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2021 Parker's Prairie High
School Environmental Science Day |
Our Lake Association amd Smokey Timbers
sponsored Marlene Schoeneck's Parkers
Prairie environmental class project at
Lake Miltona in October.
The essential question of
the project was "10,000 Lakes and a
Faucet....Why Should I Worry?" Their
project explored what is happening to
Lake Miltona to cause the proliferation
of "weeds" on the lake in certain
areas.
Lake Miltona "weeds"
have been slowly increasing in recent
years, but the past five years they have
become more extreme. Many residents who
have lived on the lake for many years
have said they they have never seen
anything like it. The other mystery is
there are areas of excessive
proliferation of vegetation, and others
that have a "normal" amount of "weeds".
To explore these questions two areas
of Lake Miltona with different "weed"
growth were chosen. A slide show was
presented to 1) review the student's
experimental procedures used to explore
these areas, 2) the data obtained, and
3) their conclusions.
See details
and photographs at the links below. |
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Slides |
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Presentation |
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Photos |
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2019 Water Quality Parker's
Prairie High School "College In The
Schools" |
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| Marlene
Schoeneck's Parkers Prairie High School
"College in the Schools" Environmental
Biology class was hosted September 25th
on Lake Miltona at the Smokey Timbers
site by the Lake Miltona Association for
a research program sing the Guiding
question: "How do our
streams and quality of water affect the
fish (particularly Walleye) population
in Lake Miltona?" |
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| The class was
divided into three teams that assessed
both a stream inlet, and an open water
site. An LMA member guided each
team to various lake locations to carry
out their assessments. These
included obtaining water samples for
chemical analyses, water clarity, and
plankton surveys. They also
characterized the zebra mussel levels,
depth of vegetation, and temperature as
a function of depth in the lake. For the
streams, they measured flow rates and
made general observations concerning the
characteristics of the streams, their
culverts, and how the stream interacts
with the surround ecosystem. |
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| The data that
each group collected was then used to
answer their priority questions, and to
make a claim, or claims, to answer the
Guiding Question. They complied
evidence to support their claims and
related it to logical justification for
the claims based on science and
ecological processes. |
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| Their work and
conclusions were summarized in a
presentation given to the LMA Board of
Directors at our October 12th board
meeting. Their
presentation and conclusions
(pdf) can be viewed in a separate
browser window. |
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2018 Water Quality Parker's
Prairie High School "College In The
Schools" |
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Students from
Marlene Schoeneck's Environmental
Biology class partnered with the Lake
Association members Paul Anderson, Steve
DeSutter, and Gene Rose to collect data
on the lake on September 27, 2018.
The project
focus was to determine the cause of
increased aquatic vegetation in various
areas of the lake. Data collected
included plant types, water clarity,
bottom substrate, nitrates, phosphates,
and shoreline plant cover. All these
were evaluated as possible contributors
to an increased plant growth.
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CONCULSIONS |
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Although there is no hard and fast
conclusions to date, the studenyts' data
did give some strong indicators.
Comparing to historical DNR data, the
following conclusions were made: |
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PHOSPHATE - levels are steady
NUTRIENT LOAD - does not appear
to have changed significantly.
PLANT
SPECIES - does not appear to
have changed significantly.
WATER
CLARITY - has increased in
recent years due to filtering by zebra
mussels.
PLANT
GROWTH - was greater in areas
with "mucky" bottom substrate. Appears
to be more prevalent in areas with
organic soil runoff. Shorelines
that are primarily sand had less
vegetation. There also seems to be a
relationship with bulrushes holding
organic matter in shorelines.
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The reports listed below will provide
all the student's details and findings. |
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LakeMiltona.pdf |
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LakeMitonaStudy.pdf |
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LakeMiltonaStudyData.pdf |
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OurConclusion.pdf |
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2015 Water Quality Evaluation Project
Findings |
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A special thanks for the work by
Marlene Schoeneck's Environmental
Biology Class Parker's
Prairie for data collection and
interpretation of the status of the
zebra mussel infestation in Lake
Miltona. We look forward to continuing
our program of water quality evaluation
with them.
You can read a full
description of their project in the
Nov 2015 Newsletter
(pdf). Below are links
to the evaluation reports on Inlet
Stream and Mussel Threat. |
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