Will the dredging ever be completed on Fountain Lake?

After reading the article in the Tribune I am very disheartened with the state of the DNR. For as long as I can remember, the DNR has been an advocate for clean water and the environment. This is why I cannot understand why they wouldn’t approve the dredging permit for the final leg of the project. I am not a marine biologist, but it seems to me this is more politics at work. The bonding bill for the dredging was approved two years ago, if I am not mistaken. It is sad that they chose not to move forward with the permit, or just part of it. They seem to be more concerned about the perch count on Mille Lacs Lake than cleaning up a lake with a healthy fish count. It seems to me that the DNR dropped the ball on the walleye management on Mille Lacs a few years ago. They waited until it was too late before they acted, which caused a catch and release slot limit to go into effect for a few years. That will be all of my complaining for this column.

After driving past our two lakes the past few days, I now have the fishing fever. I still haven’t purchased my fishing license for this year, but I will soon remedy that. Whenever I drive past open water, I get the urge to wet a line.

There have been some trumpeter swans that have wintered over in our area. I have driven East on South Shore Drive on more than a few different occasions. I noticed an area just a little west of the Jugland Bridge where there has been open water all winter. One time I saw geese and trumpeter swans and the last two times there were only swans. I can’t remember this ever being the case in other winters. Evidently, they have also heard about climate change.

When I was a kid, I attended grade school at Hammer School north of town. I looked forward to spring when the water would be flowing in the ditches on the way to “the bridge” just south of our house. There were times when the water was almost going across the road. We would throw makeshift boats in the ditch and follow it all the way to the bridge. It really didn’t take much to entertain us back then. The current was quite rapid, and my mother would warn me to stay away from the water. I don’t believe that I ever came home with dry pants or shoes. Those five buckle overshoes could hold a lot of water if you got in too deep. I would stay outside until my mother called for me and then I would come into the house with my nose running and my pants and shoes wet. I never got in too much trouble. I guess my parents were just happy to see me come home in one piece.

Until next time: My great granddaughter, Avery, is turning into quite the outdoors girl. Every Wednesday she goes to my son Brian and his wife Kim’s place for a day. Both of her grandparents are outdoors folks, so she is getting indoctrinated into the outdoors life. She helps them feed the chickens each morning and plays with the dogs. She is all business when she feeds those chickens. She will go into the chicken coop, get a handful of feed, go out into the other part and throw the feed to the other chickens. She then goes back for more feed, and each time she comes back, she throws it where the ones she hasn’t fed are. She’s pretty smart for 1-1/2 years old, although I might be a little biased.

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