River & lake Restoration

Little Rock Lake  is a impeded lake created by a dam in Sartell, MN over 100 years ago.  For 100 years the lake has been accumulating nitrogen and pestisides from the 100,000 acres of farm land which the three tributaries feeding it flow through.  At times green and blue algae is in and on the water, and this water flows into the Mississippi River for all the communities below to drink, eventually adding to the dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico.

What we are doing is dropping the hydro-electric dam in Sartell (by 3 feet) for 6 weeks to allow the seed beds from the last hundred years to sprout and grow, bonding the soil and using the nitrogen.  When the dam is dropped, it will create 500 acres of exposed land which is hyper-fertilized.  The intent is to have those plants use the nitrogen, and the exposure to air chemically change what is left behind.  

While the water is down shoreland restorations on the river and the lake and the channel will be done.  Plantings of native species, shore reconstructions, garbage collections, hazard removals . . . cleaning shore and establishing natural filters.  It's a very large project, and we'll need to feed the volunteers, pay for signs, purchase thousands of plantings, hire dumpsters for garbage and work and carp removal.  

If you look at the pictures of the lake below, at the scum on the dog and the blue fungus floating on the water, ask yourself this: should a lake with three rivers flowing in to it, which then flows out to the Mississippi, really look this way?  Should a lake in Minnesota headwaters, which feeds drinking water to cities all the way to the Gulf of Mexico, be brown, green, and blue?

The Lake Association  has to come up with their share of the $250,000 project ($50,000) before it can progress.  This is my attempt to help them.  Please help by donating what you can afford.  The MN DNR has resources available on line if you wish to research the process more.