Square Lake Water Steward Program: 2024 Update
Square Lake Association, in collaboration with Minnesota Lakes and Rivers Advocates, are advancing two Protect & Preserve initiatives in 2024 for the benefit of the Lake, and homeowner’s property values:
Lake Steward to protect and/or restore sensitive shorelines.
Stop Starry to help prevent the spread of Aquatic Invasive Species.
Why should you care?
Minnesota has lost over half of its natural shorelines, impacting water quality, fisheries and nesting waterfowl, including the loons we all love. To improve water quality, lakeshore owners must continue to proactively monitor their shoreline - and restore it, if shoreline habitat has become degraded.
The Carnelian-Marine-St. Croix Watershed District completed a lakeshore evaluation of their top 10 priority lakes in 2023. Square Lake has 2.4 miles of shoreline - and has unexpectedly received a score of “LOW” on the health of its lakeshore.
According to Mike Isensee, Administrator, Carnelian Marine St. Croix Watershed District,
“Square Lake’s shoreline is very low on downed woody materials and loafing logs: incredibly important habitat for fish, amphibians (turtles and frogs), invertebrates. The attached report is a summary of our shoreline health survey work on Square Lake in 2023: [Square Lake Lakeshore Monitoring Results – 2023].
The data indicates we need 26 landowners on the lake to have downed woody material or loafing logs on their property shoreline to bring this habitat back to healthy levels on the lake. What this means for landowners is if they have dying ash trees can be fell partially in the water without impacting their access and use, it can help restore a critical habitat that has been steadily declining on the lake.
Adding woody materials to the lake does require an MDNR permit, but we are happy to provide free technical assistance to identify good candidate trees (with the landowner), permitting with Minnesota DNR, and securing the tree after it is cut (for those that are mostly in the water so they do not float away). Additionally, it is worth noting that dead standing trees that are not a hazard to structures is also great bird habitat - so leaving some standing dead trees (when they are not a hazard) is okay too.”
What’s Lake Steward?
Our Square Lake Steward Program presents shoreline management strategies that can catch and filter 90% of the pollution that can run off your property and into the lake. A lake's water quality is primarily dependent upon what happens on the land surrounding the lake. Natural shorelands are the last barrier to runoff pollution and the best strategy for shoreline stabilization.
To date, over 30 lake associations and hundreds of owners have participated in Lake Steward, in collaboration with Minnesota Lakes & River Advocates. Over 8 miles of shoreline has been protected or restored. With your help, we will continue to expand Lake Steward on Square Lake, preventing phosphorus and other chemical loading, and preventing algae from growing in our water.
Stormwater management, buffer zones, aquatic zone protection and rain garden implementation are just a few ways to protect water quality by reducing runoff and increasing natural habitat.
Lynn Mecum is the Lake Steward Program volunteer for Square Lake. Lynn will be available this spring to conduct short 30 to 45-minute site visits which include a simple 10 question survey. The survey helps shoreline owners compares their property management activities to best practices for water quality. Lynn will offer a series of practical, easy-to-implement suggestions for improving lake quality.
During the site visit, participants are given a 32-page MLR Shoreline Guide to Lake Stewardship. Lake Steward signs are available to homeowners whenever they meet the MLR criteria. We have already completed multiple site visits, and all participants found the site evaluation to be very beneficial in helping to protect Square Lake.
What’s Stop Starry?
Stop Starry helps prevent the spread of Aquatic Invasive Species (AIS) by installing boat cleaning equipment at the highest risk accesses in Minnesota, including Square Lake.
Starry stonewort is now considered the most destructive AIS in Minnesota, but is contained in only 23 lakes. By providing the equipment, and implementing a strategic civic organizing effort at the local level, the MLR Stop Starry program lowers the risk that starry stonewort will spread to other lakes.
In just two years, thousands of boaters have used this equipment to Clean, Drain and Dry their watercraft before launching, and after leaving an infested lake.
Our Square Lake goal is 100% self-inspection and cleaning before every launch.
Your gift to our Association’s Square Lake Conservation Fund will help obtain improved watercraft inspection and cleaning equipment, support data collection and analysis, and improve local education efforts, including one-on-one meetings with interested shoreline owners, and Lake Steward signs to generate increased interest in the program.
For additional information on how you can help, please read Blog Post 51: Shoreline Compliance Advisory Team 2024 Update, and to learn more please contact SLA’s Lynn Mecum at lmecum4@msn.com.