Officials: End of watershed project won't spell doom for Firesteel, Lake Mitchell

Two watershed project managers say efforts to clean up the waters of Firesteel Creek and Lake Mitchell will continue, regardless of what happens to the Firesteel Creek/Lake Mitchell Watershed Project.

The project’s funding is scheduled to expire June 30. Dave Kringen, the project manager, said an April 5 meeting about the project’s future should answer many questions.

“Everybody needs to take a breath until our meeting on the fifth, and everything will be fine,” Kringen said Tuesday to the Lake Mitchell Advisory Committee at City Hall.

The state Department of Environment and Natural Resources wants to roll the Firesteel Creek/Lake Mitchell Watershed Project into the Lower James River Watershed Project, which covers a larger area. The Firesteel project has been operating since 1998 with a goal of reducing the pollutants from cattle feedlots and other sources that flow into Firesteel Creek and fuel summertime algae blooms in Lake Mitchell.

State officials think it will be more efficient to roll the Firesteel project into the James River project, because the Firesteel area is a sub-watershed within the James River watershed. Some Mitchell city leaders fear that Firesteel Creek and Lake Mitchell would receive less emphasis as part of a bigger project.

Dave Bartel, manager of the Lower James River Watershed Project, said that’s not necessarily the case.

“No matter what happens, Firesteel Creek won’t be abandoned,” Bartel said.

The Lower James project began in 2008 and has funding through 2011. Bartel said the project specializes in the creation of “buffer strips” — areas along a waterway that are taken out of agricultural production and cultivated into densely vegetated cover that naturally filters runoff. Bartel works to convince landowners to join the program, and he uses funding from the federal government and other sources to help pay for the work.

Bartel said he’s been working hard. He pulled a disc in one farmer’s field, for example, in exchange for the farmer listening to a pitch about the project. Those efforts have resulted in the protection of 500 acres of land — mostly along James River tributaries — in the past five months.

“I’m very proud of that, and I’m very happy with that so far,” Bartel said.

He admitted, however, that he’s done little to no work so far in Davison County and that his project area does not extend all the way to the source of Firesteel Creek in Jerauld County.

Bartel said Kringen is handling the work in the Firesteel area for now.

He doesn’t know what will happen when the Firesteel project’s funding expires, but he said that “in the worst case scenario,” the Lower James project and the city of Mitchell could split the cost to hire Kringen so that he could continue his work along the Firesteel.

In other business Tuesday, Lake Mitchell Advisory Committee members:

• Were told by city Parks, Recreation and Forestry Director Randy Ahrendt that the city is already applying mosquito larvacide to ice, so that the larvacide will be ready to kill mosquitoes when the ice turns to standing water.

• Heard a report of a conversation that committee member Joe Kippes had with a city official from Houston, Texas, whom Kippes said had a very favorable opinion of the Solar Bee water circulators that the committee is studying as a way to combat algae blooms in Lake Mitchell.

• Agreed to conduct a vote sometime soon by e-mail on whether to recommend the purchase of a used Solar Bee to the City Council.

• Were told that Sandy Beach and Kibbee Park, which are both located on the shores of Lake Mitchell, have been temporarily closed do to problems with rising water and mud.

• Discussed further a proposal to recruit volunteer groups to clean up areas of the Lake Mitchell shoreline, with advice from Ahrendt to focus on the main public beach, the Sportsman’s Boat Ramp, the West Boat Ramp, the Indian Village recreational trail, Sandy Beach, the West End Bridge, Kiwanis Woodlot Park and the public access area at the northern terminus of Ohlman Street.

• Were told by committee member Mark Puetz that he has received permission from the city’s Park and Recreation Board to gather volunteers to clear overgrowth and make other improvements this summer to a quarter-mile trail that extends from Kiwanis Woodlot Park to the amphitheater.

• Were given copies of a 1930s master plan for the lake and a timeline of lake development from Puetz, who said the information was compiled by City Councilman Scott Houwman from the files of the Carnegie Resource Center.

• Decided to research an “algaecide” product that Kippes said was recommended by a city official he spoke to from Houston, Texas, who said the product may be useful in small areas of the lake that are especially algae-prone.

Tags: lake mitchell, firesteel creek, watershed project, news, local, environment