Monday, January 16, 2017

A “Birds Eye View” of a portion of the Long Lake Minor Watershed!

Special thanks to the Marie & Tom Hass group who flew over and snapped pictures in early November 2016 after the leaves were down.  Marie’s family home is on Crystal Beach on the east side. She grew up on Long Lake. They were helping explore from the air to see if there was a visible river connecting some of the lakes in our Long Lake Minor Watershed.  Older MN maps show a river connecting Sweitzer and Mud / Long.  It wasn't possible  last autumn to tell from a boat on Mud Lake as fallen trees and high brush at the north end limited visibility and any passage.  

The first photo below is Rockwell Lake with visible wetland/water between Sweitzer Lake on right.  Long Lake is at the top right.  You can see Mud Lake in the middle of the picture, separated from Long Lake by Hwy 34 where a culvert allows water to flow year-round.  Sweitzer has a smaller culvert where water flows toward Mud/Long year-round.  No surface water connection is visible between the water bodies currently;  just wetlands.

Darrin Hoverson, our local MN DNR Hydrologist, gave an excellent Long Lake Watershed power point presentation at our June Annual Meeting (view  here).  Darrin answers additional questions below on the groundwater connections.  


Darrin explained that the Long Lake Minor Watershed system of lakes is connected through groundwater and, at times, the surface water, when waters get high.  Sweitzer Lake is near the top of the surface- and ground- watershed.  Generally the water flow direction flows towards Mud Lake and then into Long Lake.

The green lines on the 1st map below shows an area just north of Sweitzer Lake where the four minor basins meet.  Surface water would flow towards those four basins; Deer/Ida, Ingram/Potato, Fish Hook, and Sweitzer/Long.  Much of this area does not have a connected surface for water to flow, but water will infiltrate into the ground then move as groundwater.  There is a lot of water stored in the ground.  When water flows through the culverts in late winter from Sweitzer and Mud (after no liquid precipitation has fallen) this is known as base flow.  The volume of water is close to the amount discharging from groundwater (springs) into this surface water system.  We are able to see the flow direction for the surface water in red in the 2nd map below with the 2-foot contours map overlay.  The flow direction is from Rockwell, Sweitzer to Mud, then Long.  When the county Geologic Atlas comes out in the next couple years, Darrin says we can learn more about the deeper groundwater connections.



Thursday, January 12, 2017

Noah's Fishing Story


1.  This is Noah.
2.  Noah was fishing with his dad for one of the first times in his life!
3.  The bait used was corn.
4.  His family's cabin is on the northeast end of the lake.
5.  The fish was caught over the 4th of July weekend, 2016.
6.  Noah's dad (and many extended family members) love to fish.  Noah is just getting started. 🐟




Remember to take pictures of your winter ice fishing experiences too.  

Sunday, January 1, 2017

Join the fun



Now that the "snow birds" are on their way South, start out 2017 the best way ever by gathering with Long Lake friends at Zorbaz on Saturday, January 7, at 6 pm
Be there or be square!