Let your lawn go a little brown to conserve water. This is fine! Kentucky bluegrass is entering a drought-induced dormancy and will recover when moisture returns. Depending on rain forecast and soil properties, it may be helpful to water once late next week

Did you know that lawn and garden watering account for an average of 40% of total household water usage during the summer? Plus, one of the biggest threats to our waters today is polluted runoff water. By installing a rain barrel you are making a difference in the community! ☔

Rain and snowmelt from city streets can carry all sorts of #pollutants into storm drains. But catch basins are one way that #stormwater systems work to filter out leaves and other debris, keeping it out of our lakes and streams! Learn more on our website: bit.ly/3xlKuCF

We are looking for lawns to study as part of the new MSP Urban LTER--if you are in the Twin Cities 7-county metro area and are interested in participating, please read more about the project and sign up at z.umn.edu/6ye1

Check out this amazing application that lets you trace the path of a raindrop from anywhere in the United States to its final destination: river-runner.samlearner.com

New at the Spring Lake boat launch! The I-LIDS station is an automatic boat inspecting device that helps stop the spread of aquatic invasive species to maintain the quality of Spring Lake for native fish, wildlife, and recreation. #AIS More info here: environmentalsentry.com/preventative-i…

Our staff is sampling macroinvertebrates at the Kasota Ponds! Macroinvertebrates are animals without a backbone that are large enough to be seen with the naked eye. We sample the Kasota Ponds every five years. (1/4)

#Macroinvertebrates are great indicators of long-term health of #wetlands and other waterbodies. Last week, we collected macroinvertebrate samples from 5 wetlands in the District. The creatures are being preserved and will be identified to determine a wetland health score!

Last week, PLSLWD partnered with the SMSC and the YMCA Day Camp at Pike Lake to learn more about the importance and value of native aquatic plants. Aquatic vegetation is beneficial to lake ecosystems because it provides food, habitat, and oxygen to fish and wildlife!

Not ALL aquatic plants need clean water to survive! For example, you can often tell if a wetland has good water quality and a healthy ecosystem by looking @ plants in and around the water. We examined 5 wetlands in the District last month to score them for wetland health.

A new aquatic invasive species, Eurasian Watermilfoil, was found for the 1st time in Spring Lake this past July during a plant survey by Blue Water Science. After finding more EWM than expected during hand-pull removal, the Spring Lake Assoc. funded an EWM treatment for the fall.

Join the PLSLWD and the City of Prior Lake for this year's Clean Water Clean Up event. All ages are welcome to our Storm Drain Stenciling on Saturday, Sept. 25 from 9:45 - Noon....SIGN UP HERE! signupgenius.com/go/10c0f4fa9af…

Thank you to everyone who participated in last weekend's Storm Drain Stenciling event! Volunteers stenciled 70 drains in Prior Lake. These stencils remind us to keep pollution and hazardous waste out of storm drains... they're connected to our local waterways after all!

The Prior Lake Outlet Channel is an outlet to the otherwise landlocked Prior Lake. Excess water from Prior Lake flows through this natural and constructed channel to the MN River. Thanks to all who joined the outlet channel tour last week! More info: arcgis.com/apps/MapJourna…...

There's a new carp #barrier in the #watershed! Located in a (currently dry and muddy!) channel on the west side of Spring Lake, its vertical bars allow for native fish passage, yet will stop spawning sized #carp from migrating upstream to a popular #spawning wetland come spring.

As our lake monitoring season comes to a close, we'd like to thank our Citizen Assisted Monitoring Program (CAMP) volunteers! The water quality data collected by citizen scientists helps us to identify and treat impaired waters. Interested in volunteering? Contact us!

It's been a successful week of trap netting on Jeffers Pond! We implanted tags in some carp for tracking purposes and surveyed the fish population. We found bluegills, several types of sunfish, black bullheads, and a northern pike!