Lake Washington Improvement Assn.



		Spring '08 Newsletter END OF THE DOCK KimWinter, President My column will be short and sweet this newsletter. First, I want to welcome and thank our two new board members for volunteering to serve on the Lake Washington Board of Directors, Bill Ooley and Ken Klehr. Thank you to outgoing board members, Jim Wendling and Rick Abeln for their years of service. Besides monthly board meetings, many additional hours are spent doing committee work. I want to recognize my board members this newsletter and say THANKS, for all their hard work. If you see them, please also give them a personal thank you. John Fink and Jean Ward do a great job of organizing our spring fling, spring annual meeting and summer barbeque. Cammy Moses does our accounting and keeps our books up to date and is assisted by vice president Dennis Westendorp. He also chairs meetings when I am unable to attend. Jenna O’Brien keeps our membership records, as well as other addresses on the lake, and is assisted by Kay Yoch, Kay heads up the shoreline captain group. (A big thanks goes out to all the shorelines captains as well.) Thanks to the persistent efforts of Bill Craig and Dick Yoch, we were not only able to get a permit to treat milfoil this year, but also a grant to do so. Rick Fernstrom and Steve Ullom make sure our newsletters are done and printed, and keep our email site up to date. Steve is the longest serving board member and keeps notes of our meetings and knows the history of the lake association. Jen Kjell also assists on this communications committee and has been personally writing many thank you notes for milfoil donations. Cammy Moses and Jenna O’Brien have also had additional duties this last few years by spearheading the successful cookbook fundraiser. If you would like to assist a committee or be a shoreline captain, please contact any board member, as we are always looking for additional volunteers. Have a great summer! SOCIAL COMMITTEE John Fink, Jean Ward Up-coming Event POT LUCK --- BAR B Q Dassel Rod & Gun Club SATURDAY, AUGUST 2, 2008 5:00 P.M. Social 6:00 P.M. Dinner 6:45 P.M. Program & Door Prizes Please bring a salad, side dish or dessert to share and your own plates & silverware, Lake Washington Improvement Assn. will have Coffee & Lemonade, Hojies Restaurant is donating Buns & pulled pork. FINANCE / FUND RAISING COMMITTEE Cammy Moses, Dennis Westendorp, Ken Klehr We have 175 paid memberships to date~ Looking back at our paid memberships we had 155 members in July of 2006 and 174 members in July of 2007. Thank you for becoming a member of the Lake Washington Association! We continue to deposit our Exotic Species donations and part of our General Fund into a Money Market account. Our membership dues and cookbook sales are our biggest fund raisers for our Association. The cookbook sales have made over $2500 in just 9 months! We also would welcome any new members or past members who have not yet joined in 2008 to become a part of the Lake Washington Association! Our membership runs from January through December. Our fund raising dollars will be used for future opportunities to improve the quality of our lake. Finally, we want to let everyone know that our monthly Treasurer’s Report which is a part of our Board Minutes is posted on our website each month. Thank you again for your support of the Lake Washington Association! SHORELINE CAPTAINS / MEMBERSHIP COMMITTEE Jenna O’Brien, Kay Yoch Siren Fund: Thank you to everyone who donated to our siren fund and to the Dassel Fire Department who generously maintains our warning siren. A few weeks ago, we were across the lake at a friend’s home for a barbecue with our new boat tied to their dock when the siren suddenly sounded. We had not been paying attention to the TV or radio for inclement weather since it seemed to be a beautiful calm night. Suddenly, the siren sounded and we looked at each other and got the kids and left for home within minutes. As we crossed the lake, we commented that it didn't seem that bad, perhaps we had overreacted....but by the time we got to the middle of the lake, the sky had turned black and the lake had turned green. As we passed another board member and her husband (who had been out fishing) as they hurried to get back to the safety of their lift and canopy, we cheered for our Lake Washington Association and the new siren. By the time we got back to our dock with our two children the white-caps were higher than our dock and the rain was about to come down in sheets. We went to the safest part of our house and waited out the storm. When it was all over we went outside to survey the damage. We were fine, but our neighbor had a tree fall on their house and deck and there were branches everywhere. If not for the new siren, we are sure that our boat would have been totaled tied to our friends dock or worse~ many of us could have been caught off-guard out on the lake. Thank you to everyone that made the siren a reality. The siren helped us and many others that night. Shoreline Captains: We want to thank all our shoreline captains for keeping our members names up to date and letting us know when new people purchase on the lake. Your shoreline captains have information and answers to most of your questions. Call them...their names, areas of the lake that they cover and telephone numbers are listed on our website www.info@lakewashingtonassn.com The captains can also get a directory out to any of the new people on the lake. The directory is full of useful information and, of course, a list of your friends and neighbors on Lake Washington. I'm still in need of two captains. One for Co. Rd 14 and one for 233rd street. It's a great way to meet your neighbors and help the lake association. It probably involves less than 10 hours per year of your time. Volunteering makes the heart happy! EXOTIC SPECIES COMMITTEE REPORT Bill Craig, Bill Ooley, Dick Yoch Another Eurasian water milfoil (EWM) season has started. In spite of good snow cover on the lake last winter and a cold spring, we have abundant EWM this season. On the 20th of March the Lake Association applied to MnDNR for a permit to treat 100 acres of EWM. At the same time, we filed an application for reimbursement of treatment costs to control EWM. On June 10th, Jacquelyn Bacigalupi (MnDNR Habitat Specialist) and Chip Welling (MnDNR Eurasian Water Milfoil Coordinator) inspected the spots that we were planning to treat and did not find enough EWM to make treatment permissible. During the next few days, several persons reported the presence of much more EWM than MnDNR had discovered. On June 20th, we asked MnDNR for a re-inspection. On June 26th Jacquelyn Bacigalupi, Patrick Selter of Professional Lake Management (PLM is the contractor that did our EWM treatment last year and also does our water quality testing) and this entire committee toured the lake again. This trip revealed abundant EWM and resulted in the issuance of a permit to treat 28.4 acres. Jacquelyn’s opinion was that the majority of the EWM that is in the lake is in patches that are too scattered to be effectively treated and/or is in areas that boaters could easily avoid. Kim Winter signed the permit and the grant agreement and we were awarded a grant for up to $18,000. PLM is scheduled to treat the 28.4 acres listed on the permit on Friday July 11th. A map of the areas to be treated will be posted on the Lake Washington web site. As required by law, the areas that are treated will be marked with floating buoys and the lake accesses will be posted. This summer PLM will be conducting a point intercept survey of all the vegetation (both native and exotic) that is growing in the lake. This survey is critical to our goal of developing a long-term plan for yearly control of exotic species. MnDNR will use the data identified in the survey to help them determine what treatment will be most effective in controlling the exotic species and will do the least harm to the native species. All persons dealing with EWM admit that complete elimination of EWM in a body of water is not possible. However it can be controlled so that it doesn’t become a major problem. MnDNR rules state that EWM can only be treated if it interferes with navigation or if infestations cannot be easily avoided. Using this definition, EWM directly in front of lakeshore homes could be considered to be not easily avoidable by boats coming and going from the shore. Using this idea, our long-term plan might be to target a section of the lake shoreline and perhaps some distance away from shore and into the lake. If treatment of that area is required, we would ask each property owner in that area to sign an agreement that would allow treatment of the targeted area and then the Lake Association would treat it. Each year we would target and examine a different section of shoreline so that each section would be the target once every 5 years. Another plan might be that we would treat EWM whenever a patch reaches a size where treatment is most effective (perhaps 20 acres.) The last issue for consideration is funding. This year we will have the benefit of some State of Minnesota funding and some financial help from the Meeker County Association of Lakes, but we can’t plan on those funds from year to year. We will be working to identify a way to raise the money necessary to fund the needs of a long-term plan. Donations are certainly a great way to raise money and are much appreciated, but an effective exotics management plan can’t rely on donations alone. Some lakes have established shoreline districts and/or watershed districts that ask each property to contribute so that lake treatment is paid for by all the properties that benefit from the treatment. The committee that is working on this problem is just now getting started so more information will be coming as their planning moves forward. As always, if you have questions or comments, please contact any member of the Exotic Species Committee or any board member. Have a good summer season! COMMUNICATIONS AND PUBLIC RELATIONS COMMITTEE Jen Kjell, Rick Fernstrom, Steve Ullom The LWIA webpage continues to improve. Please give your feedback either via email or through a board member. We are now capable of sending mail and reminders electronically using email addresses submitted by members. If you have an email address and don’t receive the newsletter electronically, please provide your email address on the annual registration card. All Board Meeting minutes and past Newsletters are archived on the website. Contact information is also available for all board members should you have questions or information. Special thanks to Mike Engel with ADimation.com, LLC Dassel, MN. Mike has provided continuous website support to the LWIA, at no charge!! Please visit www.adimation.com and consider Adimation for your internet solutions!! Other important links include: www.dnr.state.mn.us/lakefind/index.html Lake Washington’s number is 47004600 Latest fish survey data, stocking reports, water quality, water level, lake maps are available there. mnwaters@brainerd.net is the website for Minnesota Waters (an organization that advocates for lakes and rivers in the state). Individuals can join and receive monthly electronic newsletters, along with quarterly mailings. This organization provides news about Minnesota Waters, Resources and Stewardship, Conferences, Zoning Issues, Treatment Plans & Actions throughout the state, and Funding Sources. They also provide up to date information on the status of current legislation and sponsor a yearly Conference with workshops on every issue impacting waters in Minnesota. Lake Washington is a member of this organization. www.mnaction.org is a group of 22 conservation and environment non-profits mobilizing Minnesota citizens. They help us connect with government and business leaders to protect our precious air, land and water. www.msrpo.org/ *Minnesota Seasonal Recreational Property Owners (MSRPO) Coalition* website. MSRPO speaks for recreational property owners at the State Capitol, seeking tax fairness for families that own cabins, lakeshore, hunting shacks and seasonal property in Minnesota. We know that *cabins are where family happens* in Minnesota, and we aggressively defend that way of life. COOK BOOK Jenna O’Brien, Cammy Moses Another special thank you goes out to Peterson Pharmacy for all of their help selling our Lake Washington Improvement Association cookbooks. They continue to sell cookbooks for us every week. We would also like to thank Carol Servin of Carols Beauty Shop for her support in sales, the Dassel Historical Society, Dean Gayner (who personally sold over 75 copies) and to our newest location~ Latte' Da in Dassel. Latte Da is a cute little coffee shop with gourmet coffees, Belgian waffles, wonderful sandwiches and a gift shop with unique items. Cookbooks make a great gift for guests that come to visit your lake-home in the summer and are a great value at only $15. As of July 1st we have sold over 400 cookbooks. NEIGHBORHOOD AWARENESS May Xiong - Student Worker in the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency If You’re Burning Garbage, You’re Making Poison For generations, many rural Minnesotans have burned their own garbage on-site; usually in a burn barrel. It was free, convenient, and easy to do. The problem is, burning your garbage is far more harmful to your health, our health, and the environment than previously thought. Whether it’s done in a traditional burn barrel, wood stove, fire-pit, or at the cabin… if you’re burning garbage, you’re making poison. Fifty to a hundred years ago, most household garbage contained only untreated paper, wood, metal, and glass. Today’s garbage, however, contains plastics, chemically treated materials, and other types of packaging waste that release a hazardous mix of toxics, such as dioxin, lead, mercury, and arsenic, when burned. Even seemingly harmless items, like paper, mail, packaging, and cardboard can give off toxic emissions. Among the health risks posed by backyard garbage burning, dioxin, a cancer-causing substance, is one of the main concerns. Dioxin is classified as a persistent, bioaccumulative, and toxic pollutant because it is a long lasting substance that can build up to harmful levels in the food chain. Dioxin is formed through many natural and industrial processes including backyard garbage burning. In fact, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) now estimates backyard garbage burning to be the number one source of dioxin in the United States. The EPA has found that one family’s burn barrel can actually produce as much dioxin as a full-scale, 200 ton/day municipal waste combustor! That’s because municipal waste combustors burn at a very high temperature (over 2000 degrees) and have sophisticated emission controls to minimize and collect pollutants before they enter the environment. Burn barrels burn at a very low temperature (which is ideal for dioxins to form) and don’t have emission controls to minimize and trap pollutants before they enter the environment. From there, dioxins settle onto our plants, water, and soil. Animals eat the plants and the dioxin builds up in the food chain. When people eat meat and dairy products, the dioxin is absorbed into our bodies. The EPA estimates that over 90 percent of our dioxin exposure occurs through our the diet. Small amounts of exposure occur from directly breathing contaminated smoke and from absorption through the skin by coming into contact with contaminated air, soil, or water. Backyard garbage burning is hazardous because it can have significant impacts on our immune, developmental, and reproductive systems. According to the Minnesota DNR, backyard garbage burning also contributes to nearly half of all wildfires in Minnesota each year. Moreover, open burning of household garbage is illegal for most Minnesotans and it has been since 1969. Despite these risks, nearly 45% of rural Minnesotans still burn their garbage on-site today creating a serious source of pollution that impacts all Minnesotans. What can you do? Don’t burn garbage. Use local recycling and garbage service or drop-sites. Encourage your neighbors to do the same. Reduce your waste when possible, compost or chip yard waste, buy items with less packaging, and educate your family and neighbors about the hazards of backyard garbage burning. Not sure where to go to recycle or dispose of your garbage at home or at the lake??? Call your local county solid waste or environmental office or visit www.pca.state.mn.us/burnbarrel for contact information for all 87 Minnesota counties. Remember… if you’re burning garbage, you’re making poison.