The St. Michael City Council will hear a new plan being discussed by both the City of St. Michael and the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources to help drain the water level at Pelican Lake, located west of the city.
According to correspondence between Assistant City Adminstrator Steve Bot and the DNR, the city is working to impliment the fourth and final phase of the plan to lower those levels, paving the way for a wildlife management area on the lake.
The DNR is attempting to use city-owned drains and wetlands to make that final phase work, and hoping to secure funding in the near future to execute the out letting of the lake.
The DNR's description of the project states:
The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (MDNR) proposes a restoration project to lower high lake levels 3.3 feet from the current elevation of 954.0 feet on the 4,000-acre Pelican Lake (an MDNR-designated wildlife lake) in Wright County for wildlife management purposes. The project includes reducing high water levels, constructing an outlet weir, constructing 23,800 feet of new stream channel, restoring a 180-acre wetland, stabilizing the lower reaches of Regal Creek, and constructing a velocity-tube fish barrier. The proposed project is located in Wright County, Minnesota in the cities of Albertville and St. Michael and in Buffalo and Monticello Townships.
The St. Michael Council will discuss this and other topics at tonight's regular meeting, set for 7 p.m. at St. Michael City Hall.
A copy of tonight's agenda is attached.
If the DNR is truley concerned about water levels then do somthing about the water cominging in from ditches and drain tiles that feed Pelican Lake. I could go on and on but I won't. But I will say this...I belive that concern for waterfowl is only a secondary concern...The primary reason is money...Get it, Got it, Spend it, or Don't get it next time.... Signed "Shoot and Release" P.S. Any bets on how fast private land will get developed if the water levels are controled?
That and I'm rolling my eyes.
I think it will help the lake out and the land owners around the lake. I always wonder where everyone fished for panfish before the Pelican boom? It always sounds like it is the only lake in the county that has any fish in it. Heck, before the fishing was discovered by everyone, other than the few locals that fished it, not many even cared about the lake. It was just consider a stinky duck swamp or a fun place to snowmobile on in the winter. You barely saw an ice house out there. I like to fish it too, but there are plenty of other places close by to catch fish at also. But, until the outlet is actually put in, I have my doubts about it getting done.