High and Dry (part 1 of 4)

This will be the first of several posts about my recent 10-day stay at Leech Lake.

The first thing I noticed upon my arrival on Aug. 31 was how low the lake level had dropped. On Sept. 1, I tried to get my boat out of the lift to do some fishing, but the water level was so low that my boat was left high and dry! I simply could not get my boat off of the boat lift (more about this in a future post).

I called the Army Corps of Engineers at Federal Dam -- the group that monitors and regulates the flow of water from Leech Lake into the Mississippi River -- to find out what the situation was regarding the low level of water. Jason, a member of the Corps of Engineers, told me that the lake was abnormally low, and in fact, was near a 30-year low! Jason said that the primary reason for the drop in lake elevation was evaporation. The north-central part of Minnesota is in the midst of a drought, and with the hot temperatures this summer the lake is evaporating at the rate of nearly a 1/4" of water per day. That results in a nearly 2" drop per week. And with no rain to replenish the lake, the water level continues to drop daily.

Jason went on to tell me that every October the Corp of Engineers "draws down the lake" to prepare for the winter snow fall, but that the current low-water mark is well below the level that the Corps would normally draw down the lake. So this year there are no plans for the Fall draw down. Let's just hope there's lots of rain this Fall, and lots of snow (heavy with water) throughout the Winter.

Contrary to the rumors swirling around at Clem's Hardware in Cass Lake, there are no plans to leave Leech Lake at its current low-water mark to fight shoreline erosion. Everyone, including the Army Corps of Engineers, would like to see the lake return to its normal water level as quickly as possible.