A must see for all!
Lake of the Woods: A History by Water
Lake of the Woods: Eastern Shores
Kelli Saunders, the Foundation's International Watershed Coordinator has a weekly column in the the Lake of the Woods Enterprise newspaper and online at the Kenora Daily Miner News. This feature series will celebrate the importance of water locally and the great efforts collectively to protect it, will be dedicated to water throughout the summer months – its quality, its governance, its future and how we can all help to preserve it.
Several articles are online now - click the Read more (below) for the links and look to the Lake of the Woods Enterprise newspaper and Kenora Daily Miner News Online for weekly updates!
At a meeting of the International Joint Commission (IJC), Canadian Commissioners Pierre Béland, Merrell-Ann Phare and F. Henry Lickers made a solemn declaration to faithfully and impartially perform the duties assigned under the Boundary Waters Treaty. Also announced was that the appointments of Jane Corwin as US Section chair, and Robert Sisson and Lance Yohe as US Section Commissioners has been confirmed by the US Senate.
Read the full announcements:
The history of the Rainy River is fascinating. How could it not be with voyageurs and lumberjacks all tangled up in it. The overlooked part of any history lesson, however, is often the timeline of environmental insults that occurred in concert with the industrial revolution and the population of the land and exploitation of its resources.
In this article, Bev Clark explores the history of the pollution and subsequent research and cleanup of the Rainy River as an example that shows what coordinated international efforts engaging the IJC can achieve.
Phosphorus, algae’s favorite food, should be quickly buried by inches of mud year over year. Perhaps, somehow, the phosphorus that had entered the lake during the paper and population booms of the mid-twentieth century is being recycled? Could it be that the turbulent waters of Lake of the Woods south basin (the Big Traverse) are combining with short periods of temperature stratification (when the cold bottom waters of a lake do not mix with the warmer water above) to deplete oxygen and draw nutrients back up from the sediments. Particularly windy days could then mix nutrient rich particles of sediment throughout the water column, allowing pollution from many years ago to be reused over and over again. In this article from the Field Notes - Stories from the St. Croix Watershed Research Station of the Science Museum of Minnesota the story unfolds of research seeking to answer these questions and gain insights into what causes the algae problems plaguing Lake of the Woods.
In lakes throughout the upper Midwest, from giant Lake of the Woods to dozens of smaller lakes in our urban and agricultural landscapes, clean water has not obviously followed pollution reductions. The complex connections between land, water, climate, chemistry, algae, and even fish can conspire to make us pay a high price for past sins. This article from the Field Notes - Stories from the St. Croix Watershed Research Station of the Science Museum of Minnesota examines the role of "legacy" phosphorus in the lake bottom and other factors in recovery of lakes from too much nutrient pollution.
Spanning the U.S.-Canada border at the northern extremity of Minnesota and the northwestern corner of Ontario, vast Lake of the Woods has a storied relationship with humans: as home, as highway, as getaway. Lake of the Woods is well-loved, and troubled. This article from Field Notes -Stories from the St. Croix Watershed Research Station examines the history of pollution and how research studies are improving out understanding the lake’s past and current conditions, including how phosphorus is stored and returned from the lake bottom. These studies are helping us to figure out what forces affect the water quality today -- which is essential to setting clean-up goals and identifying the most effective ways to achieve them.