Curlyleaf Pondweed Fund Drive

by John Szafranski, Fundraising Committee chair

We ended 2009 on a very positive note as all but 9 owners responded promptly to our reminders that second installments of pledges were due.  Several even sent in their donations for 2010!  Thank you all for your prompt and generous responses!

As we move into our third and final year of this very successful fund drive to control curlyleaf pondweed, we continue to make excellent progress, with pledges and  donations exceeding original goals.  The current drive results as of January 15, 2010 are shown below.

Cash donations received to date: $83,773 

    (112 % of our goal of $75,000)

 Number of owners/members pledging or 

    making one time donations:  195

      (68% of lakeshore owners)

Pledges made but yet to be collected:  $17,080  

    (from 65 owners)

 Our fund drive focus for 2010 will be on these tasks:

 Collecting remaining pledge installments:  Sixty-five (65) owners have their final pledge payments due in 2010.  We will be sending out reminder notices with our annual dues statements and following up throughout the year.

2.  Submitting applications for MNDNR grants:.  As we go to press, Carol Lindahl has submitted grant requests to the MN DNR to fund treatment of CLP on our lakes.  In addition, we have applied for a grant from the DNR to cover additional signage at all boat launching areas on our lakes to remind boaters to prevent “aquatic hitchhikers” moving between the lakes.  The DNR will make decisions in February about which grant applications to fund. 

3.  Documenting our fund drive process: It’s quite certain today that control of curlyleaf pondweed (or other invasives) will require continuing treatments and thus expense. We will document the fund drive process/methods we have used so that future CLA board members can more easily initiate another successful fund drive when it becomes necessary. 

4.  Providing donor recognition:  We will again publish the donor list in a newsletter and display the list at the August CLA annual meeting.  Donors will be listed (by level) showing their actual cash donations up to August 1, 2010---unless they have chosen to remain anonymous.

While we have clearly exceeded our initial fund drive goal, we encourage all those who have not yet made donations, to please do so and place your name among the vast majority of the lakeshore owners who have shown their support for maintaining healthy Cullen Lakes. 

For those who still owe pledge installments, we encourage you to please submit them promptly. Doing so will allow the CLA to retain its budgeted $15,000 of pre-existing special project funds for ongoing control of curlyleaf pondweed and/or other invasive species. While the fund drive is focused on just three years of treatment (2009 through 2011), it is very clear that the need to control CLP will continue far beyond year 2011.

2010 Annual Meeting

Save the date:

Saturday, August 14, 2010 at 4:30 p.m.

Nisswa American Legion

 

Protecting Your Waterfront Investment

10 Simple Shoreland Stewardship Practices

adapted from a publication of the Wisconsin DNR and the University of Wisconsin Extension Service

Editor’s note:  This was printed in the fall, 2005 newsletter, but it merits a reprinting.

The quality of our lakes and streams is ultimately a reflection of how we take care of our land.  These ten simple steps will help protect your property investment.

Simple Step #1:  Choose zero-phosphorus fertilizer.  Minnesota has prohibited the use of phosphorus fertilizer, especially around lakes and streams, except under very specific circumstances.  Remember, it’s phosphorus that accelerates plant and algae growth in our lakes and rivers.

Simple Step #2:  Properly dispose of household hazardous wastes.  Do not pour old oil or pesticides onto the ground .  Where do these and other pollutants end up?  In our groundwater, lakes and streams.  If you wouldn’t drink it, don’t dump it!  Even better, minimize your use of toxic products.  

Simple Step #3:  Minimize erosion.  Leave your natural shoreline intact.  If it has already been disturbed, restore it to its natural state.  Trees, native grasses, and forbs have very deep roots that can hold soil in place and maximize the soil’s ability to absorb precipitation.   

Simple Step #4:  Inspect and maintain your septic system regularly.  Just like for you car, maintenance, inspection, and service are required for septic systems in order to prevent premature failure.  

*Have your septic system pumped and inspected at least once every three years.  

*Divert surface water away from the drainfield.  

*Avoid driving or parking on the drainfield to prevent compaction of the soil.  

*Keep the roots of trees and shrubs away from the drain field pipes to avoid obstructed drain lines.  

*Avoid putting any of the following materials down the drain or toilet, because they may clog the drain field:  cooking grease, oils, coffee grounds, cigarettes, facial tissues, paper towels, sanitary napkin, tampons, or disposable diapers.  

*Avoid using a garbage disposal.  Compost your vegetable scraps instead.  

*Conserve water.  Use low-flow toilets, faucets and showerheads and spread your clothes washing out over the week to reduce the volume of water the system must filter and absorb.  

Simple Step #5:  Reduce the hard surfaces, like rooftops, sidewalks, and driveways, on your property.  When considering additions, decide whether the extra space is really needed.  Perhaps you could build up instead of out.  Also consider runoff from decks, sidewalks and parking areas.  Gravel areas quickly become compacted and are nearly as impervious as paved surfaces.

Simple Step #6:  Plant trees and shrubs and protect your wooded areas.  Wooded areas develop a thick understory of small shrubs and plants and a duff layer.  This duff protects soil from rain impact and absorbs water.  Root systems keep the duff in place, not in the lake.  Lawns absorb little rainfall, thus creating more runoff that can reach the lake.  Allowing water to soak in rather that run off your property filters out pollutants and replenishes our groundwater.

Simple Step #7:  Direct downspouts onto your lawn or landscaping, not onto hard surfaces and definitely not into the lake.

Simple Step #8:  Install a rain barrel.  Collect water from your rooftop to water your house and garden plants.  The barrel should be covered by a screen to keep out silt, leaves, and insects.

Simple Step #9:  Build a rain garden.  How does a rain garden work?  Rain gardens are just what they sound like -- areas that soak up rain water during wet times and serve as a beautiful garden all the time.  They are landscaped areas planted to wildflowers and other native vegetation to replace areas of lawn.  The gardens fill with a few inches of water and allow the water to slowly filter into the ground.    In addition to the benefits they provide to our water supply, rain gardens also provide wildlife habitat for birds, butterflies, and dragonflies and are an aesthetically pleasing addition to any property.

Simple Step #10:  Protect or restore your shoreland buffer.  

*If you have native vegetation along your shoreline, consider yourself and the local wildlife fortunate.  

*If you  have lawn to the water’s edge, a simple, no-cost way to get started in restoring your shoreland is to stop mowing next to the water.  Seeds in the soil will germinate and valuable native plants will begin to reappear.  

*If you have lawn to the water’s edge and would like to play a more active role in restoring your shoreland, you can replant native trees, shrubs, grasses, and wildflowers to attract songbirds and butterflies.

 
Currents On the Cullens

New owners:  Eileen Gallagher (L19 co-owner), Greg & Debbie Dahlheimer (L51), Vince & Brenda Zachman (L53), Monica Granrud & Angela Mike (M73)

Deaths:  Ed Rehwaldt (U40)

 
Note To CLA Members

For those of you who receive the newsletter via U.S. mail, included in this newsletter should be your 2010 update of the map/guide of the Cullen Lakes.  If yours is missing, please contact Ann Beaver (phone and email on the last page) to receive a copy.  Those of you who receive the newsletter electronically will receive the map/guide in a separate mailing.  Non CLA members do not receive this map/guide. 

 

CLA Needs Your Help

If you sell your lake property or pass it on to your children, please let CLA  know who the new owners are.  Also, if a new neighbor moves in near you, introduce yourself and learn your neighbor’s name.  We would appreciate it if you would pass this information on to CLA.  

We send new owners a welcome letter in which we extend to them a year’s complimentary membership in the lake association, a new owner’s packet, the most recent newsletter, and we need to add them to our mailing list.  Sometimes we don’t learn of new owners for quite a while, thus we would really appreciate your assistance.  Thanks!

 

Cullen Lakes Water Quality Report -- 2009

by Ann Beaver, Water Quality Committee chair

 As most of you know, the CLA Water Quality Committee takes water samples and a Secchi disk reading once a month, May through September, to track the overall water quality of the Cullen lakes.  This is done in the same location on each lake -- the deepest part -- every year.  

The use of a Secchi disk allows us to measure water clarity.  The white metal disk is lowered into the water on the shaded side of the boat.  The rope it is attached to is marked in feet.  The water clarity is determined by the depth at which the observer can still see the disk.  The chart below shows and compares the 2009 water clarity of the three lakes.  With the exception of Upper Cullen in September, the lakes are within or better than the typical water clarity range of lakes in our ecoregion (the northern lakes and forest region of north central and northeastern Minnesota).

The water samples taken by committee members are analyzed by a certified laboratory in Brainerd for total phosphorus and chlorophyll a.  Phosphorus is the nutrient that is primarily responsible for excessive growth of aquatic vegetation.  It enters the lakes from rainfall, run off from shorelands (soil in this area is naturally high in phosphorus), and from dying aquatic vegetation.  (Vegetation absorbs phosphorus from the water during the growing season and releases it again when it dies.)  Chlorophyll a is directly related to algal blooms.  The greater the concentration of chlorophyll a, the greater the severity of algal blooms.  Mild algal blooms occur when chlorophyll a concentrations are 10-20 ug/L (parts per billion), while concentrations greater than 20 ug/L are often considered nuisance algal blooms.  

Compared to the norms for our  ecoregion,all three Cullen Lakes were within or better than the expected range. 

 As I have said in previous years, there are so many variables involved in the chemistry of a lake from year to year that what is important is to watch for trends.  We have not, as yet, detected any trends, good or bad. 

The overall health of the lakes is measured by the Carlson trophic status index.  Oligotrophic and mesotrophic are the ranges in which we want to try to keep the lakes.  However, because of the extent of development on their shorelines, the lakes will rarely be oligotrophic.  Mesotrophic is the best we can hope for.  Mesotrophic lakes have temporary algae and aquatic plant problems, but are generally healthy lakes.  In 2009, all three lakes fell into the mesotrophic range.

 
Membership

by Charlie Boudrye, Membership Committee chair

Membership summary for 2009:

We closed the year 2009 with 215 of 276 property owners who are members, or 78%.  This is one of the highest percentages among the local lake associations.  In addition, we have 20 associate members and three complimentary members.  There were 15 family members, not included in the above total, who made donations to the curlyleaf pondweed fund drive.

As background information, here are the membership categories, as found in the CLA by-laws:

Members own property on the lakeshore.  Some lakeshore properties have multiple owners, but not all are members.

Associate Members pay regular dues, have voting rights, and may serve on the CLA board of directors.  They do not own property on the Cullen Lakes, but instead are: 

family members of current lakeshore property owners,

previous owners of lakeshore property, or 

owners of property within the Cullen Lakes watershed. 

Complimentary Members are new owners of lakeshore property who receive up to one year’s membership free.

We encourage all co-owners of a single property to join the lake association.  Membership gives them a separate vote in CLA affairs and ensures they receive their own newsletter and all other mailings (such as the up-coming property owners’ survey, which is conducted once every five years). 

 

Chemical Treatment of Curlyleaf Pondweed  in 2010

Shortly after ice out on all three Cullen Lakes, the locations of potential nuisance curlyleaf pondweed (CLP) infestations will be surveyed and mapped by PLM Lake and Land Management Corp. and/or the DNR (who  does the surveying depends on whether or not we receive DNR grants for any of the lakes).  Once the treatment maps are finalized, PLM will be out on the lakes, under DNR supervision, spraying Aquathol K beneath the water’s surface onto the CLP patches that have begun to grow during the winter and also onto dormant turions (CLP “seeds”) on the lake bottom.   

This is the second year of chemical treatment of CLP in the Cullen chain.  The 2009 treatment of Lower Cullen was very successful.  However, for whatever reason, treatment was not as successful in Middle and Upper Cullen.  Special attention will be paid to these two lakes this spring in an effort to achieve better control of nuisance areas of CLP.   

Board members Maguire, Opsahl, and Szafranski mapped CLP locations last June and, with other CLA board members, met with the DNR to compare their GPS coordinates with those obtained by the DNR, which did follow-up surveys last June and July.  Having done this mid season mapping in 2009 will result in much more accurate and thorough treatment of problem areas in 2010.        

 
“Chicken of the Woods”

article and photo (in printed version)  by John Szafranski

Some of our readers from around the lakes may have seen this very colorful and edible fungus (mushroom) called “chicken of the woods”.  I have seen clumps on several properties, including my own in 2006 and on another in 2009.

“Chicken of the woods”, scientific name “Laetiporus sulphureus”, grows in compound clusters or rosettes on both living and dead deciduous tree trunks during the summer and fall. It’s rarely seen in spring or winter.  The ones I have observed were growing on oak trees, although a variety (not as edible) also grows on conifers.  It is one of the largest and most colorful fungi, with suede like bright sulphur yellow to orange lobes that eventually fade to a dull yellow and then to white with age.  It can reappear on the same tree for several years or may just be present for one year, depending on the health of the tree and weather conditions.

It is considered a choice edible fungus as the young “Chicken of the Woods” is succulent, with a mild flavor described generally as similar to white chicken meat.  A good growth can yield as much as 50 pounds of edible flesh, but avoid the older fungi, as they toughen and develop a somewhat sour flavor.  Be wary of “Chickens” growing on conifers (pines) as they can cause digestive upset.

“Chicken of the woods” is found throughout northern USA and Canada, as well as in deciduous wooded areas of Europe.  It has been known as an edible species for centuries, with references to it made as early as the 1500s---both as an edible fungus and as one known to damage the wooden ships of the British Naval fleet.

“Chicken of the woods”, based on its texture, mild taste, and lack of toxins, is a good entry-level mushroom for those who may fear eating wild mushrooms. It indeed can make a fine chicken substitute as long as you fully cook the mushroom.  For those of you who may find a cluster of this mushroom and would like to cook with it, here is a good recipe for “Polypore Omelet” from Wild Mushroom Cookery (1987), published by the Oregon Mycological Society.

Polypore Omelet

3 Tablespoons butter

1 cup cooked and diced Chicken of the Woods mushroom

¼ cup shredded Monterrey Jack or cream cheese

2 or 3 medium sized shallots, diced

1 Tablespoon chopped fresh parsley

5 large eggs

½ cup heavy cream or half & half

Salt & pepper to taste

Melt the butter in a heavy frying pan over low heat

Beat the eggs and cream together, add salt and pepper to taste, pour into the pan.

As the eggs start to cook (low heat), sprinkle the Chicken of the woods, cheese, shallots and parsley over the top.

Cook for 1 to 2 minutes more until the egg mixture sets.

Fold the omelet over and remove from the heat.

Cover and let sit for 1 to 2 minutes before serving

 

Reflections From a Beaver Lodge

by Ann Beaver

 Three years ago my husband, Tom, wrote an article for the winter newsletter about “the road nobody wanted,” an old DNR lumber road that leads from Wilderness Road on the west to Cullen Woods Trail, a private road, on the east.  There are also several trails that branch off the DNR road and a Crow Wing County lumber road.  In 2003, the DNR gated their road on both ends to stop people from using it as a dumping ground and to protect the private road to its east.  

Since that time, Tom got himself named a DNR volunteer and received permission from both the DNR and the County to maintain walking and ski/snowshoe trails in this area.  The City of Pequot Lakes graded a parking area at the entrance to the trails (on the west end) and plows it and the short road leading to it during the winter.  The trails have become a favorite among area residents and lake property owners for both hiking and cross country skiing.

For cross country skiing, the trail begins with a .4 mile curving single tracked trail with gentle ups and downs.  It wends its way through a mixed deciduous and evergreen forest, passing a large, beautiful wetland en route.  This longest stretch of trail leads to the Crow Wing County Upper Cullen Memorial Forest.  There it branches off to the  left   in   a   half  mile  single  tracked  loop through the memorial forest (the CWC Loop) and to the right to continue along the DNR road to a .26 mile loop (the State Loop).  The State Loop has steeper hills, and the part of the loop not on the road should be skied with caution.  Of course, you can just ski up the road trail and back down it -- that’s what Tom and I do and it’s a lot of fun (especially the down!).    From the farthermost point of the CWC Loop, the brave of heart can forge their own short trails to two separate wetland areas.  

All of the trails can also be enjoyed on showshoes.  Tom packs a snowshoe trail alongside the single tracked ski trails, except for the State Loop and the non groomed short trails to the wetlands (the Beaver Pond and the Duck Pond Trails). These are easily walked on snowshoes, however.  Dogs are welcome on all the trails, but skiers appreciate it if they are kept to the side of the ski tracks.         

The trails also provide good hiking opportunities in spring, summer, and fall, but you will want to be aware of open hunting seasons (dress accordingly) and you will want to take precautions against bringing deer ticks home with you.  The Beaver Pond and Duck Pond Trails, although brushed at least once a year, do not provide brush-free walking and are prime deer tick habitat.  If you stay on the “road nobody wanted,” you won’t pick up many ticks.  Nevertheless, you should wear light colored clothing, tuck your pants legs into your socks, use a good insect/tick repellent, and give yourself a good  head to toe inspection for ticks when you get home.   And, if you take your dog along for the walk, a thorough canine tick inspection is mandatory.  I have yet to meet a dog that doesn’t come home with the tiny critters.   

I hope you take advantage of this trail system sometime.  It’s convenient, beautiful, and a great place to get some exercise while enjoying the beauty and serenity of nature.

Maybe I’ll see you on the ski trails this winter!