By Jeff Forester, Executive Director of Minnesota Lakes and Rivers Lake and river associations and their members are the unsung heroes of water resource protection in the Land of 10,000 Lakes. Lake association volunteers statewide spend over 1.2 million hours working at boat ramps as Aquatic Invasive Species, AIS ambassadors and inspectors, monitoring water quality,… Read more »
by Tom Hubbnard, President, Big Pine Lake Property Owners Association After several years of working with Jeff Forester at MLR, and seeing the amazing work his group has undertaken, the Big Pine Lake Property Owners Association (BPLPOA) board decided to modestly increase their annual contribution level and buy a membership for 100 of our members.… Read more »
Lake advocates working with resorts to prevent starry stonewort spread. An important aspect of dealing with aquatic invasive species is monitoring their prevalence or absence in as many lakes and streams as possible. In the summer of 2022 two volunteers and the Cass County AIS technician took on that task: sampling nearly 40 resort harbors… Read more »
by John James, former Commissioner of MN Department of Revenue A concern has arisen about whether joining and contributing to Minnesota Lakes and Rivers Advocates would put a lake association which is a tax exempt charitable organization under Internal Revenue Code Section 501(c)(3) at risk of losing its tax exemption because MLR engages in lobbying.… Read more »
Guest Blog By Michael Blehert, Big Marine Lake It’s your choice. You can break your back and/or your wallet to have rip rock, sea walls and other barriers installed on your eroding shoreline or choose an alternative. I chose the latter. I own 100 feet of lakeshore on Big Marine Lake in NE Washington… Read more »
As we move through the 3rd summer of the Lake Stewardship program we want to acknowledge the work that has been done and celebrate the progress that has been made. We now have a total of 23 Lake Associations that have adopted the program through MLR, with two more joining just this week. Each Lake… Read more »
Early Detection of Aquatic Invasive Species Provides Profound Results and Good Return on Investment Washburn Lake Eradicates Eurasian Watermilfoil (mostly) In about 2007, I received a call from Ted Johnson, the President of the Lake Washburn Association, LWA about Aquatic Invasive Species. Ted was concerned that Lake Washburn was susceptible to AIS following the construction… Read more »
Building Civic Capacity: How Minnesota Lakes and Rivers Advocates Are Mobilizing Lake Associations for Public Policy and Environmental Action”MLR, Key Lake Association Leaders and Political Allies working to build “civic infrastructure” to protect our lakes and rivers. During the 2022 election cycle, for the first time, Minnesota Lakes and Rivers applied the Civic Organizing framework… Read more »
The best plants to protect your shore – A Case Study By Jeff Forester On June 19, 2012 it began to rain in northern Minnesota. It poured actually. Over ten inches fell on ground that was already saturated from rainfalls the week before. The damage was incredible, with over 250 families displaced, zoo animals drowned,… Read more »
By Jeff Forester, Executive Director, Minnesota Lakes and Rivers Advocates Last year the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, MPCA released a list of impaired waters; 56% of Minnesota’s surface waters are impaired to the point that the water quality limits fishing and swimming. There was a silver lining in this dark cloud, however, North Center andRead More