Update: SAFL Phase Three Wake Study (and other AIS research on Minnetonka)
Longtime MLR member, partner, champion Gabriel Jabbour is a Lake Guardian. His efforts at protecting our resources are so focused and productive that he has printed cards with Lake Guardian printed on them. He handed me one recently, saying, “If you tell people you’re a businessman, they sometimes think you are only working for profit,” so he felt the need to have a card that provided a different frame. In reality, Gabe, who owns and operates many businesses, including the Minnetonka Marine with his daughter Gigi, the only woman in Minnesota certified as a Marina Manager, knows that protecting our resources is good for business in Minnesota. If Minnesota hopes to not only sustain, but grow our water-based recreation economy, we must protect and restore our waters.
Even if the Lake Guardian organization is a small shop, Gabe and Gigi accomplish more than much larger non-profits. Gabe has been a a Lake Guardian on Lake Minnetonka for 53 years, serving on various boards, committees and even the Mayor of Orono for a time. He has also been an MLR members and supporter for over a decade. Bottom line, Gabe gets things done. At the top of every “to do” list is science.
On a beautiful day in September I visited Gabe’s home on Lake Minnetonka to pick up a few hundred swedish dish towels imprinted with a Clean, Drain Dry message that boaters can use to prevent the spread of spiny water flea. We will make sure these are distributed widely.
As is always the case, Gabe’s home was a beehive of limnological scientific inquiry.
From left to right, Keegan Lund, SePro, Andrew Riesgraf, Saint Anthony Falls Lab, SAFL, Gabriel Jabbour, Lake Guardian, and Jeffrey Marr, Director of SAFL.
There were three different research groups working on three different studies off his shoreline:
- Andrew Riesgraf, with Saint Anthony Falls Lab was testing the use of a drone to document beaver activity and its impacts on ecosystem dynamics.
- Keegan Lund, with SePro and Angelique Dahlberg, MN DNR research coordinator, were installing barrels into the lake to test different zebra mussel veliger treatments.
- Jeff Marr, Director of the Saint Anthony Falls Lab, SAFL, had installed an instrument boom offshore and video camera to record the energy, height and dynamics of both wind driven waves and various boat wakes. The instrument boom and video record continuously. The camera also records the distance from shore a boat is when it makes a pass. It was a fascinating bit of work.
Keegan Lund and MN DNR’s barrels are open at both the top and the bottom to better replicate actual lake conditions. But there was a problem. After trying a number of different approaches to securing the barrels in place, the large wakes generated by wake surfing boats on Minnetonka were washing the barrels away.
The SAFL recording system – instrument boom and shoreland video camera,
record a wake surfing boat passing on Lake Minnetonka.
Gabe had a solution. Gabe often has a solution.
We loaded the barrels into Gabe’s trailer. I hopped into Gabe’s truck, having to clear a number of tools, paperwork, and other detritus of his busy and productive life. We drove the barrels over to his Minnetonka Marina. There, protected from wake action by the piers and boats out in the water, Keegan and Angelique were able to install the barrels at the correct depth. Local knowledge of the lake and local resources are key ingredients local citizen scientists and Lake Guardians can provide to a project with national impact.
The barrels installed at the new site at the Minnetonka Marina.
This is just one day in the life of Minnesota’s Lake Guardian.
Gabe and I first met on the Statewide AIS Advisory Board. He funded and provided material support for key research into the survival rate of zebra mussels and veligers in the residual water of different types of watercraft. He worked closely with the Minnesota Aquatic Invasive Species Research Center, MAISRC since their initial organization and early work, a relationship that continues to this day. Gabe, as a marina owner and a boat builder was a key partner in advancing legislation to require a boaters education and certification program in Minnesota. He was also instrumental in advancing the three phases of the SAFL wake study; 1) wake dynamics, 2) prop thrust impacts on lake sediments, 3) ecological impacts of wakes versus wind driven waves on shoreline.
Gabe has provided access to Lake Minnetonka, lined up boats and other water related equipment for studies, funded the work from his own pocket, and provided important political skills needed to navigate the process and build coalitions. In short, Gabe gets things done. Lake Guardian is not a marketing hook, it is an accurate description of an well-lived role. Gabriel Jabbour is a Lake Guardian and a critical partner and supporter of Minnesota Lakes and Rivers, MLR.