, Summer and Fall) by the Lake Washington Improvement Association. It is distributed free to lake property owners and friends around Lake Washington Survey Results - Part 2 Watercraft Inspections Swimmers Itch Committee Reports 3

4 End of the Dock Ron Bubany, Editor A lesson in history takes us back to the late 1970's and early 1980's to a beautiful lake in central New Hampshire called Lake Winnisquam. Known to the locals as Little Winni due to its smaller size and proximity to the grand and majestic Lake Winnipesaukee, Winnisquam suffered an algae bloom that killed off not just the fish, but all forms of recreation for more than three years. Property values plummeted, real estate sales virtually dried up, tourism almost completely vanished and local businesses suffered huge economic losses. this study uses a hedonic property-value method to estimate the effect of Eurasian water milfoil on lakefront property values at selected Vermont lakes. Results indicate that as the primary component Eurasian Water Milfoil significantly and substantially affects lakefront property values. of total aquatic macrophyte growth in a lake, Eurasian water milfoil significantly and substantially affects lakefront property values. As Eurasian water milfoil infests a lake property values can diminish by 1% to 16% for incremental increases in the infestation level. Hence, policies that successfully prevent infestations have significant economic benefits to owners of lakefront properties and local communities. We all agree that invasive species such as Eurasian Water Milfoil raise havoc with our enjoyment of being on Lake Washington. You can t swim or boat in the stuff. Fishing is impacted. It s not very pretty. More importantly, as the above quotes reveal, our property values can plummet. To combat this threat, your LWIA Board has several committees dedicated to maintaining our lake quality. The Invasive Species Committee, the Watercraft Inspection Committee, the Watershed Committee and the Cormorant/Pelican committee all work together to keep our waters clean and beautiful. So we all need to support the Lake Washington Improvement Association by becoming members each year. Even if you do not use the lake, if you own property you have skin in the game. Please, join up by sending in the enclosed membership application card. Moving on. The winter ice has been especially effective in damaging our lakeshore this year. Our own board member, Steve Grotbo, sums up his experiences for us in this issue. As he related to me, reading about his tragedy will perhaps make us feel better about our own situations. Also in this issue you can bring yourself up to date on the status of our various projects. For example, we have decided to change our water quality testing process in order to save money and only collect information that we truly need. Lest we forget, summer is swimmer s itch season. We have an article summarizing this malady with some suggestions for what you can do. Happy reading! 4

5 Mother Nature At Her Worst By Steve Grotbo It all started with winning a prize for a lakeshore restoration. This meant about a split on the cost to do our 200+ feet of lakeshore starting in That is we paid 50% of the cost and those of you who play the Minnesota lottery paid the other 50%. Overall seemed like a good deal with tons of native plants, a few rows of small (about a foot in diameter) rocks, and lots of mulch. The shore was nothing to look at before with tons of weeds and lots of erosion each year, so this was a welcome improvement. The first winter was brutal and complete destroyed the shoreline. One thing we learned to hate was the black material meant to prevent the sand from shifting. This wrapped around many of the rocks and had to be cut out small sections at a time. Luckily most of the rocks could be moved by one to two people, so shifting things back in place without heavy machinery destroying the existing plants was doable. Needless to say, the black fabric was never replaced. During the early spring of 2012 we got the rocks back to where they were supposed to be. No real sign of plants at the shore itself, but inland they were thriving and looking great. 5

6 Mother Nature At Her Worst (continued) We even had flowers blooming in March. As this project was being partially funded by the various government organizations we had lots of different parties involved. The two main ones being the Crow River and DNR. They talked us into an idea that has worked at other lakes where huge rocks (about five feet in diameter) are buried in two rows staggered where just the top is showing. As part of this, all the lost plants along the shoreline were replaced at no additional cost. Some of the funds again came from those playing the lottery with the rest out of our own pocket. The huge rocks were installed in May of 2012 and looked good as you could only see the top of them. The original small rocks were added in as filler. The plants, including water plants, were planted along with fresh mulch near the shore. The powers that be wanted us to put in a $10,000 bio log barrier for this first season to allow plants to get established, but said any type of barrier would do. So we opted for using spare lumber and asked the neighbors to ignore the bad looks for this one season saving us money. 6

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8 Mother Nature At Her Worst (continued) That winter Mother Nature decided to bypass the rocks and just create a big berm about ten feet inland from the rocks. It is like the entire shore just pushed things inward. Lucky this was something we could fix by hand and the huge rocks only popped up a little bit. Most of the plants survived. So overall we are thinking things are not too bad and the huge rocks are doing their job. 8

9 Mother Nature At Her Worst (continued) Along comes the spring of 2014 and the huge rocks got pushed up significantly. Well we made a decision just to leave the rocks where they were. No need to spend more money on the lakeshore. The plants came back thicker than ever and the rocks sort of blend in. Now comes Who knew five foot boulders could all be taken completely out of the ground and set on top. You need big machinery to do this, or just one angry Mother Nature. I am leaning towards painting the rocks, maybe some smiley faces. That s the story! If anyone wants to stop by and see the shoreline for themselves feel free ( rd street). We have come to terms that winning something is not always a good thing, but we do love the native plants. 9

10 Invasive Species Committee Ron Bubany, Cathy Klehr, Ken Klehr, Bill Ooley Last fall, we left you with the good news that there is no milfoil to be found in the lake. This spring we will be going back out to see if anything has developed over the winter. In the meantime, here is a fun project that you and the kids/grand kids might enjoy and that will also help LWIA keep an eye out for invading zebra mussels. You will help us identify the mussels EARLY and also to determine if the invasion is localized or has spread across the lake. Get a cement block, tie a rope on it, and drop it off your dock. Every couple of weeks pull the block up for inspection. If there have been any zebra mussel larvae swimming around they will have fallen in love with your block and attached themselves to it. You will see the maturing mussels on the block, the most likely site being at the top of the holes that the block contains. Should you find mussels, report the date and location to any of our committee members or your positive findings to: invasive@lakewashingtonassn.com. A photo would be nice, if possible. 10

11 Water Quality Testing by Ken Klehr Water Quality Data has been gathered for Lake Washington since Initially the data collected was by using a device called a secchi disc. Even today this is one of the most used instruments to indicate water quality of a lake. The secchi disc is a round 6 inch disc, usually white, that is let down into the water until it disappears, at which time a depth is determined and recorded. Readings are taken throughout the summer, optimally every other week. The reading is averaged for the year and plotted yearly. Over time this gives you a trend of water clarity, which is one of the most used indicators in determining the health of a lake. Plotting this data since 1982, the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) stated the overall condition of Lake Washington as " Suitable for swimming and wading, with good clarity and low algae levels throughout the open water season." The MPCA ranks Lake Washington as being in the shallow lake class,. It is located in the North Central Hardwood Forest eco region. Using what is known as Tropic State Index (TSI - see below), Lake Washington falls into the upper range of Eutropic. In other words water quality is good and has been stable since This sampling and testing procedure has become very expensive Over the years we have been enhancing the water quality tests with additional sampling for chlorophyll-a, total phosphorus, conductivity, ph, total suspended solids, dissolved oxygen and total dissolved solids. This sampling and testing procedure has become very expensive, in the area of $3600 yearly. So over the winter I have been working with Minnesota Pollution Control, PLM (our water quality sampling and testing source and the RMB certified state test facility) to develop a more cost effective water quality report without jeopardizing accuracy of information. To make a long story short, their recommendations are to use the Carlson's Trophic State Index, which is one of the most commonly used indices and is used by the United States Pollution Control and Environmental Protection Agency to determine water quality of lakes and streams. This uses three independent variables: chlorophyll, total phosphorus and secchi depth, which will yield the most accurate predictor of biomass relating to water quality and will define the lakes TSI. This is heavy stuff to understand but in the end results in a considerable reduction in cost without sacrificing integrity of information. We should be able to accurately monitor water quality short term and long term trends. I will be presenting this to the Board in April and hopefully implementing this new water quality sampling and test procedure this summer. The time and energy for this new testing amounts to 25 hours over the summer with water quality samples gathered during May, June, July, August, and September. I am looking for some help, including access to a boat, to gather the water quality data and samples. Give me a call if you are interested. 11

12 Watershed Committee Report Skip Sustacek, Ken Klehr, Rick Johnson, Rick Fernstrom The watershed project we started in 2014 has been going nicely. The holding pond is complete and the intakes at Ahlgren s farm will be done as soon as excavation can be started. Once this is finished, the drain field enhancements for this runoff area will be complete. Landowners Kay and Scott Haug have added four wood duck houses already. They also plan to add a few trees to beautify the area. The next step will be to meet with our Meeker County Soil and Water Conservation District Manager (Joe Norman) to review other areas of the lake that have watershed problems. We intend to keep working on drainage area upgrades for all of the waters that enter Lake Washington. Have a wonderful summer and enjoy your lake! April Property Owners Survey By Steve Ullom Property Owners Survey: What can we as an association learn from the survey data and how can we use this data to drive our mission of protecting the water quality of Lake Washington? Every lake association would like to have 100% participation. Lake Washington averages about 225 memberships per year. There are several properties with multiple members, so about 60% of the properties are paid members. The Lake Washington Improvement Association of Meeker County represents all the properties in our entire lake community. When we work with the DNR or Meeker County or various State agencies we are doing it on behalf of the greater lake community we are all part of. Lake Washington is a massive body of water that is important to us all, it s the one thing we all have in common, the lake connects us as a community. Overwhelmingly, the survey responses showed us that people ranked water quality (92%), in one way or another as the primary concern or focus they have for our lake, 76% said it was the same or Overwhelmingly, the survey responses showed us that people ranked water quality (92%), in one way or another as the primary concern better over the last 5 years. There are many things that impact the water quality of our Lake. Such things as invasive species, runoff, cormorants, shoreline loss, septic systems, and lake use were all noted in the survey results as areas we as a lake community need to better understand and take action or continue the actions we have currently in place. To this end the Lake Board puts in many volunteer hours on every ones behalf throughout the year to provide stewardship of our shared asset. We have a program in place that has been testing water samplings throughout the summer months for many years, as a means of tracking the water quality. Published reports can be seen on our website ( or by contacting a board member to get a paper copy. These results show the water quality has remained within the average range when compared to other comparable lakes in our region. The Invasive Species Committee does, at a minimum, monthly vegetation surveys, looking for milfoil and charting the growth of native plant species populations, from May through September. This information is used to coordinate with the DNR yearly treatments (if necessary). When we have had to do treatments, board members have procured grant money to help pay for part of the cost for these treatments. People continue to make yearly contributions to help defray some of the costs. 12

13 April Property Owners Survey (continued) We know there are about 19 inlets to our lake consisting of culverts, small streams, and tile inlets. In the summer of 2014, Skip Sustacek coordinated with Meeker County to build a holding pond on the southwest corner of the lake to control farm runoff. He was able to get grant money from Meeker County and a donation from Ellsworth Township to help the lake association pay for part of the cost. Skip is continuing efforts to identify other inlets that can potentially be targeted to control runoff into our lake. As a member of our lake community each property owner has the responsibility of controlling runoff from their properties, roofs and paved surfaces have the potential for creating the greatest runoff that impacts the lake. There are articles in the 2011 Lake Washington Directory pages , that can provide you with details about what you can do on areas around your property to minimize runoff. The word cormorants was written on more than 150 of the 225 surveys returned. We believe this has an impact on the fish populations, and cleaner waters are better for healthy fish populations. Several LWIA Board members are part of a countywide standing committee that meets with the area DNR to look at the impact cormorants have on area lakes. Property owners impact Lake Washington water quality in primarily two ways. These would be septic systems and recreational use. There are very detailed articles and explanations in the 2011 Lake Washington Directory pages These clearly explain (1) our part in keeping a safe and functioning septic system, and (2) how to limit impact of recreational use on the quality of our lake water. The entire Property Owners Survey 2013 written report is available on our website, along with a slide show summary presented in May If you would like a hard copy of this report please contact a board member. Shoreline Captains/Membership Committee Cathy Klehr, Rick Johnson, Mike & Sandy Wosmek Your membership to Lake Washington Improvement Association is needed and appreciated to continually maintain the quality and beauty of our lake. It would be great if everyone helped by joining the Association. Please take time to fill out the enclosed Membership Registration card and return in the envelope provided. Thank You for your support. Thanks to the Shoreline Captains for keeping our neighbors informed about important lake issues. For a complete listing of all Shoreline Captains and their area, visit us on our Web site. If you are interested in volunteering your time, please contact any board member. For changes of address, phone, or any other information, please contact us at membership@lakewashingtonassn.com 13

14 Watercraft Inspection Report By Tom Hauer AIS Summit Jan Ken Klehr and Tom Hauer from the Lake Washington Improvement Association (LWIA) and Leo Bauer, a member of the Meeker County Aquatic Invasive Species (AIS) committee attended a two-day summit/workshop on Jan. 20 & 21 in St. Cloud to learn more about preventing the spread of AIS on area lakes. There were nearly 400 in attendance with people coming from 54 different counties, Wisconsin and Canada. Speakers presented effective ways to stop the spread of AIS. Two thoughts emerged from the conference: 1) It is possible to stop the spread of AIS and 2) Solutions require broad partnerships and funding at the local level. Currently, there are no zebra mussels in any of the 170 lakes in Meeker County. The nearest infestation is on Green Lake in Spicer. The Green Lake Association has installed two power washers at a cost of $17,000 each, plus allocated another $17,000 for manpower to operate the decontamination machines. In 1992 the first zebra mussel appeared in Minnesota lakes. By 2012, five lakes were infested. Now, there are more than 200 lakes with zebra mussels and growing, threatening more lakes and rivers. Other AIS concerns are Eurasian Milfoil, Killer Shrimp, Stone Moroko, Golden Mussels, Wels Catfish, Zander, Mamokrebs; to name a few. The main way aquatic invaders spread is by hitching rides on watercraft and equipment used by anglers, boaters, and others. Zebra Mussels are extremely small and easily overlooked at the water access. Bauer said, Before you put your boats in the water this spring, make sure they are clean; and if you move from lake-to-lake, make sure they are cleaned. If you fish or boat on a lake that is infected, you have to make sure they are clean and decontaminated. We need everyone s help with this to protect our lakes for our kids and grandkids. DNR Watercraft Inspection Grant Wendy Crowel, Ecological Resources Grants Coordinator of the MN DNR notified the Lake Washington Improvement Ass n. (LWIA) by , they will not be able to provide watercraft inspections grants to Lake Washington of Meeker County in She said they had 45 project proposals requesting inspections at 109 separate accesses. Project proposals and specific accesses were scored by the grant selection committee based on whether or not they were a destination lake for boaters leaving zebra mussel infested waters, how many boats used the access per hour, whether or not they were located in popular destination areas, and how close they were to infested waters. The LWIA Watercraft Inspection Committee is working with Wendy to see if another inspection program is available. 14

15 We have an empty seat at the Board of Directors table which you could fill. You would not only be a member, but also president. Do you care about the lake? Want to influence the directions we take? Are you a leader? Then we need you. Contact Ken Klehr or any board member. 15

16 What is Swimmer's Itch By Mayo Clinic Staff Swimmer's itch is an itchy rash that can occur after you go swimming or wading in shallow water. Also known as cercarial dermatitis, swimmer's itch is an allergic reaction to microscopic parasites that burrow into your skin. The parasites associated with swimmer's itch normally live in waterfowl and some animals that live near the water. Humans aren't suitable hosts, so the parasites soon die while still in your skin. Causes The parasite's eggs enter the water via their hosts' feces. Prior to infecting birds, animals or people, the hatched parasites must live for a time within a type of snail. These snails live near the shoreline, which explains why infections occur most often in shallow water. Swimmer's itch isn't contagious from person to person, so you don't need to worry about catching swimmer's itch from someone who has this itchy rash. Symptoms The itchy rash associated with swimmer's itch looks like reddish pimples or blisters. You may experience an itching or burning feeling on your skin. It can appear within minutes or days after swimming or wading in infested water. Swimmer's itch usually affects only exposed skin skin not covered by swimsuits, wet suits or waders. Signs and symptoms of swimmer's itch typically worsen with each exposure to the parasites. Prevention To reduce the risk of swimmer's itch: Avoid the shoreline, if possible. Head to deeper water for your swim. Shower or dry yourself off with a towel immediately after leaving the water. Launder your swimsuits often. You might even alternate wearing different swimsuits. Skip the bread crumbs. Don't feed birds on docks or near swimming areas. Treatments and drugs Although uncomfortable, swimmer's itch typically clears up on its own within a few days, though in some cases the rash can last up to a week. In the meantime, you can control itching with over-thecounter antihistamines or anti-itch creams, such as those that contain calamine lotion. If the itching is severe, your doctor may recommend a prescription medication. Home remedies As much as you're tempted, don't scratch. In addition to a cream or medication to soothe swimmer's itch, it might also help to cover affected areas with a clean cool wet washcloth 16

17 Committee Reports FINANCE / FUND RAISING COMMITTEE Lyle Walker After completion of the last summer s season, financial activity continued with the successful completion of the watershed project on 215th Street on the South side of the lake. This major project was completed at a net cost of $2,400 to the Lake Association, thanks to significant funding from the State of Minnesota, Meeker County Association of Lakes, and Ellsworth Township. There are no unpaid or outstanding bills at the end of March. We are approaching the end of our fiscal year at April 30, and our financial position remains strong as we anticipate the beginning of the 2015 summer season. Total Association funds at March 31 are $101,946. SOCIAL COMMITTEE Skip Sustacek, Mike & Sandy Wosmek ANNUAL MEETING -SATURDAY, MAY 2, 2015 DASSEL ROD & GUN CLUB -PORK CHOP DINNER Meat Raffle! Meat Raffle! Social Hour - 5 PM (please bring your own refreshments) Dinner - 6 PM Program - 6:30 PM FREE pork chop, bean casserole, cole slaw, potato chips, bread, brownies, coffee/koolaid Please thank B&B Sports for buying the pork chops when you are doing business with them! AND DON T FORGET THE POTLUCK DINNER SATURDAY, AUGUST 1, 2015 COOKBOOKS Lake Washington cookbooks are available for $ To purchase a cookbook call , or go to info@lakewashingtonassn.com and we can get a copy to you. 17

18 It s All About The State! Craft MN Brews & Wine Available Here! The Best Pretzel Burger in MN. OPEN: W-M Closed Tues. 11AM-CLOSE (320) st Street North, Darwin, MN FACEBOOK PAGE: 18

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