Post-Bulletin, Rochester, Minn., John Weiss Column: John Weiss: Less Water Can Mean More Ducks
By John Weiss, Post-Bulletin, Rochester, Minn.
Sep. 27–GENEVA, Minn. — With a little help from nature, and a lot of money from state, federal and private conservation groups, more ducks are flying, loafing and feeding north and south of Geneva in the midst of prime Steele and Freeborn county farmland.
To the north is Straight River Marsh, which once was farmland that flooded so often that its agricultural value decreased.The federal government got easements on it and allowed it to reflood. Today it’s not only good habitat for waterfowl, but it also helps reduce floods downstream.
The marsh mostly dries out in summer, killing any fish or other animals that would compete with ducks for food, said Jeanine Vorland, area Department of Natural Resources wildlife manager. It’s still private land, so permission is needed to hunt it.
The big news, however, is to the south where the Department of Natural Resources is finally getting the drawdowns it wants to restore the 2,000-acre Lake Geneva
The lake had been mostly open water without vegetation, and therefore without a welcome mat, for waterfowl. The DNR was able to lower it a few feet in the past few summers, exposing more mudflats to sunlight; that, in turn, let some water celery, bulrush, cattails and sago pond weed, all good for wildlife, to begin to grow.
But this summer was the big one. Ducks Unlimited donated $150,000 to change the dam so that the lake levels can be lowered even further. The lake responded and now has about 800 acres of bulrush and cattail.
While the dam is new, drawdowns have occurred for thousands of years. Shallow prairie lakes routinely would get low during drought, allowing vegetation to renew itself. In essence, drought resets the biological clock.
When Europeans came, however, shallow lakes were walloped from many sides.
Dams, such as the one at Geneva, don’t let lakes drop as much in summer.
With settlers came, they eventually imported carp that root around in the bottom, eating plants and muddying water. Harsh winters with thick ice and snow would routinely kill them off, but a decade of mild winters have let the carp have taken over.
Finally, farm chemicals washed into the lake, adding phosphorus that fed big algae blooms.
The DNR and other groups are working to correct all three problems.
It has the dam to help lower the lake without a drought. Carp will be controlled through aerial spraying of Rotenone that will kill all fish in the lake this fall; the DNR will pay the $125,000 for that. Northern and perch will be restocked.
And the DNR is working with other resource agencies to control farm runoff.
The move to get a new dam began in 1963, Vorland said, but was slowed because some people living along the lake didn’t want to see more vegetation. The idea was finally approved several years ago.
Emergent vegetation now on the lake will be reduced once some pioneer species like bulrush die, Vorland said. What is needed for remaining vegetation is muskrats, she said. They cut down cattails for their houses, creating superb openings for diver ducks like mallards and teal.
The lake, however, is best known for diver ducks like canvasbacks and redheads that loaf and feed in open water, she said. That’s where all the submerged vegetation comes in.
At its peak, Geneva would attract tens of thousands of diver ducks and some mallards each fall. Last year, Vorland’s peak count was about 500. With improved conditions this fall, she expects several thousand ducks.
Vorland said the DNR and DU didn’t do it alone. Freeborn County, Turtle Creek Watershed District, Izaak Walton League and Pheasants Forever also helped. “It’s an alphabet soup of partners,” she said.
Regardless of who did it, Vorland loved what she saw last week with all the vegetation and large flocks of coot, which are an indicator of good water.
“You see basically the whole prairie pothole system coming apart at the seams,” she said. “It’s kind of rewarding to see all the cooperation come together.”
John Weiss is the Post-Bulletin’s outdoors writer. If you have comments or story ideas, call him at 285-7749.
—–
To see more of the Post-Bulletin, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.postbulletin.com.
Copyright (c) 2007, Post-Bulletin, Rochester, Minn.
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.
For reprints, email tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.
Dubai:DU,