Gull Chain of Lakes Association

Crow Wing County and the Soil and Water Conservation District, with assistance from the MN DNR, are taking applications for shoreline restoration projects. This is a cost-share grant opportunity for lakeshore property owners in Cass and Crow Wing counties who want to restore their shorelines with native plants.

The grant will help fund plants, materials, and labor, as well as provide technical expertise on all approved projects and will pay up to 50% of the total cost. The other 50% can include in-kind contributions from the grantee such as labor to prep the site, install the plants and water weekly the first year.

Interested property owners should contact Beth Hippert (beth.hippert@co.crow-wing.mn.us) for applications and more information. Her phone number is: 218-828-6197.

2008 Aquatic Vegetation of Upper Gull Chain of Lakes

Click here to read the entire report

Corps and Forest Service release final report
and EIS for Mississippi Headwaters Reservoirs

Click here to read the entire News Release

The Gull Chain of Lakes Association is installing three new devices at Gull Lake boat accesses to increase the level of protection against introduction of invasive species into the Gull Chain.

New technology has been used to develop the devices - Internet Landing Installed Device Sensors. The devices use cameras to monitor and record each boat launch during all daylight hours all season.

For the second year in a row, the Gull Chain of Lakes Association has been awarded a $5,000 matching grant from the MN Department of Natural Resources to help prevent the spread of aquatic invasive species. The grant will be used to hire trained college interns to conduct watercraft inspections at the three public landings on Gull Lake. Inspectors will be working on weekends and the three major summer holidays when the majority of boat launchings take place. In addition to checking for weeds on watercraft about to be launched, interns will provide educational handouts to watercraft owners. When you see the “Stop Aquatic Hitchhikers” flag at a landing, you know an inspector is there.

An additional $150 matching grant will be used to purchase “Stop Aquatic Hitchhikers” brochures which will be placed in the Gull Chain of Lakes Association water safety brochure boxes at the public landings, distributed to property owners and placed in bait shops and marine businesses in the Nisswa area.

A study, conducted on the Lake Margaret-Gull Lake Watershed near Brainerd and the Sauk River Chain of Lakes between Richmond and Cold Spring, determined the willingness of property owners to pay and which best management method of pollution control they would pay for.

LAKE MONITORING PROGRAM DATA AVAILABLE
FROM RMB ENVIRONMENTAL LABORATORIES

Program Overview

Each lake is unique due to the many characteristics and variables that influence its makeup. The collection of simple water quality data is one way to begin to quantify the physical, chemical and biological condition of lakes. In 1993, Bruce Paakh of the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency developed a monitoring program that was user friendly and provided citizen lake managers with the ability to characterize the fertility and resultant productivity of a lake. RMB Environmental Laboratories, Inc. has worked closely with the MPCA since 1995 to enhance the program following its goals and has increased participation to over 350 lakes. This lakes monitoring program involves the collection of total phosphorus and chlorophyll-a samples. Other observations such as Secchi disk, lake level, rainfall, and recreational suitability are also documented. Citizen volunteers collect water samples once a month from May through September and submit them to the lab. Following laboratory analysis,the collected data is electronically stored and tracked using this web-accessed database, so that users can view and assess the data.

Click here to access the testing database at http://rmbel.info

Check out our new page focusing on Lake Margaret water quality concerns.

Fishing Has No Boundaries^® (FHNB)
2010 Event - August 27-28

2009 Participants and volunteers

The 2009 FHNB event was a great success with 129 anglers with disabilities participating. Details can be found at www.BrainerdLakesFHNB.org. Volunteers and donations are needed and would be greatly appreciated so that this meaningful event can continue to serve people with disabilities from the Brainerd Lakes area.

Gull Chain of Lakes Association has partnered with the Confidence Learning Center to operate the Brainers Lakes FHNB event since 2003 with fishing on Sylvan Lake and the Gull chain.

Fishing Has No Boundaries, Inc. (www.fhnbinc.org) is a non-profit organization whose goal is to open up the great outdoors for people with disabilities through the world of fishing.

NOAA Weather Radio signal available for the Brainerd Lakes Area

The National Weather Service transmits weather information specific to the Brainerd Lakes area from a transmitter in Leader, MN. Tune your weather radio to 162.550 MHz for the latest weather information and to receive any severe weather warnings, watches and advisories that may affect your outdoor activities. You can see a coverage map of this radio signal at http://www.crh.noaa.gov/dlh/nwr.html and read about the features and benefits of this service. This signal is available on virtually all marine radios and scanners. You can buy your own receiver from many electronics stores for under $40.