Saturday, December 12, 2020

Our Long Lake Watershed Stewardship

Fall Newsletter Article by Sharon Natzel

This spring, drone technology flown by SC-Recon Geospacial helped us understand how Sweitzer Lake is connected to Long Lake. The Spring newsletter featured the video flyover links still available for viewing: LLAA Spring Newsletter PDF

In August, a large poster by Innovative Graffix (from the drone flights) was added to the kiosks to help educate us about the northern portion of our Long Lake Minor Watershed. [Readers can enlarge the photo of the poster below to read the small print.] We can see that from this drone flight perspective how protecting land in the Long Lake Watershed helps benefit our Long Lake water quality. The surface water outlet at Sweitzer Lake is a perennial stream for two-thirds of its distance south to Mud Lake. The wetlands between the lakes help filter the waters. Mud Lake is then connected by a culvert which goes under Highway 34 to Long Lake near the North public access of Long Lake.

Poster by Innovative Graffix

C.C. White’s message on page one of the newsletter is an illustration of how watershed landowners can permanently keep their property pristine, thereby benefiting the whole lake and its surroundings. MN Land Trust: www.mnland.org
   

The process of protecting land in a watershed starts with an individual, just like Delpha Hays White, CC’s Grandmother. At the recent Hubbard County Coalition of Lake Associations (HC COLA) virtual meeting 9-24-2020, the Kabekona Lake Association and their partners spoke about how they have been successful at preserving 4 areas in their lake watershed that help protect water quality. Their partners included the DNR, Northern Waters Land Trust, and Minnesota Land Trust. Peter Jacobson, part time Water Quality Resource, Research, and Easement Specialist at the Hubbard County SWCD also spoke about how he is excited to help protect our area lakes and their water quality. He retired as a MN DNR Fisheries Research Biologist for 32 years. Peter would be a great contact if you have questions about preserving land: pejacobs.hcswcd@gmail.com. See the 9-24-2020 videos and slide presentations here: http://www.hubbardcolamn.org/presentations.html

This fun educational video from Anoka SWCD below illustrates the lake-friendly living and gardening lake-friendly concepts we learned about at our virtual LLAA Annual Meeting in June 2020. The video "Our Lakeshore Connection" shows what we can each do on our lakeshore to protect water quality:

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