Dear Friends of the Lake,

The Forest Lake wrestling team is trying to raise money to support their sport  by taking out docks and lifts. We are sending this information to our membership as a public service to the School and also because our members may be interested in the service they offer. Please review the information below and contact the wrestling team if you are interested.

FLLA Board of Directors

Forest Lake Wrestling Dock Project

Need help taking your dock out of the lake for winter storage?
Do you like to give back to the community?

The Forest Lake High School Wrestling Team would like to partner up with you.  The wrestlers have been taking docks out of Forest Lake for the last several years for only a few residents .  We are now offering our services to the public to help raise funds for the wrestling program.  All dollars go directly to the wrestling program!

Dock Project Info:

Date:  Saturday, October 9th - All day - One day only!!!

Cost:  Negotiable, however a donation of $100 is suggested.  We do request a larger donation for docks over 100', boat lifts and docks that are labor intensive or difficult to remove.  Again, donations are negotiable. We want to be flexible.

Sign-up:  First come, first served!  Depending on demand, we may limit the amount of docks to be removed.  Please be sure to call or e-mail ASAP.

Contact:  Billy Pierce, FL Head Wrestling Coach, e-mail: wpierce@forestlake.k12.mn.us or call: 651-491-9995

Appointment Times:  By the end of next week, you will be contacted and given a 3 hour time slot for your dock removal appointment (e.g. 9:00am-12:00pm).

Tools:  We will bring tools.  However, you will need to provide any special tools that are required for your dock removal.

Misc. Info.:  The Forest Lake Wrestling team will break up into 4 teams of 8-12 wrestlers, coaches and parents covering Clear Lake, Forest Lake and Martin Lake.  The teams will start at House A and go to the next closest house down the shoreline.  Time slots will be based on the house we start at and the difficulty of the dock removal.  Please keep in mind that this is our first year of offering this service. 

If you have any questions, please contact Billy Pierce at 651-491-9995 orwpierce@forestlake.k12.mn.us.

Thank you for your time and consideration!

Billy Pierce
Forest Lake Area High school
Special Education Teacher
Head Wrestling Coach
(o)651-982-8422 ext. #2
(c)651-491-9995

FLLA September Update

Dear Friends of the Lake,

This has not been a good summer for the lake when you consider weeds floating to shore, water clarity and algae blooms. We have done some checking and want to share with you what we have discovered. The information will be presented in three segments:

1. Curly Leaf Pondweed  which is an invasive species and can be a problem in late June/early July.
               
2. Late July/August weeds floating to shore.

3. Algae blooms and poor water clarity.


Curly Leaf Pondweed (CLP)

In Forest Lake Curly Leaf Pondweed (CLP) is the most common weed . It is also an invasive species. This means if left uncontrolled it will spread and dominate other native weed species of which there are 23 in Forest Lake.

CLP grows extremely fast to form a dense mat like structure at the surface which blocks light and chokes out other native aquatic weed species. The dense weed structure also interferes with recreational use of that area by swimmers, water skiers , tubing, personal watercraft and even sail boating. In late June/early July CLP dies and floats to shore clogging shorelines. As it decays, it releases phosphorus which with warm water temperatures  stimulates algae blooms and reduces water clarity.

A top priority for the FLLA is to control and reduce CLP in Forest Lake. Working with the city, the DNR and the Watershed District, 155 acres of CLP weed beds were treated in early May before aggressive growth started. 63 acres were treated on Lake 3, 37 acres on Lake 2, and 55 acres on Lake 1. The weed beds treated were “dominant CLP” which means they were 75% plus CLP. Thus, tons of CLP were eliminated from dying in late June/early July and floating to shore.  Other CLP beds remain and these beds probably produced  dying, floating  weeds that could be a nuisance depending upon where you live on the lake and the wind direction. These remaining beds will be treated as we gain control of the initial beds treated( 1-3 years). So over time we will be able to control CLP.

The floating weeds we all experienced in late July, August and into September were not Curly Leaf Pondweed. The late summer floating weeds will be discussed next.

Late July/ August /September Floating Weeds

In order to better understand the late season floating weeds issue, we contacted Lake Management Inc.  Lake Management has been treating weeds on Forest Lake for many years and is very familiar with the lake. They indicated that Coontail and Canada Waterweed (Elodea) are two common  weeds on Forest Lake that have no or very weak root structures and will break away and float with  boat traffic or heavy  winds. This past summer we have had a large number of severe storms and a lot of days with heavy and constant winds. Lake Management feels that  these storms and winds  caused the high incidence of floating weeds.

Algae Blooms and Low Water Clarity

This past summer we have had a lot of algae blooms. It varied by lake but Lake 1 was probably the worst. As a result water clarity was very low. Algae blooms require warm water and a source of phosphorus. The source of phosphorus from dying Curly Leaf Pondweed was significantly reduced because of the 155 acre treatment program. It was the opinion of the Watershed District that the heavy rains, especially following two drought years, probably washed a significant amount of nutrients into the lake. The nutrients when combined with the above average water temperatures probably instigated the severe algae blooms we experienced. In addition the WSD indicated that high winds like we experienced can stir up phosphorus from the lake bottom of shallow lakes similar to Lake 1. If you recall, the previous two summers were very dry with few heavy storms and very little run off into the lake. Last year (2009 summer) was one of the best years for water clarity without  mid to late season  floating weed issues.

This coming year we plan to consult and work with the Watershed District to better understand our algae and water clarity issues to see what options are available to reduce algae blooms and improve water clarity. Bald Eagle lake in White Bear had an algae and water clarity issue  which they addressed with the WSD’s help and reportedly have made progress in reducing phosphorus inflow .


This is all the information we have at this time. We hope that this Newsletter begins to shed some light on what happened this summer to our lake.


The FLLA Board Members
Steve Schmaltz, President