May Wells

Last Friday I finished monitoring our Observation Wells for the month of May. As the figure above shows, our shallowest wells showed the greatest rebound in response to spring snowmelt and precipitation. What is a bit surprising is how minimally water levels increased given our big April snows. My guess is that much of the recent melt either ran off or went into recharging near surface capillary moisture. Interestingly, six of our eleven shallow wells are lower than they were at this time last year.

Ice Out Progress

Our conservation engineer came across a pretty neat web site this morning -- very detailed satellite imagery from UW-Madision Space Science and Engineering Center. The image above shows the ice remaining on L-O-W as of this afternoon. The site is updated with a couple of images daily at a resolution that allows easy interpretation of ice and snow cover. Be sure to click the image to zoom in and then up the resolution to 250 m. There are also archived daily images dating back to November of last year.

Hydroclim Minnesota May Issue

The Hydroclim Minnesota May update is now available. It provides some good context for understanding our April (snow) showers.

2008 Cass Lake FIN

I just received this pdf copy of the 2008 Cass Lake Fisheries Information Newsletter from DNR Large Lake Specialist Andy Thompson and thought I'd pass it along.

Growing Greener: BuildSmart Summit

I had the opportunity to speak yesterday at the Central Minnesota BuildSmart Summit. I was the opening speaker of the day and my talk was entitled "Going with the flow(regime): enhancing water quality by naturalizing stay-on" (see my Cmap notes). The day's featured presenter was Randall Arendt of Greener Prospects who showed numerous examples of how to accomodate growth and development in ways that enhance quality of life while at the same time protecting ecological integrity. Arendt, a nationally known figure and and author of several books on conservation design, is an inspiring speaker who made a great case for rethinking traditional patterns of lakeshore development.

One of Arendt's most intriguing notions concerns use of local plans and ordinances to implement better practices on the ground (see book above available along with some excellent and free pdf publications on the Greener Prospects webpage). Some of his ideas admittedly seem a bit counter-intuitive at first but the end results looked great and functioned well so I think he is on the right track. As developmental pressures continue to intensify on area lakes, planning commissions and developers would do well to become familiar with Arendt's ideas.

2008 Minnesota (Ice?) Fishing Opener

The weekend snowstorm and today's cold morning temperatures (we had 14 F) make it increasingly likely that at least some area lakes will not be ice free by the May 10th Fishing Opener. The Minnesota Climatology Working Group has put together an interesting webpage on Opening Day Weather -- the main thing that emerges there is just how variable our weather can be in early May. In 1950, lakes were frozen on opening day as far south as Detroit Lakes and Osakis; some lakes in northern Minnesota had opening day ice in 1966, 1979, and 1996 as well. In contrast, the temperature was 92 F in St. Cloud in 1987; it was 88 F in International Falls for the 1977 Opener. The extended forecast doesn't promise a dramatic warm-up anytime soon so my guess is that at bigger and deeper lakes like Cass, Bemidji, and Plantagenet will still have some ice floating around come the second Saturday in May.

Bemidji Downtown Survey

A survey regarding future development plans for downtown Bemidji is available on-line. Take a few minutes to make you opinions known.