Wright County AIS Craziness

RuddyDuck · July 11, 2017, 08:32:59 PM

Sounds like to fish on Lake John, Sylvia and Pleasant, you are gonna have to go to a cleaning station in Annandale and get your boat sprayed first. Then you get a tag or something to verify it and you can land there. Crazy. Not sure if it is for sure yet or a done deal.

Here is a petition to sign and share with your friends if you are against it. The assumption is that if the powers that be deem this is a good deal, it may go county wide. Mostly sounds like lake owners not wanting to share their so called lakes.

https://www.gopetition.com/petitions/stop-the-lake-assosiations-of-sylviapleasantjohn-from-over-regulating-our-public-waters.html?sh=IMlM8AoMSQxNIcfoNg9yiFpa%2FO%2FWfbMtyY76qngBOpy0lFq9mG4%3D

RuddyDuck · July 12, 2017, 07:56:49 AM

Here's a link of what they are proposing.

http://www.co.wright.mn.us/AgendaCenter/ViewFile/Item/3397?fileID=8579

Here is the link to the county commissioner for district 1 to call or email your concerns too.
We need to voice our opinions on this matter!!

http://www.co.wright.mn.us/DocumentCenter/View/9677

CraigP83 · July 12, 2017, 08:28:18 AM

That is completely crazy. Are the launches on those lakes DNR owned?

RuddyDuck · July 12, 2017, 08:45:07 AM

According to Lakefinder, the John and Sylvia ones are DNR. Pleasant, they are city and county.

RuddyDuck · July 12, 2017, 11:38:47 AM

This was in the Trib. This is from the same Lake shore owners that dump a bunch of fertilizer's on their yards and then cry cause the weeds boom around the shores. Then they dump a bunch of weed killer in the lake to kill that.

http://www.startribune.com/wright-county-boaters-face-mandatory-inspections-for-aquatic-invasive-species/432992983/

CraigP83 · July 13, 2017, 12:23:37 PM

These lakes are already infested with Invasives, what does making the boater go through a checkpoint before launching accomplish.

East Sylvia - Eurasion Milfoil, Zebra Muscles
John - Eurasion Milfoil, Zebra Muscles
West Sylvia - Eurasion Milfoil, Zebra Muscles and Starry Stonewart

RuddyDuck · July 14, 2017, 11:21:41 AM

After talking to someone on this, it is mostly because these 3 Lake Assoc.'s agreed to it and the location of the station will be near them. It is a pilot program at this point.

Here is who I politely talked to:
Wright county water and soil district water specialist Alicia O'Hare 763 682 1933 ext 115
She had some good info on it and is also listening to concerns.

She did say right now they are getting more calls for than against. I believe this is because the Lake Assoc's are more organized than us boaters. I'm sure they get something in the mail telling them to call. Lots of us didn't even know about this until now. It has not gone thru yet, so call and voice your concerns. I guess the DNR has the final say. I think the county is hoping to get it thru by the end of the month.

Here's a DNR contact to call that Alicia gave me for the area:
Heidi Wolf - 651-259-5152

RuddyDuck · August 17, 2017, 03:26:31 PM

*** UPDATE ON THIS ***

I saw this on the Wright County website today: http://www.wrightswcd.org/Water_Management/aquatic_invasive_species.html
Theres a link in Blue on the home page.

Sounds like they are having a meeting about it on AUG 23. From talking to the DNR, I believe they didn't allow the initial dates for this to happen. Mostly because there was really no comment period on it. Sounds like they are gonna have it now. Guess if your against it, now's your chance to speak up. You can also send in written comments. Not sure exactly to who, at least I didn't see that part clearly. Maybe to Alicia O'Hare.

Like others have said, I believe their ultimate goal is to have this implemented county wide at some point. When you look at the committee info, most groups are lake associations. Hopefully it still can be stopped.

Here is the DNR person I called on this, she was helpful: Heidi Wolf - 651-259-5152

Anyone else have new info on this?

Mike Cork · August 18, 2017, 08:16:09 AM

Thanks for keeping everyone posted. Land owners can be much more vigilant than boaters that only visit occasionally. Something like this should have the summer pleasure boaters worked up too...

RuddyDuck · August 23, 2017, 08:24:48 AM

Reminder, meeting tonight at 7:00pm in Annandale and written comment period runs til August 28th.

The email addresses for comment are on pages 18-19.

RuddyDuck · August 24, 2017, 08:18:49 AM

I went to the meeting last night, which was more like an Open House. They had no speaker or gave no presentation of the Plan. You just walked around and talked to some County Reps and two DNR reps. They did have some lake Assoc people there too, but I didn't bother talking to them.

What I got out of it from the DNR was, write in your concerns to them. They have the final power. At least to me, it seemed DNR lady was not impressed with the meeting and pointedly said, They can build all the washing stations they want, but until we approve it, it would just be voluntary. Talking to County Reps and a few old friends who are lake owners on John, they want this thru now. They said it keeps getting pushed back. They are ticked at the DNR. We did all agree on one thing, that we all don't like that AIS is spreading.

So morale of story, write the DNR, County and your State reps! If you could only write one letter, send it to the DNR. End date for comments is Aug 28.

DNR –
County –

RuddyDuck · November 02, 2017, 07:55:53 AM

A facebook group was started addressing the issue, hopefully to reach more people in the area. 200 people joined in the first day. Take a look, if you fish the area and have an interest, join if want.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/1501474759942534/

Oh, looks like I didn't post it last month, but the Pilot was started in Oct. So looks like they want to side with the Lake assoc's and push this thru. Remember, this is a pilot and they want to put more lakes on the list in the future.