Sustaining Lakes in a Changing Environment - Phase II

Minnesota’s environment is changing in response to a variety of stressors – including population growth, residential development, industry, agriculture, invasive species, and climate change – and the state’s iconic lakes, and the goods and services they provide (e.g., fishing and water recreation), are an important part of what’s being impacted. To manage effectively for these changes it is important to understand how the state’s many lakes respond to these stressors. This includes knowing baseline habitat conditions, observing long-term changes to the baseline, and developing models that can forecast the risks posed and expected impacts of various stressors. In 2009 the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR) began an ambitious long-term monitoring effort of 24 “sentinel” lakes throughout the state specifically identified to represent the breath of basic conditions (e.g., water chemistry, habitat conditions, fishery types, surrounding ecosystem types) present in Minnesota’s most common aquatic environments. The DNR is using this appropriation to continue and expand on that effort to develop and implement improved monitoring, modeling, and reporting protocols that will provide timely information on lake trends, reduce uncertainty about potential causes, and guide conservation approaches for improving water quality, reversing problematic trends, and preventing further degradation into the future.