Matthews Lake Association:
With August knocking on the door, I wonder where summer went. We’ve spent a little more time up here than in the past. Significant events include:
– Changing of the guard at the Memorial Day meeting. Thank you to Dick Howard for his 2 year reign and leadership through Healthy Lakes program, Wake surf restrictions, outlet issues, and monitoring of lake chemistry to track how we are doing. Our new board consists of Mike Leis-VP, Carmen Perrizo-Sec, Mark Henneman-Treas, and Mike Lipski-Water quality board member.
– Opening of the North picnic 5/31 at Jill and Mike Lipski’s home. Many thanks for their hospitality and coordination by Carmen Perrizo, and Kathe Nickelby, and everyone else who helped pull this together. The pulled pork competition and potluck was amazing. Thank you to those connoisseurs that bumped my entry into 2nd place. Look out next year Leis’s.
– Fourth of July boat parade. Weather pushed this out to 5pm start, but our association was resilient and came together to have a fun tour of the lake. Two boats were involved in a post parade water fight, but only one of them was armed.
– Wildlife: Baby otters, blue herons, loons, turtles, baby fawns, Eagles and Osprey. Just opening the door on a spring morning to hear the migrating birds is an amazing symphony.
– Tribute to Don Turley. For those that knew him you were at his house for the 7/19 memorial which was very moving. Having skied with him for 20 years I was blessed to experience his upbeat look on life and quest for adventure. The Turley family and Mike Leis did a great job coordinating this.
– Organizing and training Clean Boats Clean Waters inspectors for the town lakes. Volunteer inspectors and lake reps on the other lakes have done a lot of work to try to inspect boats coming into the lake.
– The Atkinson’s and the Nickleby’s have both moved off of the lake. We thank them for all the work that they put into the the association. A special thanks for Kathy Nickelby for her work on the Google Drive content, merchandise, and being instrumental in the social organizing.
– Dick Howard is working with the DNR on a long term solution to the deteriorating condition of the outlet. No resolution yet.
Our lake chemistry results are in line with past readings for the most part. See separate article on this. Many thanks to Mike Lipski for working hard to create an expanded baseline of measurements to track progress of the lake.
One of the issues that came up this summer was the presence of Cyanobacteria (blue green algae) in South Bay. This often appears like a bright green paint floating on the surface and can be toxic if ingested. The other symptom of its presence is the smell of rotten fish out on the water. (Of course that could also be dead fish floating on the water.) We observed this for a week or so but the smell subsided. As we have had less rain this has contributed to lower lake levels and the water has not flowed out of the outlet for months. This results in less turnover of water in the lake which can contribute to this condition. The re-suspension of Phosphorus (which feeds algae) caused by stirring up the bottom of the lake can contribute to this as well. More info at
https://www.pca.state.mn.us/air-water-land-climate/blue-green-algae-and-harmful-algal-blooms.
While we haven’t seen the masses of plant material like last year, be aware that any boat in transition mode (taking off) in shallow water can cause havoc to the lake bottom. See the video from the south bay, https://youtube.com/shorts/bwpKSRJvRWs?feature=share. I would encourage everyone to be aware of where they are boating and make sure it is deep enough for what you are doing. Just because the south bay is calm doesn’t mean you should be skiing in that zone. A depth map for recreational boating is on the website.
We will plan on a Labor Day weekend meeting, so look for details on that.
We do need help to do everything involved with preserving Matthews Lake. We can use help from everyone no matter what your skill set. In the end, it is our property values and our overall enjoyment that we are volunteering our time to protect.
Thank you,
Eric Lindberg, President