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Page updated on
12/23/2011
Initiative Foundation Matching Funds - McKnight Foundation
December 18, 2011
Just today, we signed an agreement with the Initiative
Foundation to meet a challenge they have put before us: a challenge to develop
an endowment fund with matching funds available up to $50,000. The matching
funds come from the McKnight Foundation. What an opportunity for all of us who
enjoy the Gull Chain of Lakes. In the last newsletter you received, there is an
article on Page 20 regarding this challenge.
We are writing to ask that you consider a gift to get
this challenge underway as the year comes to an end. Knowing that many of us do
gift as the year closes, we thought there may still be time for some to gift to
this endeavor. As you know, the Gull Chain of Lakes Association is a 501(c)(3),
so any and all gifting is a tax deduction, including gifts of stock, real
estate, life insurance and trusts.
This endowment fund will provide long-term funding to
support the stewardship activities of GCOLA to preserve and improve the
ecosystem of the Gull Chain of Lakes.
Please use the enclosed form and envelope to send your
gift. Checks should be made payable to the Initiative Foundation with GCOLA
notated in the memo line. If you would like to make a donation via credit card,
please visit
www.givemn.org/GullFund.
Do understand, we need your help to make this endowment
successful. If you have any questions, please feel free to call myself (Marvin
Meyer) at 218-828-9577 or Arla Johnson at 218-963-7954.
The directors of the GCOLA Board wish each of you a most blessed New Year.
Marvin Meyer
Co-Chair
Gull Chain of Lakes Association Board of Directors
Zebra
mussel found in Pelican Lake near Brainerd
Article by:
DOUG
SMITH , Star Tribune | Updated: December 1, 2011 - 10:47 PM
Click here to read the entire article on the Star Tribune website
New
Treatment for Zebra Mussels – Hear From the Inventor
Dr. Daniel Molloy, a leading expert on zebra
mussels, was in the Whitefish Chain of Lakes area on Tuesday, September 13,
to share his exciting research on how to manage this aquatic invasive species.
Molloy, who recently left his position as Director of the New York State
Museum’s Field Research lab to found a consulting firm, discovered a
naturally-occurring bacterial strain that is fatal to zebra and quagga mussels,
but does not pose an apparent danger to the environment or other non-target
organisms. This biological control method is now being commercialized under the
product name Zequanox™.
Dr. Molloy’s visit is made possible by
Minnesota Waters
in collaboration with the
Whitefish Area Property Owners Association.
Zequanox Meeting Attended
by Ken Stover and Rosemary Goff
Meeting with Dr. Dan Malloy who has developed a bio pesticide sold to Mannone
Bio Innovations of California and named Zequanox which can control zebra and
quagga mussels without killing other plants and /or animals as far as their
testing has gone to date.
• It is available
only commercially for use in cooling pipes for power plants. Nothing has been
done other than initial research into controlling zebra mussels in lakes and
streams. It will be years if ever, that it will be proven to be safe.
• Product is
patented by NY‘s equivalent to the Minnesota DNR who gave the rights to develop
the product for industrial use.
• Other than a
quarry in Virginia (changed from fresh water to sea water) no lake has ever had
zebra mussels eliminated – worldwide. Once you have them they’re there to stay.
• Zebras live 1-2
years and start reproducing once the water reaches 550 F in the spring. They
continue to reproduce until the water drops below that mark in the fall. Each
female lays several hundred thousand eggs, some up to million a year. The
veligers do swim and he showed a video showing them moving. The best method of
movement is by water action and being carried by boats.
• Birds and
animals do not transport them.
• Once they’re in
a lake system it takes on average 5 years to spread throughout the entire chain!
• Native clams
usually die off in 1-2 years.
• Water is clearer
as they eat phytoplankton which is the food source for the zooplankton which is
the bottom of the food chain.
• Lakes will get
more weed growth and at deeper depths. Algae will form on the bottom.
• As they die,
storms will wash them up on beach areas and as they get thicker they smell.
• Animals and
birds that currently consume snails, clams, and mussels will eat zebra mussels
as well but not enough to control the numbers. Like using a bucket to empty the
ocean!
Summary by Ken Stover
Annual Meeting Recap
Click here to read
a recap of the July 2011 Annual Meeting focusing on Zebra Mussels.
Data on GCOLA
I-LIDS Presented at
Invasive Species Conference in St. Paul
Five to six hundred people attended a conference
on aquatic and terrestrial invasive species in St. Paul in November 2010.
Sponsored by a number of government and non-government agencies, the conference
attracted researchers, government workers, lake association members and others
interested in many facets of the invasion of non-native species threatening our
lakes, forests and prairies.
GCOLA Board Member Ron Faust gave a presentation on the I-LIDS GCOLA used to
monitor boat launches at the three major launch sites on Gull during 2009 and
2010. In reviewing the data from the I-LIDS as well as the DNR intern program,
both approaches showed themselves to compliment each other in the task of
educating boaters. DNR interns accomplish a one-on-one interaction with boat
owners, teaching them about invasives while they inspect the boat together. Our
data suggests that they were only able to contact 13% of boat owners during
their launches; that program cost the DNR and GCOLA a combined $10,000 in 2010.
Our three I-LIDS cost GCOLA roughly $20,000 during the year of purchase but this
will drop to $7,000 annually as a projected ongoing cost. The I-LIDS are able to
record virtually all boat launches during daylight hours. Although not directly
comparable to an inspection by a DNR intern, the I-LIDS are also considered an
educational tool in that they remind and motivate every boat owner to clean and
drain his or her boat.
A link to Ron Faust's short talk (12 PowerPoint
slides) can be found here:
Using Technology to Prevent Invasive Species Introduction at Boat Accesses
(542KB PDF file)
DNR Shoreline
Restoration Grants
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
Lake Margaret Implementation Plan
Wenck Associates, Inc.
City of Lake Shore
Minnesota Pollution Control Agency
Click
here to read the details (30MB PDF file)
GCOLA pits
technology against invasive species
In 2009, Gull Chain of Lakes Association installed three
I-LIDS (Internet Landing Installed Device Sensors) at the busiest boat launches
on Gull Lake. These devices transmit video clips of each launch wirelessly to
the manufacturer's website where they are reviewed to look for aquatic
vegetation on the trailer or boat.

Click here to read the entire article from the Brainerd Dispatch
GCOLA AWARDED DNR
INVASIVE SPECIES PREVENTION GRANT
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.
WE LOVE OUR LAKES
A study indicates Minnesotans are willing to pay to
restore polluted lakes.
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.
Click here for the
full report. (PDF document)
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)
2011 Event -
August 26-27

2011 Participants and volunteers
The 2011 FHNB event was a great
success with 120+ 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.
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