Corps to update public on plan for North, Sturgeon lakes 9/9/15

Corps to update public on plan for North, Sturgeon lakes
ST. PAUL, Minn. – The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, St. Paul District, is hosting an open house in Red Wing, Minnesota, to discuss ways of improving habitat in and around North and Sturgeon lakes Sept. 9.

The open house will be held from 5:30 to 7 p.m. with a short presentation at 6 p.m., at the Red Wing Public Library Community Room., located at 225 East Ave., Red Wing, MN, 55066. Corps of Engineers officials and staff from other agencies will be available during the open house.

The Corps is proposing several options to improve fish and wildlife habitat in and around the two lakes. These features include a water level drawdown within Pool 3, constructing up to four islands in North Lake, two islands in Sturgeon Lake and dredging to increase the water depth for fish over winter. Construction would start no earlier than summer 2016.

The study is part of the Upper Mississippi River Restoration Program. The program is a cooperative effort of federal, state and local governments focused on habitat restoration projects and resource monitoring. More than 55 projects and 100,000 acres of habitat restoration have been completed since the program was created in 1986.

The nearly 650 U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, St. Paul District, employees working at more than 40 sites in five upper-Midwest states serve the American public in the areas of environmental enhancement, navigation, flood damage reduction, water and wetlands regulation, recreation sites and disaster response. Through the Corps’ Fiscal Year 2014 $100 million budget, nearly 1,600 non-Corps jobs were added to the regional economy as well as $155 million to the national economy. For more information, see http://www.mvp.usace.army.mil.

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There will be a meeting/presentation in Prescott WI the following Wed (9/16) at the same times as above.

I hope to attend both of them.

In Prescott WI…

The open house will be held from 5:30 to 7 p.m., with a short presentation at 6 p.m., at the Prescott City Hall Council Chambers located at 800 Borner Street N, Prescott, WI, 54021. Corps of Engineers officials and staff from other agencies will be available during the open house.

Next week folks!!

In the END. What ever they do to make for better habit.? I hope it works out far better than it did on WEAVR SLOUGH.!! … rrr

I truly hope that some of the folks that are in the know about Weaver will show up for these meetings.

Remembering the past helps ensure the same mistakes aren’t made in the future.

My hat’s off to the folks that showed up with a concern about Pool 3. I was hoping there would be more interest but then again I know what it’s like to get people away from their daily routine.

First off, I forgot to pick up the hand outs. But here’s the high lights. > This is not a finalized plan. <

The project’s been scaled back because of raising the water levels up stream. The are limited to raising them less then .005″ using the 100 year flood plan. This dropped the price tag down to $9,000,000.00

On the North end of North Lake there will be dredging for over wintering of fish.

Behind Jackson run there will be an island. There are three plans for islands. The goal is to keep Twin Lake the way it is and push the delta that’s building down stream.

Brewers Cut (not brewers lake) will be rip rapped to keep it from expanding.

There will be a two small islands to slow the flow into the bay just to the south of the North end of Buffalo Slough. The hope is that rice will grow there. (as your boating up stream and leaving Buffalo, there is a bay on you left.)

There will be a small island built at the run just south of Brewers.

Lastly…and the big “if”, if Ma Nature cooperates there will be an 18″ draw down at the Red Wing Dam, L&D #3. The draw down tapers to 0″ by the time it gets to Prescott.
So there will be zero effects to the St Croix and the Mississippi above Prescott.

Hey! The water guys explained it to me but you’ll have to go to the meeting in Prescott to find out how that works!

In my limited opinion as a fisherman, even looking at other fish besides cats I can’t see this work harming anything and there’s a good chance of improving the area as a whole.

Since I haven’t hunted the area I’m not going to express an opinion either way.

If there is a draw down for the summer of 2016, I’m a little nervous. I know there will be some boaters turning in insurance claims for lower units. This will happen to the inexperienced boater or the one that didn’t hear about the draw down and thinks they can slip over the wing dams on the lower end as they have in the past. Hopefully there won’t be any personal injuries.

I believe the Diamond Bluff access will be pretty much unusable. I haven’t used the Sturgeon Lake access to know one way or the other.

North Lake access? I doubt it.

To give a perspective on the draw down, the level “at L&D #3” would be about 20 inches lower then it is today.

The draw down will end by the fall sometime.

That’s all I got. I hope to see more of you folks at the Prescott meeting next Wednesday starting at 5:30pm.

Thanks Brian. I made the Red Wing Mtg and it helped me to understand North Lake bit better.

Not looking forward to the draw down but a few deeper holes in north lake would be nice IMO. But I now carry an extra prop for the wing dings so all set for it.

I was planning on hitting the Prescott presentation too but I have a deer camp meeting conflict.

Good seeing you there Ron!

Even less folk attended the Prescott Input Meeting.

I don’t recall hearing anyone from the hunting side. Mostly shore line property owners.

I’m hoping to get the project out line posted here. At the very least I’ll have the handouts posted.

Personal opinion to follow:

Since few stakeholders attended these 4 meetings I can see the Corp adjusting the plans according to what they feel is the best for the area. Which could be good or bad depending on what your interest are in the area.

Then a few years from now, the complaints will start popping up on line saying how screwed up the area is. The WI and MN DNR along with the Corp people don’t know what they’re doing. Screwed up the whole area. It’s a giving that not everyone will be happy with a change no matter what the project or how positive the project is to the area.

If that’s you complaining, expect a link back to this thread.

/Rant off.

I missed the Prescott meeting due deer camp mtg conflict.

Just want to say thanks BK re keeping us posted appreciate all the work and effort.

Thanks Ron,

I was a little crabby that day. People have stuff to do and some feel they can’t make a difference anyway.