Weed Harvester Operation 2019

Dear Friends of the Lake;

We have had several inquiries about the weed harvester. The weed harvester started cutting on Tuesday July 9th. It is being operated and maintained by the City of Forest Lake with the FLLA paying for the operation of the harvester. The city is responsible for the maintenance and repair. The FLLA is paying the city to run the harvester 3-4 days a week depending on weather and other schedule issues. We have found this to be efficient and cost effective.

This year we have all seen an unusually heavy native vegetation growth early in the year and in some cases there are some species of native vegetation that we have never seen before. Some of us this year have been struggling also with the heavy growth of Curly Pond Weed which is classified as AIS. Fortunately the Curly Pond weed is finally beginning to die back.

The FLLA is required to have a DNR permit for the harvester which only allows cutting of native vegetation in designated areas around the lake. Generally we can only cut in navigation channels and those areas that have had heavy documented weed growth for several years. The weed harvester cannot cut native vegetation not in the designated areas according to the DNR permit.

More importantly, the weed harvester cannot cut in areas where there is any AIS, and therefore we are only cutting native vegetation.

Not cutting AIS is one of the critical aspects that that must be strictly adhered to in order to not spread AIS. The weed harvester will continue operating into August and hopefully will help many of you.

The FLLA Board of Directors approved spending up to $5,000.00 in 2019 for the running of the harvester. These monies are coming from the lake association dues that you pay. We are spending this money not because we have to but because we are trying to maintain the recreational value of Forest Lake.

Many of your neighbors who are NOT members of the FLLA are benefiting from the harvester. Please ask them to join the FLLA to help pay for this effort. Our membership dues of $50.00 is a small token to pay a year for this service.

If you have any questions regarding this please contact me.

Forest Lake Board of Directors

Jerry Grundtner, President