Prior Lake Spring Lake Watershed District
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Posts tagged "volunteers"

Successful Spring Clean-Up at Crystal Lake Park

Posted by PLSLWD Staff - May 2, 2018 - News

Nearly 65 volunteers enjoyed the beautiful spring weather last weekend while cleaning up Crystal Lake Park in Prior Lake. The annual Spring Clean Water Clean-Up was hosted by the City of Prior Lake and the Prior Lake-Spring Lake Watershed District. The Sunday, April 29 event, was delayed a week due to the lingering snow following Prior Lake’s massive April snowstorm.

Volunteers pitched in to rake leaves and pull out buckthorn and afterwards, neighbors commented on how different the park looked. Volunteers included many neighbors, local community members, Cub Scout Pack 339, students from Aspen Academy and the Lord of the Gears robotics team who showed up to remove buckthorn and clean up leaves and organic debris to protect the water quality in Crystal Lake. The areas where buckthorn was removed will be seeded with native woodland plant species to help restore the woods.

Volunteers removed 1.78 tons (3,560 pounds) of buckthorn and other woody debris and raked over 1.23 tons (2,460 lbs) of leaves! Hard to believe they did all this in just a couple of hours! Many photos from the event are posted on the Watershed District’s Facebook page: www.facebook.com/PLSLWD/

Why rake up leaves? Leaves and other organic matter are carried by stormwater into storm drains and end up in lakes and streams. Once in the waterbodies, they breakdown and release phosphorus, which feeds algae. Algae growth is a serious threat to water quality, aquatic life, property values and water recreation. Buckthorn is an invasive, non-native shrub which takes over wooded areas, shading out native woodland plants.

Many local businesses generously provided door prizes and volunteers were treated to refreshments. Lord of the Gears, a robotics team from the Prior Lake Savage schools, also donated five rain barrels which were raffled off to participants! Their competition theme this year was hydrodynamics, and the team choose to focus their research on water conservation solutions.

Missed out on the fun? The District and the City will be hosting another clean-up this fall. Stay tuned by checking the Watershed District or City websites or email kkeller-miller@plslwd.org to be added to the email notification list. 

View Full Article clean up, volunteers

Clean Water Clean-Up: RESCHEDULED for Nov 5

Posted by PLSLWD Staff - October 30, 2017 - News

The fall Clean Water Clean-Up event at Fish Point Park in Prior Lake has been rescheduled for Sunday, November 5th at 12:30 pm as a result of poor weather on the original event date.  Bring your rake and help us rake up this fall’s leaves and remove buckthorn at the park.

Volunteers will receive a free t-shirt and snacks will be provided. All volunteers will also be entered into drawings for prizes at the end of the afternoon.

Sign-up and bring a friend! This event is family friendly.

The event is free, but participants are asked to pre-register here by Friday, November 3rd at noon to help with planning. Participants can, however, still sign-up at the event.

This event is co-hosted by the Prior Lake-Spring Lake Watershed District and the City of Prior Lake.

View Full Article clean water clean up, events, volunteers

Planting a Passion for Water Resources

Posted by PLSLWD Staff - October 26, 2017 - News, Spring Lake

Work on Raymond Park is nearing completion and was helped along yesterday by 25 awesome students (and their fantastic teachers) from Prior Lake High School! The students, either part of the EcoTeam or in AP Environment Science at Prior Lake HS, had a chance to learn about the restoration project firsthand and get some hands-on experience. The hard-working crew helped plant native plants along the shoreline and haul mulch to build a new trail through the oak savanna.

The District is partnering with the City of Prior Lake as well as Spring Lake Township and Great River Greening to complete the restoration project at Raymond Park, located on the south side of Spring Lake. The project includes buckthorn removal, an oak savanna restoration, beach plant community restoration and replacing the existing turf grass with low-maintenance grass. For more information on the project check out the project factsheet.

Work at the park is winding down. The shoreline, oak savanna and grass area have all been seeded with native plant species. Buckthorn has been removed from the site or girdled and treated to kill it. Native plant plugs were added along the shoreline by the Prior Lake students this week. Everything at the site should be wrapped up by the end of the year.

 

View Full Article Raymond Park, Spring Lake, native shoreline, restoration, shoreline, volunteers

Inspiring Action: New book from Scott SWCD’s Troy Kuphal

Posted by PLSLWD Staff - April 4, 2017 - News

New e-book available for free download!

Troy Kuphal, Scott SWCD’s District Manager and Paul Nelson, from the Scott WMO, have just released a new book, available for free download, which they co-authored with Mae Davenport, the U of MN’s new Director of the Center for Changing Landscapes.
 

Inspiring Action for Nonpoint Source Pollution Control: A Manual for Water Resource Protection is available for free download on the Freshwater Society’s website. 

Inspiring Action draws upon decades of engagement in conservation management and years of applied research on conservation behavior. Its guiding principles for inspiring conservation action not only are backed by the latest social science, but also have been field-tested in Minnesota.

Conservation resource professionals will find the statistics, stories, and strategies presented useful in project design and evaluation, as well as for leveraging support for conservation programming.


The manual describes a new approach for water resource protection informed by systems thinking and a model of community capacity. It then offers real-world examples and success stories based on the authors’ ongoing work in Minnesota.

Reviews:

“I’m a licensed civil engineer. Very little of my education dealt with those things beyond the calculator. What Paul, Mae and Troy have done here is provide a few decades of experience to help water managers realize that people make decisions. The zillions of decisions Minnesota landowners make each day about their land directly influences our waters. Every water professional who has ever lamented the difficulty in  convincing landowners to adopt different practices or to participate in a project should read this while asking, “What should I be doing differently in my job?”

– Steve Woods, Freshwater Society Executive Director

View Full Article Inspiring Action, Scott SWCD, conservation, public engagement, volunteers

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Prior Lake – Spring Lake Watershed District

The District covers about 42 square miles in Scott County, MN. Water in the PLSLWD flows mainly from the southwest to the northeast through Spring, Upper Prior and Lower Prior Lakes, and then north through the Prior Lake Outlet Channel to the Minnesota River near Valley Fair amusement park.
Clean Water Land & Legacy Amendment

Prior Lake - Spring Lake Watershed District
4646 Dakota Street SE
Prior Lake, MN 55372

Phone: (952) 447-4166
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