Curly Leaf Pondweed -- this has been one of the worst springs for CLP, wow there's a lot. We're thinking because of the cold lake water temps and fewer sunny days this spring that it was ideal for this particular plant to grow, so it really took off. It has been very frustrating dealing with it this season -- we may need to look at different options or more aggressive options for next year. A Marine Contractor out of Bemidji has been in our area this last week, some of you have hired him to pull vegetation with a big commercial rake from in front of your property and he'll be doing our resort's swim area on Saturday, but anyway I've been speaking to him about the CLP and he is suggesting a different chemical to try (super K, instead of Hydrothol granules). It's a lot more expensive, but more effective when you have a mucky bottom vs. a more rocky bottom. I'll report back to you possibilities as we continue the conversation with him and after I check in with DNR peeps about it. In the meantime - keep pulling that dang CLP!

Loon Nests: Yes, the loon nest committee put out three loon nests this spring and will likley be taking them out of the water in the next couple of weeks (yes, you guys are still welcome to store a couple of them at our resort for the winter if you don't have room elsewhere at your own places, no problem.) Two of these loon nests were placed in the bays on either side of Pixie Point (NE upper basin of 11th) and the 3rd one in Solie Bay (SE lower basin of 11th). Has anyone seen nesting pairs of loons? We didn't notice anything a while back and were saddened they didn't get used this season. I think the guys placed them really well, personally, maybe they'll add some natural grasses or a small pile of shoreline vegetation inside the cages next year to make them more attractive to loons next year? The guys thought they'd take the nests out of the water soon, now that nesting season is over, to prevent any accidental or weather damage to the nests during the rest of season. Good idea -- and thanks again, you guys, for making this happen! Note: one of my guests two weeks ago reported that he saw a loon couple with four babies on the NE basin of 11th -- do loons have that many babies? Really? I need to do more research on loons ... anyone wanna write an article for the Fall Newsletter for me on loons? :)

Akeley Campgrounds -- Jan Carlson and I went to a City Council meeting a few weeks back to ask permission to post Boating Etiquette/Water Safety and Stop Aquatic Hitchhikers flyers in the bathrooms at the Akeley campgrounds. They were very accepting, so we handed off a stack of 500 flyers to Greg, campgrounds manager, who agreed to hand out one to every group who brought in a boat or jet ski with their campsite. Thanks Greg! I was able to post 10 sets of flyers inside the bathrooms (5 women's and 5 men's) last week before the big 4th of July crowd. We hope maybe that helped just a wee bit in helping to increase boating safety on the SW lower basin of 11th this past weekend? (It's always the most busy holiday of the season -- especially when it's such nice weather!) (We may need to re-post them for next season, since most of the bathrooms are built of concrete block, not sure how long duct tape will last holding up them dang flyers in plastic sleeves . . . . :) )

ATV trails across 11th on Highway 64: Me and the hubbie just happened to have lunch with Nils Kraemer last month at Em's and he volunteered unpromted to have his ATV club put a little somethin' down on the trails crossing 11th to keep the dust down. I don't know if this happened already, but his intention was clear -- so I hope he followed through and you property owners along Highway 64 found a little relief from the dust lately. This is not my area of expertise, so I'm just reporting back to you bits of news I think you might find of interest. We can discuss more plans of action at Fall Meeting, or you guys on the Highway 64 committee are most welcome to meet or have telephone conversations to make a plan or suggest plans of action needed and relay that to the Lake Association in September.

Below is a notice of a class next week you might be interested in, contact Shane (e-mail address in last sentence) if you'd like to attend. Personal note: I have met Mary Blickenderfer personally several times, she's from the Grand Rapids area, in fact I've asked her twice to speak at our big resort owner conferences and she is one of the most knowledgable people in our beautiful state of MN about native shoreline and aquatic vegetation (good speaker!). She has lots of experience on shoreline erosion problem solving, rain gardens, run-off issues, etc. She's awesome! I will not have time to attend this class, but I strongly encourage anyone who'll be in the area next week to consider it. In fact, if you are willing to attend and report back to us at Fall meeting (or write a couple sentences about your experience at class for the lake association newsletter) the Lake Association will happily foot the class fee for you!