The From Shore to Shore editors are holding a contest to find the best ice ridge photo. Do you have a winning photograph of an ice ridge or the damage left behind by one? Send your best high-resolution shots to kterry@umn.edu (sorry, digital images only) by May 15 to be eligible to win a Lake Home and Cabin Kit. Tip: the photos are most effective if they include a person or something else for scale. The winner will be announced in the July/August issue. By submitting a photo, you grant University of Minnesota Extension permission to use that photo in future publications and presentations. Please include your name and address. Good luck!

Photo credit: Steven Wayne Rotsch/Painet Inc.

Eleanor Burkett, University of Minnesota Extension, 888-241-0720

Beaver are both loved and despised. On one hand, they are great conservationists — doing their part to create important habitat for fish, waterfowl, birds, frogs, and mammals. On the other hand, when they plug culverts causing road flooding, damage forests and home landscapes, or cause flooding where not wanted, they are considered a nuisance. They can also spread disease-causing organisms such as giardia.

Beaver were nearly trapped to extinction around 1900. They made a comeback and are found throughout most of North America. The habitats beaver often create are wetlands, which add to the diversity and abundance of plant and animal species. Wetlands also help to slow spring runoff, reduce downstream flooding and erosion, and filter sediments and pollutants.

Beaver live anywhere they can find a year-round source of water that doesn’t fluctuate too dramatically or move too fast. They build dams using trees, fencing materials, rocks, planks, wire, mud, and just about anything they can find. In Minnesota, beaver lodges must be deep enough to allow for entering and exiting under winter’s ice. Lodges can house anywhere from four to ten animals in a family group. These large rodents are herbivores, feeding mainly on tree saplings, preferring fast-growing species such as aspen and willow, but will also feed on grasses, agricultural crops and aquatic plants. They like to forage near water and store food supplies underwater for winter feeding. Beaver can have a great impact on an ecosystem because they:

• are the only animals other than humans that can cut down mature trees,
• concentrate their tree felling and foraging in the relatively narrow band of forest surrounding their ponds, and
• remove far more vegetation than they consume because they use it for building dams and lodges, as well as for food. (Haemig, 2006)

In preparing shelter and food for winter, beaver tend to cause the greatest nuisance for property owners in the fall.

If beaver are causing you problems, it is best to find a solution to live with them. Often when trapped and removed, other beaver will quickly move into the area. They can migrate from miles away, and survivors will reproduce to the habitat’s capacity.

If beaver are eating your trees, it is best to build fences around the trees using hardware cloth or 2- by 4-inch wire fencing (be sure to allow space around the tree for growth); chicken wire is okay for small trees, but needs to be placed near the tree to prevent beaver from crushing them, then eventually replaced as the tree grows. Low fences can also be used to protect a group of trees and does not necessarily need to surround the entire area because beaver dislike being away from water. Removing small woody vegetation may help make the area less desirable. Removing dams may discourage beaver, but check with the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources for assistance and permission if necessary.

For more information about beaver management, visit the Purdue University Web site at www.entm.purdue.edu/Wildlife/Wildlife%20Information.htm#Beaver.

References:

• “Beavers: Wetlands and Wildlife.” The Beaver, 2002. Online: http://www.beaversww.org/beaver.html, accessed February 4, 2007.
• Haemig, P.D. Beaver and Trees, 2006. Ecology. Info #19. Online: http://www.ecology.info/beaver-trees.htm, accessed February 4, 2007.
• Living with Wildlife: Beaver

. Online: http://www.aphis.usda.gov/ws/nwrc/is/living/beavers.pdf, accessed February 4, 2007.

Barb Liukkonen, Water Resources Center and Minnesota Sea Grant Program, 612-625-9256

Please take a few moments and respond to the reader survey in this issue of From Shore to Shore. If you’re reading this in hard copy, there is an extra page inside - just fill it out, fold and mail. If you prefer to take the survey online instead of mailing the paper copy, go to www.shorelandmanagement.org and click on “shore to shore news” on the front page. If you’re reading this issue of the newsletter online, just click HERE, and you’ll be directed to an easy-to-complete online version of the survey.

We want to know what you think about From Shore to Shore and how we can improve it. If the bimonthly newsletter serves a purpose, we certainly want to continue and perhaps expand it. If people don’t find the information useful and timely, then maybe we don’t need to keep producing it.We will use your anonymous responses to evaluate the cost-effectiveness and educational value of the newsletter, so please help with your honest answers.

Thank you.

Philip Hunsicker, 1000 Friends of Minnesota, 218-824-5095

Not all development is bad. When development is good, it is worth recognizing. The Lake-Friendly Development Awards recognize homeowners, contractors and local units of government that have developed or redeveloped lakeshore or riverfront properties in full compliance with shoreland zoning ordinances and ecologically sustainable principles. The hope is that these awards will encourage ecologically sensitive development trends along lakeshore and rivers.

Lake-friendly landscape award winners include Laurel Mezner who put down her beach rake and installed a 25-foot buffer on her property, and Todd and Tonya Person who restored approximately 135 by 35 feet of lakeshore on Gilbert Lake in Brainerd by installing a buffer of native plants. Also the Whitefish Area Property Owners Association and Rush Lake Association together with the Department of Natural Resources (DNR), University of Minnesota Extension Service, Crow Wing County Soil and Water Conservation District, Crow Wing County Parks Department and many volunteers installed a 1,635 foot erosion control research and demonstration project on two public islands on Rush Lake of the Whitefish Chain.

The lake-friendly home construction award went to ETOC Development, Inc., for a conservation design residential development called Fawn Ridge, located in Nisswa. With 16 clustered home sites on 42 acres, Fawn Ridge incorporated conservation design principles such as shared septic systems, common areas, community docks and a nature trail system. Streets were designed to allow natural runoff and minimize ground erosion. The clustered home sites allow acres of open space and to preserve natural surroundings. Buffers are maintained along the shoreline and next to wetlands. Conservation design neighborhoods like Fawn Ridge allow communities to achieve both their development and conservation objectives at the same time.

Two projects received awards for the category of “lakefriendly protection strategy.” The award recipients include the DNR Alternative Shoreland Management Standards for the 5-County North Central Region, led by Russ Schultz and Paul Radomski of the DNR, along with a citizen’s advisory committee. Also honored were the Kathio Garrison Mille Lacs Sanitary Sewer District and the Mille Lacs Regional Wastewater Treatment Plant for their lakefriendly protection strategy to preserve Mille Lacs Lake. The Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe Indians’ tribal government partnered with the City of Garrison and Kathio and Garrison Townships to preserve the water quality through a sanitary sewer district and a regional wastewater treatment plant. This partnership will ensure that wastewater does not pollute the general water supply or degrade the water quality of Lake Mille Lacs.

These awards are co-sponsored by 1000 Friends of Minnesota, the Brainerd Lakes Area Audubon Society, Minnesota Waters, the Crow Wing County Lakes and Rivers Alliance, the DNR, the Minnesota Chapter of the American Fisheries Society, The Nature Conservancy and A.W. Research Laboratories.

Left: Installing a rain garden. Right: Shoreland buffer planting on Shirt Lake.

The Shirt Lake Association (Aitkin County) hosted a workshop on Shoreland Planting and an Introduction to Shoreland Landscaping this summer in Deerwood. Participants received both classroom design instruction and hands-on planting experience including aquatic, wetland and upland plants. A rain garden was planted at one site to capture and prevent storm-water from entering the lake.

Greg Berg, Stearns County SWCD, discusses successful erosion control application on a steep bank.

Seventeen participants attended the Shoreland Maintenance workshop held in Sauk Centre on August 16. Participants compared various treatments at four sites, with discussions led by Eleanor Burkett and Mary Blickenderfer (U of M Extension Service) on maintenance issues and potential solutions, management techniques, and plant identification of “weed” and desirable species. This workshop was co-sponsored by the Sauk River Watershed District and the Stearns Soil and Water Conservation District.

Karen Terry, University of Minnesota Extension Service, 888-241-0843

The four dimensions of stream connectivity. Credit: In Stream Corridor Restoration: Principles, Processes, and Practices, 10/98. Interagency Stream Restoration Working Group.

The last of the five components of a river ecosystem is connectivity. This relates to how ‘connected’ the river is through its system. There are four dimensions of connectivity: lateral, longitudinal, vertical, and temporal. Geomorphological processes carve floodplains of the appropriate size and shape, and rivers need to be connected laterally to those floodplains. At high flows, water spreads out into the shallows of the floodplain, which slows the water down. Slower water has less power, and so rivers with properly functioning floodplains do less damage during floods. Floodplains are also important spawning habitats for some fish species and provide unique habitat for many land animals.

Longitudinal connectivity relates to the upstream reaches of a stream being connected to the lower reaches. Barriers such as manmade dams interrupt not only fish migration but also the movement of sediment. Dams slow the water and sediment settles out of the water column, filling in the reservoir behind the dam and making the water “sediment hungry,” or capable of causing erosion, downstream of the dam.

The vertical pathway between the stream channel and the tiny openings in the sediment beneath the stream, called interstitial spaces, are important for many species of invertebrates as well as some fish species. There is still a lot to be learned about this buried part of streams, but it is thought that a large percentage of living organisms inhabit this part of the river.

The last of the four dimensions of connectivity is temporal, meaning that rivers need to be connected through time. One example of this is the seasonal flow of water through a river. In general, Minnesota’s rivers have high flows in the spring due to snow melt, and low flows in late summer. Human alterations to this flow pattern affect the temporal connectivity, which in turn affects the species that depend on certain patterns in time.

The five components of river ecosystems all play a part in determining system health. Consider northern pike, which depend on floodplain habitat for spring spawning. If the hydrology is altered so that there is no high water in the spring to reach the floodplain, or if the channel is reshaped (geomorphology) so that the floodplain no longer exists, then the pike cannot spawn.

Similarly, if the channel is blocked by a dam so that the fish cannot migrate upstream to the appropriate habitat (connectivity) or if the water quality is simply too poor to support the fish (biology), then the overall system becomes poorer. All five components need to be taken into account when assessing a river’s condition, or when a project is being done, in order to maintain a healthy, well-functioning river ecosystem.

Cindy Hagley, Minnesota Sea Grant, 218-726-8713

Adult geese and goslings can cause problems for lawns.

People who work in natural resources or water quality disciplines and interact with the public get a lot of questions every year related to geese problems. Knowing a little bit about Canada geese can help make it easier for us to live with each other.

Those of us who grew up in the 1960s and 70s got very excited by the rare sound of Canada geese migrating overhead in spring and fall. Nowadays the much more routine sight of geese is just as likely to trigger very different emotions because they have become a nuisance in many areas. What has changed? The geese that migrate through the state are actually a different subspecies of Canada goose than the ones that have adopted our urban lakes and lawns and often remain throughout the winter. Populations of the pesky giant Canada goose, nearly eliminated from the region by the 1930s through wetland drainage and uncontrolled hunting and egg collection, have recovered and found everything they need to survive right in our backyards, including public parks, golf courses, beaches, playgrounds, and lawns.

The problem is that too many geese can result in significant concerns** including:

• fecal contamination;
• water quality problems, including nutrient and bacteria additions;
• aggressive bird behavior, especially during breeding seasons;
• interference with human activities like picnics and swimming;
• aircraft collisions and airport approach safety;
• disease transmission among birds;
• erosion and grazing damage where waterfowl congregate.

(**D.L. Sperling,Wisconsin Natural Resources magazine, December 1998.)

So what can you do if geese have moved in with you? Probably the simplest solution is to try and see the world from a goose’s viewpoint. Geese are often nuisances because they are looking for the same real estate as humans – nearby water, lots of grass (their preferred food source), and few places where predators can hide. As our shorelines become more developed and urbanized, we create more and more habitat for geese, but there is good news – some simple solutions not only reduce goose problems but also help protect the water quality of our lakes and streams. Reducing the size of your lawn and increasing the native shrubs and perennials near the water’s edge will make your property less attractive to geese, especially if there is dense, native vegetation along the shoreline. Doing this removes the feeding habitat and eliminates their “escape route” from predators. Shorelines that are allowed to grow over with tall grasses and shrubs are not only less attractive to geese but also help to reduce water quality impacts from erosion, sedimentation, and nutrients that can come from urban lawns. Not only that, but less lawn means less of your time at the lake is spent on lawn care!

Many more suggestions for goose control can be found at: www.wnrmag.com/stories/1998/dec98/geese.htm.

Mary Blickenderfer, University of Minnesota Extension Service, 888-241-0885

Wondering if that large patch of aquatic plants in your lake is invasive Eurasian watermilfoil or curly-leaf pondweed or perhaps a native aquatic plant that occurs in healthy lakes? Or maybe you’re interested in learning more about your lake or river and the plants that are in it?

This guide provides an easy-to-use approach to identifying aquatic plants — including aquatic invasive species. Use the information found in this guide and the references listed within it to answer questions you have about aquatic plants or attend a University of Minnesota Extension Aquatic Plant Identification workshop for instruction on use of the guide and experience in identifying live aquatic plants. Visit the Extension Services web site for a workshop schedule.

A Guide for Identification of Minnesota Aquatic Plants, item #08242, will be available in November 2006. For information or to place an order, contact the University of Minnesota Extension Store.

Paula West, Minnesota Waters, 218-824-5565

The 2006 Lakes and Rivers Conference, hosted by Minnesota Waters September 7 – 9 in Duluth, was attended by 550 people representing lake and river associations, local and state government, non-profits, education, and businesses who gathered around a common interest in water resources management in Minnesota. A theme of “The Changing Landscapes of Minnesota’s Waters” permeated the 48 sessions, 8 workshops, and three field trips over three days to provide attendees with increased knowledge of water issues, skills to improve the effectiveness of citizen groups to improve and protect our waters, and resources and tools to put into action for specific water issues. A plenary session featuring a panel of experts concluded that changing social expectations, shifting demographic projections from urban to rural lake areas, declining and changing recreational use patterns on our waters, and real climate changes will have broad implications for the future quality of Minnesota’s waters and our willingness to protect these resources for future generations to enjoy unless we act now.

A complete list of sessions can be viewed on the Minnesota Waters Web site. Copies of presentations can be solicited directly from presenters. Contact info@minnesotawaters.org for speaker contact information. The next Minnesota Waters Lakes and Rivers Conference will be held in the fall of 2008 at a location to be determined; watch for the specific date by the end of 2006.