Volunteers Help Pull Starry Stonewort Out of Rush Lake Near Crosslake

Last month, the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources confirmed the presence of the invasive algae starry stonewort in Rush Lake, located near the city of Crosslake. To try to contain the spread of the invasive species to other lakes in the Whitefish Chain of Lakes, locals banded together to pull the algae out of a quarantined lake area.

After the discovery of starry stonewort in Rush Lake, the Whitefish Area Property Owners Association quickly looked for solutions to contain it. Over the past two days, volunteers gathered at Rush Lake for what they called a “community pull.” The area that had been quarantined was nearly an acre in size.

“They’re trying to remove it by hand,” said Whitefish Area Property Owners Association President Tony Coffey. “The DNR is here. We have three divers today, two from the DNR, one from the county sheriff. And they’re pulling it by hand. We’re putting it in rowboats, taking it over, putting it in a trailer, and then we’ll haul it up to a dump site. That’s a one-way dump where it can never come out.”

The invasive algae can spread like wildfire once it invades a lake, which is why early detection is key to make sure the situation doesn’t get out of hand.

“Early detection is huge,” emphasized DNR Region 2 Invasive Species Specialist Camden Droppo. “A lot of the successful – at least being able to keep it under control is usually when when you catch it early enough. Once it’s in, sadly, there’s never been a 100% removal or de-listing of starry stonewort, but it just ends up out-competing a lot of the native plants in the lakes.”

The hand pulling is not the only step of this treatment. Plans were in place Friday for chemicals to be added to further suppress the algae.

“They’re going to spread it out there and that’ll be able to penetrate into the sediment there to basically kill whatever we weren’t able to remove by hand,” added Droppo.

The Whitefish Area Property Owners Association acted quickly to try and prevent the problem from getting worse. The organization hopes this response can work as a blueprint for other communities.

“One of the things we’re really hoping is that when people see this whole story put together, putting in the silt fence barrier, having the divers, seeing a full dump trailer full of starry stonewort, they’re going to understand the importance of doing this, but also that there are people that are willing to help and there are remedies for these things in many cases,” stated Coffey. “So it’s a great piece to be able to use as an instructional piece for the rest of the lakes in Minnesota.”

As of now, starry stonewort has been confirmed in 31 lakes in Minnesota. More information on starry stonewort can be found on the DNR’s website.