Students from one of the St. Cloud Tech High School Environmental Science classes.

Lake George has seen many changes in the past two years. It has gone from a steep, gravel and lawn shoreline to a natural habitat of trees, shrubs, native grasses, and wildflowers.

The restoration project was designed and established by Greg Berg, a Shoreland Specialist from the Stearns County Soil and Water Conservation District (SWCD), the Central MN Joint Powers Engineering Staff, and approximately 400 St. Cloud Tech environmental science students over the past two years. The project received $24,219 through the MN DNR Shoreland Habitat Restoration Program. The students helped plant over 110 trees and 17,000 native grasses and forbs along the lake; both in the water as aquatics and on the upland portion. The Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) also helped with the planting and project coordination.

The project began seeing change in the spring of 2002 when the southern and western shoreline of the lake was restored to natural habitat. In the summer of 2003, more plants were added to the southern area after many did not survive due to heavy rains and flooding. To stabilize the damaged shoreline, an erosion blanket was brought in, filled with topsoil and seeded with annual rye grass for stabilization. The area was also planted with native plants to help stabilize the soil and shoreline area.

Lee Zabinski, NRCS Technician and students install an erosion blanket and plantings to prevent shoreline erosion.

The north section of the lake was re-graded and sloped with topsoil to prepare the area for planting. The area was then seeded with annual rye grass, native grass, and wildflowers. After seeding, the site was covered with an erosion blanket and planted by the students.

Melanie Boike, NRCS Soil Conservationist, weeding the area planted in the spring of 2002.

Restoring the area back to a native plant community helps create a buffer zone to filter out sediment and prevent other pollutants from entering the lake. This project will not only improve water quality by reducing the erosion, but it also is aesthetically pleasing, adding a variety of color, a natural look to the land, and improved habitat for wildlife. The site also provides an outdoor classroom for students, both during project implementation and in the future.

Posted in Care of Shoreland Property |