North & Sturgeon Lake Habitat Improvement –

ST. PAUL DISTRICT
News Release

March 11, 2014
MVP-PA-2014-016
Shannon Bauer: 651-290-5108, 612-840-9453, [email protected]
Patrick Moes: 651-290-5202, 651-366-7539 [email protected]
George Stringham: 651-290-5201, 651-262-6804, [email protected]

Corps invites public to open house to discuss habitat improvement in North and Sturgeon lakes

ST. PAUL, Minn. – The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, St. Paul District, is hosting an open house in Prescott, Wis., March 27, to discuss a study to improve habitat in and around North and Sturgeon lakes.

The open house will be held from 5:30 p.m. to 8 p.m., at the Prescott City Hall Council Chambers located at 800 Borner Street N, Prescott, Wis. During the open house, the public will have the chance to speak with Corps of Engineers officials and staff from other resource agencies.

The Corps is currently studying ways to improve fish and wildlife habitat in and around the two lakes. Possible activities include dredging to increase the water depth, island construction, summer pool drawdowns and erosion protection. A project cost estimate and possible construction schedule will be determined during the study.

The study is part of the Upper Mississippi River Restoration, formerly known as the Environmental Management Program. The program is a cooperative effort of federal, state and local governments and is 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 2011 $175 million budget, nearly 2,800 non-Corps jobs were added to the regional economy as well as $271 million to the national economy. For more information, see http://www.mvp.usace.army.mil.

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Way to late to the ball game fellas.

Pessimistic, I am.

I dont know that area a lot but it seems to me to be a lot like spring lake on pool 2. Majority of it silted in and lots of carp roaming it. 1st thing that need to happen is correct the amount of sediment coming out of the Mn river. If this is not down the lake will just fill back in or all that sediment will be diverted down river to fill in another lake.

Please remember if you’re from the area or have fish in the area, of pool three this is a meeting you need to attend!!

I’m working on having the presentation post here on Ido.

At this point there isn’t any definite plans, the partnership groups are seeking pubic input on what’s important to us. Areas of habitat concern and such.

There was talk of closing and or restricting flow in the side channels.
A draw down of the pool
Creating island(s) to divert flow
and more. With nothing set in stone.

One statement that was often repeated was “what do you want to leave for your kids”. What I took that to mean is…I might not like the changes now, but 10, 20 or 30 years from now, our kids may appreciate it.

We were asked to take a map of the “restoration area” and to mark areas of concern and return it.

<BK’s Opinion Area Starts Here>

What bothers me about these meetings is the tone from some of the presenters. Admittedly, they don’t have a plan, but “there will be benefits.”

With every change there’s an up side and a down side. A trade off if you will. There’s some parts of this proposed project that are going to effect fishing as we know it on Pool 3 with some of the tools they may use to curb the erosion and sedimentation of these two lakes.

The trouble is no one knows if it’s going to be positive or a negative effect for your particular species at this time.

Few people like change. I’m still keeping an open mind that this will be change for he better.

Jury is still out on how it’s going to be accomplished.