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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)