Island Lake Water Quality Protection

Island lake of the Kettle River Watershed, located in the northern end of Pine County, provides landowners and countless visitors the opportunity to experience high quality recreation within a day?s trip from the Twin Cities. Island Lake falls under the purview of Windemere Lakes and Landowners Association. Of the lakes in the township, only two are impaired (Hg), however Island Lake has the third highest phosphorous sensitivity significance in the Kettle River Watershed according to the state?s 2021 LPSS information.
The goal of this project is to protect Island Lake from impairment through the targeted use of shoreland stabilizations, shoreland buffers, rain barrel installation, and other site-appropriate structural vegetative BMPs, as outline in the Island Lake Report created by RMB Labs in 2019. Island Lake, while not currently listed as impaired, does exceed the threshold for total phosphorous and chlorophyll. Improving Island Lake will also benefit another high priority lake identified in the LPSS, that being Sand Lake into which Island Lake flows.
In recent years, the failing outlet of Island Lake has unnaturally held water levels at least 1 foot above OHW causing erosion and bank instability that was not seen prior. As a result, Pine County SWCD has not undertaken any projects Island Lake due to a lack of assurance that projects would succeed given the ever-changing conditions. Restoration on the outlet structure was completed in early fall 2019, stabilizing the lake?s water level. There is a large backlog of interested landowners and now that the outlet is repaired, they are eager to protect and restore their properties. With funding, projects can begin spring 2022. It is expected that BMPs will be installed on 15 parcels and approximately 1600 feet of shoreline will be addressed. These proposed amounts will decrease the annual phosphorus loading by 18.42 lbs/year and decrease sediment entering the lake by 52.8 tons/year.