Who wrote, “If you are paying attention you should be outraged”?
Significant momentum is occurring all across the White Bear Area with neighborhood organizations forming around their local water bodies to “take back the lakes” after years of onslaught from urban pollution.
The Vadnais Lake Area Watershed Management Organization (VLAWMO) has been a leader in local scientific study on the quality of several resources, including Goose Lake and Lambert Creek. This is inspiring to local citizen-scientists. These long-neglected local resources are finally receiving the attention they deserve. Restoring these water bodies will in turn provide the priceless opportunity for urban kids to develop a passion for fishing and valuing nature.
Long-time citizen leaders at Birch Lake have been well organized for a couple of years now. They have witnessed irreverent onslaught after onslaught for many years and finally more formally organized to “take back the lake”.
An active citizen organization is also in the midst of their first season of citizen-scientist volunteer data collection on Priebe Lake. The Priebe Lake Homeowners Association has a vision of seeing a resource like it was a couple of decades ago with crystal clear waters supported by known groundwater springs. Currently the lake suffers from massive stormwater pipe outlets installed in the past 10-15 years.
