Lake Associations Spraying Weeds

This came up today in a post on Facebook and it reminded me that I have already seen one of these on a lake close to my hone as well.

Last two seasons White Bear Lake and it has decimated some of the best bass, bluegill, and pike habitat in the lake and I know it happens on many lakes around the state. Is this something anyone is regulating? I know the DNR targets invasive when they spray but these private companies are just killing everything it seems.

Should we be getting on the DNR about controlling this or how should we be going about trying to stop/limit this?

Remember, we’re supposed to be protecting the fish by having a closed season during a very delicate time, the spawn. But Spraying weed killer directly on top of eggs and fry is perfectly fine.

Good Luck….

Oh it gets awful. Rush lake is really bad as well. Im sure that tons of lakes are. I wish the dnr would step in

https://www.dnr.state.mn.us/shorelandmgmt/apg/regulations.html

Report it.

Our Lake Association (Wisconsin) works with the DNR to develop a treatment plan for Eurasian milfoil. The Association also applies for grants through the DNR to help cover the cost of the treatments. The association contracts with private companies to do the treatment. In some areas the company pulls the milfoil by hand and in other cases they use chemicals. In either case, it is approved by the DNR.

The main reason we formed a Lake Association on our lake is so we could have a legal entity for working with the DNR dealing with invasive species. I can’t imagine why any Lake Association would risk doing anything illegal. Feel free to contact the DNR to make sure everything is legal. I would have no worries at all that the treatments done by our association are approved.

The Association on the lake our Cabin is on does the same as what bzzsaw says – in our case it’s curly-leaf pondweed they treat and it’s all done by the books. I don’t doubt, especially in some metro lakes that it goes overboard, but I think a lot of it is private property owners doing their own thing, too. And that should be reported.

We spray out front of our house. We have to get a DNR permit every year and are very limited to how much can be sprayed.

Are they still running the dredgers on Lake Minnetonka? I haven’t been out there in the summer months lately.

Allot of it is private landowners. If you know the rules you’d be appalled at the amount of illegial aquatic vegetation removal that is happening. It’s usually not the lake associations.

I keep my shoreline free of wild rice by pulling it. I don’t know the legality of it but it sure doesn’t seem wrong to pluck a few stalks here and there as they grow.