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| Post Number: 31
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Nose for News 
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Posted on: Feb. 14 2004,4:07 pm |
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DNR winter kill planned to improve Geneva Lake
Efforts to reclaim Geneva Lake underway (2004-02-10)
Like an old building that has suffered from years of neglect, Geneva Lake, north of Albert Lea along I-35, is in need of a transformation. And it's getting one. If all goes according to plan, improved habitat conditions will bring abundant wildlife back to Geneva Lake. Yellow perch and sunfish will flourish with improved food and cover.
Last August, the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR) initiated efforts to restore aquatic habitats in Geneva Lake. By reducing or eliminating large populations of carp and other undesirable fish species, desirable aquatic plants will come back and provide better habitat for wildlife and fish.
"The combined effects of abundant fish such as carp and black bullhead, several years of prolonged flooding, and poor water clarity due to suspended silt and algae blooms have nearly eliminated the once abundant aquatic plants," explained Jeanine Vorland, DNR Area Wildlife Manager at Owatonna,
"As a result, little wildlife visit the lake and desirable fish species are severely limited by competition for food and lack of good quality habitats."
Limiting undesirable fish will help underwater aquatic plants to grow. "Submergent plants generally come back if water clarity improves and they aren't being rooted up by the feeding actions of carp," Vorland said.
Vorland noted that the lake has also lost many acres of emergent plants, such as rushes and cattails that provide important habitat and water quality functions of their own. "These plants are adapted to the natural cycles of drought and most species require exposed lake bottom to grow from seed," Vorland said.
Creating conditions for a fish winterkill is a key first step in the reclamation process. The DNR installed a system of siphons over the dam last fall in order to lower water levels during the fall and winter, making the lake more susceptible to a winterkill, Vorland said.
"Drawdowns mimic the effects of natural drought to rejuvenate shallow lakes," Vorland explained. "And, in this case, the managed drawdown has been assisted by a natural drought." (In anticipation of a winterkill, the DNR opened the lake to liberalized fishing in order to utilize as many fish as possible.)
Unfortunately, Vorland noted, the early snow-free winter allowed sunlight to penetrate the water, creating good oxygen levels. Vorland is hoping the recent heavy snowfall will adequately block sunlight and encourage winterkill conditions.
Lowering the lake also lowers water levels in the lake's inlets so undesirable fish cannot find refuge in adjacent streams. Screens will also be placed at the dam to prevent carp from jumping the dam and returning to the lake from downstream sources.
The water management plan calls for lowering water levels about 18 inches to 2 feet during the growing season to expose bottom soils around the lake margins. The amount of lake bottom exposed will vary from several yards to up to a few hundred yards in the shallow north bay. It is anticipated that water levels will be allowed to recover naturally beginning in mid-to-late summer.
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Nose for News Is Pleased To Announce That We Have Absolutely No Affiliation Whatsoever With The Albert Lea Tribune Or Its Parent, Boone Publishing.
Like Other Minnesota/Iowa Residents, We Simply Endure Them.
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| Post Number: 32
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Ole1kanobe
Group: Members
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Posted on: Feb. 14 2004,5:16 pm |
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I don't think the DNR would encourage any type of restocking like that because it would be hard to tell what was being thrown into Fountain. All we need is some wise-a$s throwing in exotic species or some of those monster carp that could reproduce and destroy Fountain's habitat for native fish.
On the Miss. they are talking about putting up electrified barriers to stop the spread of some kind of Asian carp that someone decided to release into the river at some point.
I went down to harvest (it really isn't fishing) early today and it was pretty packed. got about half of a 5 gallon bucket of nice size perch and 1 northern. I think the northern are still making their way up the channel because we were getting them on the south side of the second bridge after the dam.
Lots of people spear fishing down there. Lots of Dads teaching their sons how to spear fish.
Definately some of the largest carp I have ever seen down there. Under this fishing law, you can harvest rough fish (i.e. carp, suckers, etc) and openly sell them. Might be some money to be made if you could find a buyer and figure out how to get a refer. truck to get them to the customer that wouldn't take more than you make.
If you decide to go down there, brig a good net and at least hip waders, the shore and ice edge is pretty crowded.
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The world is a dangerous place to live, not because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who don't do anything about it.
-Albert Einstein-
Some of what is said here (myself included) is about as tolerable as listening to someone vacuum a cat.
-nphilbro-
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| Post Number: 33
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repdan
justdan
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Posted on: Feb. 14 2004,11:14 pm |
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I hope to get some state funding for a new dam this session, but if not we should be prepared to foot the bill. An adjustable height dam would have helped keep the water level up. If you go look at the current dam you can see the problem. The bounce is going to be harder to control since the Shellrock on the other side of the dam tends to back up.
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carpe ductem.....remember we're all in this together..I'm pull'n for you.
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| Post Number: 34
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minnow
Group: Members
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Posted on: Feb. 14 2004,11:39 pm |
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You'd have to be mad to eat any fish out of the sewer. Test one and see for yourself. The lake is nothing more that a sewer.
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| Post Number: 35
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Nose for News
Group: Members
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Posted on: Feb. 15 2004,12:47 am |
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"I hope to get some state funding for a new dam this session, but if not we should be prepared to foot the bill." repdan
MN Shoreland Management Resource Guide
The DNR inspects all private and public dams and associated structures and administers a grant program to local governments that provides up to 50% of the cost to repair locally owned dams.
http://www.shorelandmanagement.org/depth/rivers/18.html
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DISCLAIMER
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Nose for News Is Pleased To Announce That We Have Absolutely No Affiliation Whatsoever With The Albert Lea Tribune Or Its Parent, Boone Publishing.
Like Other Minnesota/Iowa Residents, We Simply Endure Them.
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| Post Number: 36
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cwolff
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Posted on: Feb. 15 2004,7:32 am |
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| Quote | | "Drawdowns mimic the effects of natural drought to rejuvenate shallow lakes," Vorland explained. |
If we did not have a useless dam in the way, nature would naturally revert to lower water levels to rejuvenate shallow lakes. But man needs to have dams in place, so that they can let water out of the lake when they think it is the best time, and then they call it "mimicing the effects of a natural drought." Man has decided that they know best when to have a drawdown compared to Mother Nature.
This is why Minnesota lakes are in terrible shape, because of mismanagement. All lakes with dams have their water levels higher than they should, and all the interrelated delicate ecosystems are disrupted because they are not fully understood. Man also likes high water so that the waves can crash onto the shoreline and erode sediments into the lake.
Water levels are suprisingly usually managed for a single species, and not for all species. At Heron Lake, we manage for one species, and that species needs the water levels raised in the fall to be able to run a motor boat to their favorite hunting spot.
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| Post Number: 37
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Liberal
Group: Moderator
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Posted on: Feb. 15 2004,7:33 am |
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| Quote |
An adjustable height dam would have helped keep the water level up. If you go look at the current dam you can see the problem.
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The channel is not wide enough to control the bounce of that big lake. So we need to build a very long curved dam that is adjustable to draw down the lake during years when we have high water conditions in the fall. That way it will stop the lake from running out of its banks and washing the shore away during the spring thaw when the water can't get down the river fast enough.
During dry years like this last year the dam would not be used in the fall to draw down the lake because lake levels are already so low that there is/was a danger of a winter kill. The new dam might increase the depth of the lake over many years by flushing silt from the bottom of the lake through the lower gates. But it certainly can't put water in the lake during a dry year.
I'm not a big advocate of dredging because I'm old enough to remember the dredge rusting in the channel after fountain lake was dredged and Albert Lea lake was ignored. And I'm sure that if dredging is done again we will start with fountain lake and who knows if we will ever get farther than the channel. But if we don't want another winter kill like this then we need to get some depth in that lake and like Cwolff pointed out this is a perfect time to do a drawdown. We have no big reproducing fish in the lake right now so lets draw it down to a channel in the middle and get a blade in there and make a couple deep holes for the fish and let the silt consolidate. If we have an explosion of cat tail on the south side of the lake then we can deal with that problem later, but let's not be stupid and restock a dead lake, wait for the fish to get to reproducing size and then draw down the lake or suffer another winter kill.
We need to clearly identify the source of this problem and not go off half cocked attacking a different but equally important problem.
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The people are masters of both Congress and courts, not to overthrow the Constitution, but to overthrow the men who pervert it!
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| Post Number: 38
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cwolff
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Posted on: Feb. 15 2004,7:59 am |
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| Quote | | The channel is not wide enough to control the bounce of that big lake. So we need to build a very long curved dam that is adjustable to draw down the lake during years when we have high water conditions in the fall. That way it will stop the lake from running out of its banks and washing the shore away during the spring thaw when the water can't get down the river fast enough. |
Liberal
The reason lakes are not able to handle bounces is that the lakes are held full of water. There is very little room for water during rain storm events. All water entering the lake would absolutely cause more shoreline ersosion and cause more flooding. If lakes did not have dams, the water levels would be low enough to handle some of the storm water runoff.
Liberal, without a dam some years water conditions will be very low and yes the fish will die, but in order to have a healthy lake you must learn to take the good years with the bad years. You cannot expect and demand to have excellent fishing conditions every year, otherwise you would be putting your fishing priorities ahead of the health of the lake, which is exactly what is happening on many of Minnesota's lakes where man's priorities are put ahead of the health of lakes.
A curved dam is not going to increase your channel size. The down stream channel is controlling your flow. You would have to widen the channel itself to get more water flowage. The DNR has told me several times when I have requested to remove a dam that it would not make any difference since the outlet channel controls the flow not the dam. My response was that if the outlet channel controls the flow, then why do we need a dam to control the flow?
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| Post Number: 39
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Liberal
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Posted on: Feb. 15 2004,8:35 am |
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We have no choice about the channel size because the narrow spot in the channel is a bridge with a well traveled county road running over it. I think that's why they talked of building a curved dam with gates on the bottom to wash silt underneath.
I understand you would like to see the lakes revert back to their natural state and most of us know that winterkills are just a part of the natural process of shallow lakes. But what we're really looking to accomplish here in Freeborn County is turning Albert Lea lake into more of a recreational lake complete with good fishing and winterkills don't fit into that plan. Also like most residents I have no problem putting good fishing in front of the health of the lake because most people judge the health of a lake by the size of the fish you can catch in it anyways. And it's hard to convince someone that all the fish dying in your lake is really just a sign of a good healthy lake.
I do agree with you that the dam is the cause of most of the silt in our lake. But because the dam has filled the lake with silt if we remove it now Albert Lea lake would become a giant marsh.
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The people are masters of both Congress and courts, not to overthrow the Constitution, but to overthrow the men who pervert it!
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| Post Number: 40
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Mamma
Group: Members
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Posted on: Feb. 15 2004,10:17 am |
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I have a question for you sportsmen out there. What on earth is a guy going to do with a pickup box full of fish? I know that the gov. doesn't recommend eating more than a couple a week. Why are they digging around in the dying fish looking for trophy size walleye? Are they going to have them mounted with a plaque on them that says "netted dying fish from Albert Lea Lake? Why because they are free, would a sane person want to take more than they could possibly use? I guess I just don't understand the mentality.
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A conclusion is simply the place where you got tired of thinking.
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