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Serving Northern St. Louis County, Minnesota

Sportsmen's Club awarded major grant for AIS work

County dollars to fund boat inspections, education

Marshall Helmberger
Posted 7/29/15

LAKE VERMILION— The St. Louis County Board on Tuesday awarded $285,885 to the Lake Vermilion Sportsmen’s Club to help step up the fight against aquatic invasive species. It was, by far, the …

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Sportsmen's Club awarded major grant for AIS work

County dollars to fund boat inspections, education

Posted

LAKE VERMILION— The St. Louis County Board on Tuesday awarded $285,885 to the Lake Vermilion Sportsmen’s Club to help step up the fight against aquatic invasive species. It was, by far, the largest grant awarded to any of the dozen organizations that sought funding from the county and it comes just days after DNR officials confirmed the existence of spiny waterfleas in the lake.

The Sportsmen’s Club is proposing to spend the vast majority of its grant, a total of $262,050, to hire boat inspectors and educators to work at launch sites all across the lake, starting next year. The group has staffed a number of boat launches with volunteers in the past, but the new funds will allow the group to hire personnel to significantly expand the effort.

The Sportsmen’s Club will also boost its ongoing public awareness and education efforts, through the use of brochures, restaurant placemats, billboards, and newspaper advertising.

“We are pleased St. Louis County will be using a portion of their aid to support AIS efforts on Lake Vermilion,” said Sportsmen’s Club President Jeff Lovgren.

Lake Vermilion is the largest lake located entirely within St. Louis County and it attracts approximately 18,000 anglers and boaters from around the Upper Midwest every year, according to the Sportsmen’s Club. The club projects that number will only increase in future years as the new Lake Vermilion-Soudan Underground Mine State Park is fully developed.

The Sportsmen’s Club will be partnering in the effort with the North St. Louis County Soil and Water Conservation District to deploy DNR-trained watercraft inspectors at Vermilion launch sites next year. “We expect to talk to 9,000 boat operators at the launches,” said Terry Groshauser, a Sportsmen’s Club board member and AIS launch-site leader. “We’ll check their boats for invasive species, remind them of Minnesota’s AIS laws, show them how to clean their boats, and give them the tools to report any possible AIS discoveries,” he said.

The soil and water district received a separate funding allotment of $60,000 to fund purchase of a decontamination unit to be used in collaboration with the Sportsmen’s Club project.

In addition to the county funding, the Lake Vermilion Resort Association has committed $9,170 dollars to the project, while the Lake Vermilion Guides League is contributing $5,250. The Vermilion Country Charter School is also contributing $2,020 to conduct sampling for adult zebra mussels as part of the overall project.

At the same time, the Sportsmen’s Club will continue its work with other Lake Vermilion stakeholders, local governments, and lake associations on zebra mussel habitat assessment projects, low-cost launch-site decontamination methods, early detection projects for spiny waterflea and zebra mussels, and containment and removal of existing curly-leaf pondweed.

The county’s grant awards were part of a statewide initiative, known as the Aquatic Invasive Species Prevention Aid program, which directs state funds to counties based on each county’s share of watercraft public launch facilities. St. Louis County received $306,356 last year and is slated to receive $680,790 in 2015.

The county’s planning and community development director solicited proposals for using the funds back in May. The county received 12 proposals totaling $1.77 million, and approved a total of $697,500 in funding for seven of those projects.

Other organizations awarded funds were:

• Natural Resources Research Institute, which will receive $126,287 for two separate proposals, including an AIS risk assessment and conducting baseline and geospatial modeling of AIS plants in St. Louis County.

• Wildlife Forever, a Twin Cities-based organization, will receive $107,000 for a public awareness campaign.

• The St. Louis River Alliance will receive $118,380 for two related projects to train residents and volunteers to respond to AIS issues.