Newsletter: Issue 43
Happy New Year!
Hopefully, your Holiday season was one of good times with family and friends. May the new year bring everyone a more back-to-normal life!
MESSAGE FROM THE BOARD
Inspections:
Some BML lakeshore property owners have felt Eurasian Water Milfoil (EWM) control is not important because they see such heavy native vegetation. Zebra mussels and Starry Stonewort are another story. Prevention of introduction of those invasives is the real reason inspection of watercraft at launch sites is so important. In 2022, the BMLA and the Carnelian Marine St. Croix Watershed District will again be supplying funds to the Washington Conservation District to have additional inspections at BML watercraft launch sites.
MAISRC Showcase Report:
Thanks to Steve Collier of the BMLA Board for attending a video presentation of the Minnesota Aquatic Invasive Species Research Center (MAISRC) 2021 conference. Please note, that as has been mentioned in other newsletters, that work being done by MAISRC is extremely important to all lakeshore property owners and lake users in Minnesota.
Make a donation to MAISRC if you can!
Steve’s summary of this conference is as follows:
MAISRC is doing a lot of statistical research using available data sources to learn more about:
a. What makes EWM grow and thrive? Water temp, clarity, lake usage, depth, are factors. Depth is the strongest indicator of EWM risk but they do not know why.
b. What invasive species infestation does to lake usage and even to property values: This an interesting take for this type of organization in that they are statistically showing that invasive species will diminish property values.
1) 13% Reduction, Horsch and Lewis 2009 study in Vilas County, WI.
2) 19% Reduction, Olda and Tamayo 2014 study in King County WA.
3) 13% Reduction, in Coeur d'Alene, ID in 2016.
4) MAISRC study using Zillow Data showed 4.4% lower in MN and 6.6% lower if you use homes that re-sold more than once during the 1995-2018 data set time period. They used regression analysis
on the entire sample, including all of MN, Metro and otherwise. Property values are higher on popular lakes but the more popular the lake the more it gets EWM and other invasives. They need more data to make this info more granular.
c. Work is being done on how to control or eradicate each type of invasive. MAISRC has an extensive lab. There is a problem in that Northern Water Milfoil and Eurasian are cross pollinating, sort of like COVID, it gets tougher to work with. EWM is in 400+ MN lakes. MAISRC even segregates it by genotype so they can help learn how to manage and/or eradicate the problem types.
d. They have maps that show the traffic patterns of boats between lakes and which lake associations may want to work together because they are cross infecting each other. Big Marine had a lower statistical cross-interaction than other lakes did. For example, White Bear Lake had some strong cross use with other lakes but Big Marine wasn't one of them.
e. They do extensive counting on lake usage and how each lake gets funding. State funding is primarily by the number of parking spaces available at launches. This is a disadvantage to lakes that allow a lot of off lot parking like Big Marine does on the north side.
Bottom line, MAISRC can help and wants to help. For example, they were concerned that property values going down, even 6.6% would financially impact the government's receipts (although they didn't say it that way). If you have $50M of reduction in values on Big Marine at 2% property tax rates it adds up to $1M in lost tax revenues pretty quickly. My conclusion is that this is why some cities/counties are incentivized to help fund invasive species control.
UPCOMING EVENTS
February 12 Saturday 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. - Vintage Snowmobile Event at the Veterans Campground on Big Marine Lake.
March 16 Thursday 7 to 9 p.m. - BMLA Annual Meeting in the Main Hall at the Scandia Community Center. This scheduling is tentative depending on the Covid situation at the time.
Check the BMLA website for updates.
MISSION STATEMENT
The purpose of the Big Marine Lake Association is to educate, inform, and unite BML lakeshore property owners, those with neighborhood private lake access rights, and other concerned parties in an effort to monitor, identify, control, and (if possible) eradicate problematic aquatic invasive species in the waters of the lake.
MEMBERSHIP
Membership donations should be sent to the BMLA – 12636 182nd St. N. Marine, MN 55047. It is time for 2022 donations. Note that payments can be made on the website at bigmarinelakeassociation.org.
Funds are needed for the BMLA’s continuing work on monitoring BML for aquatic invasive species, control and eradication of Eurasian Water milfoil via herbicide treatments, and for inspection of watercraft for aquatic invasive species threats at three BML public launch sites.
BMLA E-MAIL bigmarinelakeassociation@gmail.com
BMLA WEBSITE: bigmarinelakeassociation.org