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4 <br />Karth Lake clean-up continues with the help of Arden Hills Foundation and others <br />The clean-up continues for Karth <br />Lake, says lakeshore homeowner <br />and lake improvement board mem- <br />ber Gary Gerding. But with the help of <br />several <br />Karth <br />Lake <br />property <br />owners, <br />the Ar- <br />den Hills <br />Founda- <br />tion, and <br />others, <br />the Karth <br />Lake <br />Improve- <br />ment <br />District Board has been making a signifi- <br />cant difference in the lake’s water quality, <br />aesthetics, and overall ecosystem health. <br />“We just have to keep at it,” said Gerding, <br />“because all the forces that are trying to <br />change (the lake for the worse) are keep- <br />ing at it as well...The good news is that <br />(Karth Lake) is a great habitat; the bad <br />news is that if you don’t take care of it, it <br />will eventually become a swampland.” <br />With the ever-increasing development of <br />homes, businesses, roads, and parking lots <br />around the lake, the shore’s permeability <br />has decreased, causing large amounts of <br />nutrient and toxic-filled runoff to enter the <br />lake and stay put. <br />According to the Environmental Protec- <br />tion Agency, this runoff is harmful to the <br />aquatic habitat because the excess nutri- <br />ents spur weed growth and algae blooms. <br />When algae and weeds die, the decompo- <br />sition process removes oxygen from the <br />water. Fish and other aquatic organisms <br />can’t exist in water with low dissolved <br />oxygen levels. <br />The runoff also causes Karth Lake’s water <br />level to rise. One inch of rain equals two <br />inches of rise in the lake. Trees along <br />the shore cannot survive their roots being <br />submerged and end up falling into the wa- <br />ter. Debris and sediment are major issues <br />that impact the lake’s water quality and <br />aesthetic factor. <br />by Emma Theis <br />Last fall, the improvement board got ap- <br />proval from the DNR to remove weeds <br />and debris from Karth Lake’s shore. In <br />August, Holtz Landscaping removed <br />approximately 20 <br />cubic yards of weeds <br />from shoreline prop- <br />erty. They returned in <br />October and removed <br />around 40 cubic yards <br />of wood debris from <br />the water. According <br />to Gerding, some logs <br />were over 20 feet long <br />and others were over <br />two feet in diameter. <br />Hiring out the projects <br />to Holtz Landscaping totalled around <br />$3,000 and was funded solely by Karth <br />Lake homeowners. The Arden Hills <br />Foundation worked with the project par- <br />ticipators to make their donations to the <br />clean-up tax deductible. <br />This spring, Gerding says he hopes to <br />work with the Arden Hills Foundation <br />again to fundraise for 500 large mouth <br />bass fingerlings to be added to Karth Lake <br />in an attempt to drive down the algae <br />population even more. Nine hundred <br />fingerlings were added to the lake in 2010 <br />and another 500 were added in 2013, not <br />for sport fishing but more equalization of <br />the ecosystem. <br />“People don’t realize that lakes are an- <br />other piece of our environment that isn’t <br />invincible,” said Gerding. “We have to <br />do something to reverse the damage and <br />clean it up.” <br />“Karth Lake has the same chal- <br />lenges to its water quality as all <br />urban lakes do, and we are mak- <br />ing measurable progress towards <br />improved water quality...more <br />progress than most Twin City <br />lakes.” <br />--Board member Gary Gerding <br />This view of Karth Lake is <br />evidence of the progress being <br />made in the clean-up project. <br />Photos below show some of <br />the work required to make that <br />progress.