Delegates from five county lake associations have agreed to form a county-level COLA (Coalition of Lake Associations) to further their individual and collective efforts for lake improvements.
The action came at a meeting of the group last week at the Refuge Learning Center.
The group is expecting at least four more lake associations to join the COLA in the coming weeks.
(There are 137 lakes in the county, but members from nine lakes that comprise four lake associations have met over the past year to form the Sherburne COLA, Those lakes include Ann, Julia, Big, Mitchell, Briggs, Orono, Eagle, Rush and Elk.)
The impetus behind the new county COLA is to form an alliance that promotes information and sharing of technology between lake groups, so they aren’t doing it alone all the time. They could share purchases of chemicals and other supplies to save costs. They could seek recruitment, public relations and other activities.
A directory of lake-related contacts would be invaluable. And, they could provide a united voice to do the lobbying with local cities, the county and the state.
The information sharing would lead to solicitation of grants to finance individual or collective lake projects, to lobbying for state attention, too.
Lake delegates remarked several times during their two-hour meeting that information arising from one association could well-serve another lake group.
Referenced were invasive species combatting efforts, stocking of fish, shoreline restoration and other issues.
One such project occuring at the end of their meeting was the sharing of invasive species information posterboards, produced by the Sherburne Soil and Water Conservation (SWCD) office.
“Take them and use them,” said Dan Cibulka of the SWCD office. In fact, the posters are for the public - and they can stop at their Hwy. 10 office and get them for locating close to waterway access.
All lakes in the county are combatting AIS, whether it be curley leaf pondweek, Eurasian water milfoil, or two newer threats, the snails and stoney starwart.
(The county office has sponsored a “CLEAN. DRAIN. DRY” billboard on Hwy. 10 at Co. Rd. 11 for the past month. It begs boaters to clean their boat and trailer, drain all water deposits within the board - and make sure their unit is dry before putting it into another body of water.)
Much of the meeting was conducted by Cibulka and Jen Kader of the Minnesota Freshwater Society of St. Paul.
They have helped the COLA since its first planning session last summer. Guiding the COLA through its last 12 months of planning has been a five-member steering committee comprised of various lake association members.
Committee members include Patrick and Cindi Edwards-Plant of Lake Orono Association, Scott Ruiter of the Briggs Lake Chain Association, Chris Weber of the Ann Lake Association and Sanford Smith of the Big Lake Community Lakes Association.
Each of the various lake associations in the county has issues specific to its locale, but many issues do carry from lake group to lake group, they agreed.
A good share of their meeting was to study existing COLAs in the state to determine what would be a best-fit for the Sherburne group - in its infancy.
They studied the powerful, well-financed Hubbard County COLA, which has serious commercial backing because so many lakes serve commercial purposes.
They also studied the neighboring Wright County COLA, which meets to deal with smaller issues and on a less significant budget.
The Sherburne group agreed the Wright COLA could be a better fit, as the majority of all their lakes serve lower-intensity recreational-only purposes.
Several of the lake groups announced their delegates to the new county COLA. They include Dean McDevitt from the Little Elk Lake Association, the Plants from Lake Orno, Gordy Westerlind and Ed Pietso from the Big Eagle Lake Improvement group, Ruiter from the Briggs Lake Chain, Smith and Brad Johnson of Big Lake, and Weber from the Ann Lake group.
