Birch Lake Improvement District
2017 Annual Report
Birch Lake is a shallow
suburban lake with an area of 123 acres and a maximum depth of 6-8 feet. It is considered to be one of the healthiest
lakes within the Vadnais Lake Area Water Management Organization (VLAWMO). Concerns over maintaining the quality led
lake property owners to petition the City of White Bear Lake to form the Birch
Lake Improvement District (BLID) in 2006.
A board of directors elected
by improvement district members governs the Birch lake Improvement
District. Current members are: Dale
Bacon, Chair; Ryan Hoops, vice chair; Steve Laliberte, secretary, Tom Merritt,
treasurer and Jim Grisim, member at large.
The board is responsible for implementing the Birch lake Sustainable
Lake management plan. These
responsibilities include activities such as coordinating scientific studies on
lake water quality, maintenance of recreational use of the lake and
communication to the membership regarding threats to lake quality.
During 2017, the following
activities were carried out by BLID:
The annual cleanup day was
held on May 6, 2017.
BLID members continue to
participate in VLAWMO Citizen’s Water Monitoring Program. This involves taking biweekly lake water
samples and making water clarity and lake level readings.
During winter months, BLID operates
an aeration system to prevent complete fish kills from oxygen depletion. Muskrat tunneling under the compressor
enclosure resulted in system failure at the end of the season. The system has been relocated and reinforced
to prevent future disruptions.
Several BLID board members
maintain Minnesota DNR certification as a lake services provider. This training focuses on preventing the
movement of invasive species from lake to lake.
BLID is supporting VLAWMO to
develop a chloride baseline to help better understand the potential impact of
road salt on the lake. This involves
conducting chloride analysis on monthly water samples taken at the four major
inflow points on the lake.
Approximately 1000 largemouth
bass and 500 crappies were stocked in the lake in Spring 2017.
BLID provided monetary
support to VLAWMO to provide extra maintenance to the restoration project on
the north shore of the lake.
BLID has joined with VLAWMO
and the City of White Bear Lake to investigate remediation of the wetland area
located in the NE corner of Otter Lake Road and 4th Street. This area receives storm water runoff from a
surrounding area. An engineering study
conducted by Barr Engineering recommends that an iron sand filtration system be
installed to remove phosphorous prior to discharge into Birch Lake. VLAWMO has submitted a grant application to
the Minnesota Board of Water and Soil Resources to cover $97000 of the total
project cost of $127000.
VLAWMO has initiated a
yearlong program to establish a baseline of the phosphorous input from storm
water flowing through the wetlands. This
project utilizes automated storm water sampling technology to sample after
rainfall events.
A number of factors such as a
mild winter, early ice out and a warm spring again contributed to excessive
aquatic plant growth in the lake. The
2017 harvesting program was carried out by Warner Outdoor services. The permitted level of harvesting (30 acres)
was reached after about seven days of harvesting. The 2017 harvesting activity did not result
in a lasting improvement in the recreational use of the lake.
A quarterly newsletter is
published in both print and electronic format.
The BLID blog at
BirchLakeImprovementDistrict.org is operational. The goal is to communicate primarily by
electronic format.
The tenth annual BLID meeting
was held on June 15 2017. Twenty-two of
the 63 parcels in the district were represented. The 2018 operating budget of $19,000 was
approved by the membership for submittal to the White Bear Lake City Council. Dale Bacon and Ryan Hoops were reelected to
three-year terms.
The next annual meeting is
June 20, 2018.
Submitted for the BLID board
by Dale Bacon, Chairman
October 11, 2017
