News

Just a quick heads up on a StarTrib article that came out yesterday regarding the carp status on Long Lake; New tools in fight to remove carp

They referenced 1,000 carp were removed at the electronic fence located by the trestle bridge over Rice Creek and another 7,000 via the box nets.  That's approximately 80,000 pounds of biomass and took quite a bit of human muscle to fill boats and load the carp into trailers ~ a much worse job than our annual Clean Up Day (which is scheduled for the Saturday after Labor Day, btw!). 

I visited the landing while they removed the box netted carp and took a picture of one of the trailers ~ yuk!

We're lucky to have focus on our lake and we hope these mitigations will continue to improve water quality.  I'll keep you posted as I learn more.

Quick follow up on the boat recovery yesterday.  Ramsey County Sheriff was able to recover a 17' Bayliner Inboard/Outboard yesterday just off the public beach.  With a good buff and some Sea Foam we could have it back on the water by next summer.  

Andy Combites posted some pics and information at Facebook > Neighborly New Brighton

Thanks to Adam Gerber for sending the pic below.  

BE SAFE!

John

I'm always amazed at how much trash we collect on Clean Up Day and this year is no different.  Thank to the following volunteers:  The Scott Family, the Hickman Family, the Gunderson Family, the Matkaiti Family, Dale Swanson, the Klines, the Beckmans, Gary Erickson, Dave Rubash (and Eli), Nikolas Kohler, Gail Hain, Luke Broghammer, and Grant Hanson.  Hopefully I didn't miss anyone.  

Special thanks to Owen and Elsa Scott who suffered multiple bee stings!

Clean Up Day is the Saturday after Labor Day, so next year it will be on September 11.  Many kids have service projects assigned through school to memorialize 9/11 and this is a great way to complete the project.  

I'm always amazed at how much trash we collect on Clean Up Day and this year is no different.  Thank to the following volunteers:  The Scott Family, the Hickman Family, the Gunderson Family, the Matkaiti Family, Dale Swanson, the Klines, the Beckmans, Gary Erickson, Dave Rubash (and Eli), Nikolas Kohler, Gail Hain, Luke Broghammer, and Grant Hanson.  Hopefully I didn't miss anyone.   Special thanks to Owen and Elsa Scott who suffered multiple bee stings! Clean Up Day is the Saturday after Labor Day, so next year it will be on September 11.  Many kids have service projects assigned through school to memorialize 9/11 and this is a great way to complete the project.  Trash on lakeshore along Beach Road

Pile of trash collected and some of our awesome volunteersPile of trash collected and some of our awesome volunteers We found this interesting bracelet.  If you lost this over the summer, please contact LLIA for it's safe return.  found this interesting bracelet.  If you lost this over the summer, please contact LLIA for it's safe return.   Bee ground nest - this isn't trash - leave it alone!ground nest - this isn't trash - leave it alone!

RCWD contracted with Blue Water Science to have our delineation map completed on June 22.  We have provided it to Lake Restoration and encourage you to contact them if you'd like your lake shore or dock treated when they're on the lake.

Note that some of the red and yellow areas of the north basin were not circled as part the treatment ~ in those ares, milfoil appeared very unhealthy and determined not to be worth the money to treat.

Lake Restoration will be out in the next few weeks to treat approximately 5 acres with Diquat, the same product they used last year.  I'll keep you posted when I hear of a specific date.

More information regarding our weed treatment process can be found here: 

• LLIA AIS Treatment
  
• Individual Lake Owner AIS Treatment
  

Be SAFE during the upcoming 4th weekend!  Make sure your guest know the rules of the lake if they take out your jet skis or otherwise.  

- John

New Brighton Police Dept has partnered with us for many years to monitor the boat launch and lake, but they informed us a few months ago that they would be unable to provide continued support for multiple reasons, primarily due funding, lack of personnel, and a hiring freeze.  This left us in an uncomfortable position for 2020 where the COVID situation may draw more people to the lake seeking recreation with no management of the landing and lake.  

With our limited funding, we pursued multiple options to provide coverage and found a creative solution in utilizing an Aquatic Invasive Species (AIS) Program provided through Ramsey County.  They have agreed to provide:

1. AIS monitoring of boats entering/leaving Long Lake
2. Pass out a postcard with the lake rules and recommended usage guidelines when the lake is busy; where to paddle, where to anchor, where to ski
3. Keep an eye on parking spots and inform boaters when the lake is at full capacity

In the past, Ramsey County Sheriff has focused their attention on other lakes knowing that we have New Brighton PD providing support.  We have informed the Sheriff’s Office of our situation and asked that we are included in their typical rounds, particularly from 5:00-7:00 PM on weekends and holidays when the no wake rule goes into effect.  Expect to see them on the lake more often. 

I think this is a win/win scenario to get both AIS and lake monitoring.  We’ll see how it works this year and go from there.  Please email us at llianewbrighton@gmail.com with comments or suggestions.

Special thanks to the following for a truly collaborative effort:

1. Our Public Safety Committee of Leon Kline, Caroline Beckman, and Wayne & Debbie Eck who coordinated with New Brighton PD, Ramsey County Sheriff’s Office, and the Ramsey County AIS program to resolve this situation
2. Our Water Quality Committee of Rich Kusick and Jason Scott who informed us of this AIS program
3. Justin Townsend who runs the AIS program at the County who helped find a creative and affordable solution for us
4. Stephanie Johnson who runs a company called Water Guards which the County subcontracts for AIS monitoring services

Be safe and enjoy!

Some of you may have seen the news release last week from the MN DNR titled Zebra mussel confirmed in Long Lake, Ramsey County

Only one Zebra mussel was found and additional diving will be done over the coming weeks, but we ask homeowners to keep an eye out while removing docks & lifts and please email us if you see anything. 

We'll keep you posted as we learn more

Many hands make light work as we had a great turnout for our annual Clean Up Day.  Our prolific team of garbage hunters were able to scavenge up a lot of refuse to keep the shores of our lake clean and more enjoyable for all.

We will continue hold this event on the Saturday following Labor Day.  Watch for us on the front page of The Bulletin in the coming week as well!

Participants: Wayne Eck, Doug Isiminger, the entire Scott family, Tim and Randi LaFleur, Ian Burt, Leon and Kathy Kline, Gail Hain, Caroline Beckman, Margaret Swanson, John Broghammer and sons, Nicolas Kohler, and Paul Schweppe.

The below message is from Justin Townsend, Ramsey County Aquatic Invasive Species Coordinator.  Please keep a lookout for Zebra Mussels on Long Lake so we can act fast ~ It's important to catch these infestations as early as possible.  Email llianewbrighton@gmail.com if you see anything suspicious.  

As some of you may already know Lake McCarrons has been listed by the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) as infested with zebra mussels on Friday 8/22/2019. Ramsey County will be releasing a more formal press release. I wanted to give you some background and future plans in a short email here. As always if you have questions contact me.

A volunteer on a regular search of the lake found the zebra mussels and promptly reported it to the DNR. The DNR confirmed the presence and worked with Ramsey County and Capitol Region Watershed District to search the whole lake. Unfortunately, zebra mussels were found widespread and evenly across the lake. Based on the size and spread the infestation is likely 2 years old, possibly more. The population was far to widespread for a treatment. What I would like to do is monitor the population levels so we can better understand the patterns of infestation. I am also going to reach out to the University of Minnesota’s Genomics lab to see if we can see where these zebra mussels are from. All of this will take time. As information is given to me I will pass it along to the wider group.

You can find the DNR press release here http://news.dnr.state.mn.us/2019/08/22/zebra-mussels-confirmed-in-mccarron-lake-in-ramsey-county/. I echo their prevention language and would add that this once again reinforces the obligation we all have to protect these beautiful resources. Clean, Drain, Dispose and do not sell or purchase docks, lifts, etcetera unless it has been dry for 21 days.

Per the Public Notice: 2019 Milfoil Treatment, LRI will be on Long Lake the week of July 22nd to perform the weed treatment.

We've been informed by LRI that it is too late to obtain permits for individual treatments, so we'll need to get a jump on that for next year.  This year's high water pushed the delineation mapping and overall schedule out a few weeks.