Douglas County gets good news about aquatic plant species – Alexandria Echo Press

DOUGLAS COUNTY – Justin Swart shared great news about aquatic invasive plants in Douglas County to Douglas County commissioners at their Tuesday, May 3, regular board meeting.

Swart, the county’s aquatic invasive species prevention coordinator, said there are no new infestations in the 45 lakes that were surveyed over the last three years.

“This is really good news,” said Swart. “We didn’t find anything we didn’t know about.”

The Douglas County Aquatic Plant survey began in 2019, ending in 2021. The survey was done so that the county could create a directory of known aquatic plant data in this area.

During the three-year period, 45 lakes were surveyed with 15 of them done each year. The 45 lakes encompass nearly every lake in the county with a public water access.

There were three objectives with the survey, according to the summary that was provided to the commissioners:

• Point-intercept survey to assess whole aquatic plant community in a lake.
• Meander survey to look for invasive plants, such as Eurasian watermilfoil and starry stonewort.
• Intensive searches near public water accesses where plant introductions are most likely to occur.

In 2019, the lakes surveyed were Brophy, Burgren, Carlos, Cowdry, Darling, Geneva, Ida, Indian, Irene, Latoka, Louise, Mary, Miltona, Mina and Vermont. In 2020, the lakes included in the survey were Andrew, Blackwell, Crooked, Freeborn, Gilbert, Grants, Lobster, Mill, Osakis, Oscar, Pocket, Rachel, Red Rock, Reno and Round. And in 2021, the lakes included Aaron, Chippewa, Devils, Le Homme Dieu, Little Chippewa, Long, Maple, Moon, Moses, Smith, Stowe, Turtle, Union, Victoria and Whiskey.

During the survey, the extent of Eurasian watermilfoil infestation was identified in Lakes Carlos and Indian and now it is actively being managed.

For 2022, the plans are to continue monitoring and completing detection activities on busy, high-risk lakes. In addition, another survey of an eight-lake subset of the lakes that were first surveyed in 2019 will be conducted.

Commissioners approved the survey, which will once again be conducted by Blue Water Science. The cost is $21,900 and will include Lakes Carlos, Darling, Geneva, Ida, Latoka, Mary, Miltona and Vermont.

The full report was sent to the area lake associations and can be found on the Alex Area Lakes website,

http://alexarealakes.org/.

The county board approved the following items:

• Donation of $250 from the Minnesota Sheriff’s Association to be used for the Douglas County Sheriff’s Honor Guard. 
• Donation of $300 from the Golden K Kiwanis Club to be used for the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office DARE program. 
• Donation of $250 from Alomere Health to be used for promotional material for the TRIAD event. 
• Rezoning permit to DA Investments LLC to allow the rezoning of industrial property in Carlos Township to commercial property. 
• Preliminary plat of Henry Fuhrman Meadow Addition, a one lot plat in Miltona Township.