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Saturday, June 25, 2005
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Shoreline buffers can help the habitat
Outdoors Editor DEERWOOD -- A glance around Serpent Lake reveals a landscape like many others in Minnesota's lake country. Well-tended yards ring the shoreline, many with grass down to the water's edge.
With any luck, Joe and Gwen Stanich's place on the south shore of the lake will look nothing like that by summer's end. Instead, the Staniches hope to see native trees and shrubs, grasses, flowering forbs, sedges and ferns, all in a strip 110 feet long by 35 feet wide.
The Stanich property is the area's newest shoreland habitat demonstration site, established with help from the DNR and a $4,000 grant from the Legislative Commission on Minnesota Resources. Landowners who take part in this program agree to establish a shoreline buffer on 75 percent of their shoreland, including a strip at least 25 feet wide at the water's edge. They agree to maintain the buffer strip for at least 10 years. It prevents soil erosion, which in turn improves water quality. A sign visible from the lake is placed on shore so boaters can identify the property as a shoreland habitat demonstration site.
The Staniches agreed to pick up one-quarter of the cost of the project and whittled their out-of-pocket expenses to $500 by providing labor and lunch to a crew of nine for two days.
"Gosh, it's looking good," Joe Stanich said as he surveyed the crew's work Thursday morning last week. "As lakeshore property owners we always struggled with trying to maintain a beach. Historically people have wanted sandy beaches. But that's not best for the environment. This is more natural and environmentally friendly."
The first step in creating a shoreline buffer is to install an erosion control blanket at the water's edge. The biodegradable blanket is staked down and eventually becomes part of the soil. It provides new plants with protection and mulch. The blanket's fabric is heavy enough so it won't be torn apart by incoming waves.
Upshore from the blanket is a layer of wood mulch. Native plants are placed in the mulch. Seeds for the plants sprouted in greenhouses at the Ramsey County Correctional Facility before being transplanted on the Stanich shore. Among the plants are turtlehead, rush, meadowsweet, osier dogwood, American hazelnut, obedient plant, columbine, smooth blue and large pink asters, golden alexander, purple prairie clover, prairie smoke, prairie onion, thimbleweed, black-eyed susan, anisehyssip and various grasses.
Larger trees and shrubs are planted at the edges of the site so the view of the lake isn't blocked. The Stanich house is on a hill so that's not a major issue. Joe Stanich said he hopes their home and new shoreline will be viewed by many people. Some of the neighbors have dropped by already.
"They said, 'This is neat, we might be interested in doing something like this,'" Stanich said. "We hope it takes off. This is good for the environment."
Statewide, 33 shoreland habitat demonstration sites have been established, said Lindy Ekola, DNR shoreland habitat specialist. Other nearby sites are found on Hardy Lake and Gilbert Lake.
Workers on the project included the DNR's Lindy Ekola, Kevin Woizeschke and Bob Moe, Crow Wing County Master Gardener Ann Lembcke, and Minnesota Conservation Corps crew members Jonathan Gustafson, Tyson Evans, Chris Greenwaldt, Paul Bergstrom and Jason Wollin.
To learn more about the shoreland habitat program, contact Woizeschke at 833-8729.
VINCE MEYER can be reached at vince.meyer@brainerddispatch.com or 855-5862.
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