Research on East Gemini Lake

Procedure for Research Project on Gemini Lake

As long as wetlands continue to be drained, wetlands will need to be restored/created in mitigation.  Among the many issues connected to wetland restoration/creation is the establishment of a suitable plant community. In this project, I plan to test three different treatments in attempting to establish a desirable wetland plant community on a manmade lake that has yet to establish one.

The three treatments are:

• A fall planting of nonstratified seeds (Seeds that have not been put through a dormancy breaking process.) versus a spring planting of stratified seeds.
• Plots of early successional plants versus late successional plants, versus a plot left to its natural seed bank.
• Normal nursery produced bare seeds versus seeds treated with a clay amendment (SubmerSeed).

The lowering of the water level of the lake is necessary, mainly for the spring planting, to allow the maximum exposure of the seeds to sunlight.  (The water clarity of Gemini Lake is very low, around 25 cm. in the test site as measured by a Secchi disk.) Then the water level would gradually be raised as the plants grow in height.  I don’t expect the seeds planted in the fall to begin to grow at that time, but I feel the two planting should undergo the same initial water level conditions.  Also by lowering the water levels in the fall, I can more accurately assess the progress of the plant growth.  One other aspect of lower water levels in the fall is that this would imitate what would normally be happening in nature.

The overall timeline for the next 16 months would be to lower the water level of Gemini Lake by two to three feet to expose 30 ft. of shoreline as soon as possible.  (We are presently in the first week of June.)  During the next four weeks I would be cleaning up the study site, staking out the plots, surveying the present plant community and taking a wide variety of data on the water and soil chemical and physical condition.   After 4 weeks, the water level would be gradually raised to its previous level.  In September, the water level would be dropped again and the first planting of seeds would take place and another survey of the plant community conducted.  In May of 2006 the water level would be dropped again and the second planting would take place.  After 4 weeks the water levels would be gradually raised to their previous levels.  Then finally in September of 2006 the water levels would be lowered to assess the progress of plant growth. I am hoping to arrange for another study  site where water levels are not manipulated but undergo the natural fluctuations.

If you are interested in greater details of the project I would be happy to get a copy of a more complete proposal to you as soon as it is finished.  (In the next two weeks.)  I am hoping that the DNR takes an interest in this project as there may be some valuable information to be gained from it.

Mary Ellenbecker Johnson
19253 East Shore Drive, Kimball, MN  55353
Tel.  Home: (320) 398-2719   Cell: (320) 224-7718
Email: pearl363@aol.com