To the Editor:
Finally some common sense. This is in response to Rick Kriese's column on March 21. Mr. Kriese is a certified crop adviser and ag instructor at Mitchell Technical Institute. I think his statement that the high phosphorous levels on Lake Mitchell are not only from Firesteel Creek, but also from the manicured lawns from homeowners around the lake, people washing vehicles and soaps leaching and other factors is right on target.
I've lived in Mitchell my whole life (more than 50 years), and I've probably fished Lake Mitchell more than anyone alive right now (ask my wife). Over the years, I've seen the city of Mitchell spend taxpayers dollars to dredge the lake-which ripped out many of the cattails at the west end of the lake (natural filtration). I watch year after year as the city tears out trees and grass along the shoreline and puts in rip-rap (in the name of shore stabilization).
I watch year after year as people buy homes on the lake that used to be summer cabins, tear them down and build big, beautiful homes with nice, green lawns. Year after year, I watch as homeowners tear out natural things like trees, cattails and anything "unsightly" and make beaches, boulder shorelines and anything that makes it "pretty."
People buying or building homes around Lake Mitchell are well aware of the algae problems. Let's quit spending taxpayers dollars "studying" the problem. One of the reasons the out-of-town company wants to help us clean up the lake is to bolster property values of the homes around the lake. Really!
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How about saving those dollars and listening to the experts that live right here in Mitchell? (Mr. Kriese for one.) Phosphorous-free fertilizers, less shoreline destruction, maybe growing native grasses or cattails along a certain percentage of shoreline property (public and private). My appreciation to Mr. Kriese.
Stewart Hanson
Mitchell
