Why did we did order a survey?

The members of the Clearwater Lake Association have observed a loss in native vegetation in our lakes.   This is very concerning to many, because a healthy lake and a healthy fish population rely on the native vegetation.
Association Members and the Board want to know, "Why are we loosing the GOOD weeds?"  Could our practices be causing this loss.  After all we have been working to contain the Eurasian Milfoil following DNR approved treatments for the last 5 years.   In our efforts to save the lake from an aggressive invasive, could we be hurting it instead?   And if it NOT the milfoil treatment the what is the cause and what can we do?
All the experts assure us that they have not seen Eurasian Milfoil treatment kill off native vegetation.  Every lake is different, and the Eco systems is complex so . . . could be a connection?

So who are the experts we consulted with?
  • Tim Plude - MN DNR Aquatic Invasive Species (AIS) Specialist
  • James Johnson - A certified lake management specialist, Fresh Water Science
  • Dan Larkin - Assistant Professor University of Minnesota specializing in research on AIS.
  • Moriya Rufer - Aquatic Ecologist fro RMB Environmental Laboratories
If there is not a direct connection to the treatment, where do we go from here?   We needed to KNOW more.   The best place to start is to understand our native vegetation that we do have.  We also wanted a baseline that we could re-test to see just what is happening to our lake

What is and How do you do a survey?


After putting out a call for quotes, the Lake Association hired RMB to do the survey.  

They did what is called a Point Intercept Plant Survey.   You can find a description of the methodology here.  Basically, they do a systematic grid of the littoral area of the lake, plot the GIS points for future comparison and then sample and record the plants found at the site.   We chose to do an 80 meter grid.

Comparison of 2018 and 2021

We did an Aquatic plant survey in 2018.  We followed this survey up with the same survey from the same contractor in 2021.
  
The conclusion was that 9 more native species were harvested in 2021 and 7 sites that had no vegetation in 2018 had vegetation in 2021.   This show no native vegetation decline and could even show small improvements.   Our goal with the next survey will be to align the collection dates closer for a better comparison.

See the full surveys on the Reports / Lake Vegetation page.