White Bear Water level

[HugoBox]

I'm sure most of you have at least heard about the water level at WBL. Lots of angst in the north metro about it. Does anyone know of a precedent of a lake disappearing and what if anything was done about it? Putting my musky interests aside, it's sad to see a lake disappearing before our eyes.

[RK]

I think the muskies are drinking all the water... We shouldn't stock them anymore...

[Nick Kuhn]

Truck in a million tons of snow into the drainage basin (don't pile it up on the lake though, as there's too much junk in the snow).

In all honesty though it should be just left alone. Water levels fluctuate. I think Shell Lake in NW WI is in a similar situation (actually those lakes have a ton of similarities), but I don't think there's any panic yet. Just wait for rain to fill them back up, as cyclic changes in water level are beneficial to the lake. With Shell I've marked one spot then when the water returns to normal levels, I'll be certain to find some smallies hanging out there. Good time for fisherman to go scope out some spots (or see why some spots produced in the past). You can learn a lot from low water. In fact the first time I went to the Dairyland Flowage I spent about an hour just looking at the pictures they took of fish structures they built while the flowage was drawn down.

[JRedig]

Truck in a million tons of snow into the drainage basin (don't pile it up on the lake though, as there's too much junk in the snow).

In all honesty though it should be just left alone. Water levels fluctuate. I think Shell Lake in NW WI is in a similar situation (actually those lakes have a ton of similarities), but I don't think there's any panic yet. Just wait for rain to fill them back up, as cyclic changes in water level are beneficial to the lake.

I agree completely. It's not the first time it's been way down. Recorded history there is what, 100 years old? So we know didly squat about the last 10k years.

However, the whole trucking snow thing might not be so dumb...pile it on the beach, let the sand filter etc, but all the big mall's and other area's need their parking lots cleared and run out of room fast...hmmmmmm.

[Lare Pie]

I would also concur what a couple of people said. This has happened in the past, maybe not q

[Lare Pie]

I would concur what a couple of people have said. This has happened in the past, not quite this low but the water level came back to normal. It took 5 to 7 yrs. It might take a little longer this time but only time will tell. No worries.

[RuKiddingMe]

Unfortunately rain isn't going to help, Wbl is down for the same reason that the lakes on the highway 8 corridor are down. There is a water table that feed these few lakes yet has nothing to do with other surrounding lakes (forest, bald eagle and others) and until that watertable recovers from the droughts of years past we will continue to have low levels on these lakes. Sucks there is no quick fix, but rest assured Box our favorite pond won't disappear and just to think it will be like fishing a new lake again when it rebounds, new needles and structures all over.

At least this is what I have heard from engineers and hydrollogist.

[BoxMN]

Hey RU, did you go to that meeting they had a couple weeks ago? I was not in town, so missed it. From what I heard pretty basic stuff from a hydrologist, nothing really spectacular mentioned...