Respecting the Gifts of the Creator
By VIVIAN LaMOORE, INAAJIMOWIN EDITOR
There is a growing popularity of winter activity on area lakes. That is a good thing. It is encouraging to see so many Band members exercising their rights and participating in cultural practices of spearing and fishing according to Kelly Applegate, Mille Lacs Band Commissioner of Natural Resources. It is also a good thing to note that Band members are being mindful to be good stewards of the lake to keep it clean he added.
“As Anishinaabe, we honor and respect the Manidoog of the lake and take great care of the sacred gifts provided to our people,” Commissioner Applegate said.
But with the growing number of anglers out on all Minnesota lakes, there seems to be a growing problem of garbage and trash that is being left behind when anglers exit the lake. The newly implemented Keep It Clean campaign focuses on leaving no trace, and in a sense is connected to respecting the lake according to the values of Anishinaabe.
The campaign began on Lake of the Woods over a decade ago, according to the Lake of the Woods tourism website. Recently Upper Red Lake and Mille Lacs Lake have joined in the efforts as well. The campaign focuses on education, awareness, enforcement, and cleanup efforts.
Band member Bradley Harrington is on the Mille Lacs Area Community Foundation that focuses on projects within the Mille Lacs Lake Watershed area. The committee recently adopted the Keep It Clean campaign for Mille Lacs Lake. Bradley said the campaign ties into the Adopt a Shoreline campaign hosted by Mille Lacs Corporate Ventures with support from the Mille Lacs Band DNR. The annual Adopt a Shoreline event encourages community volunteers to attend a cleanup day each spring in an effort to clean-up the shoreline after a long cold winter.
The amount of trash that is collected each spring can be reduced by doing a better job of cleaning up in the winter.
“We want to educate people on the effects of leaving garbage behind, but also it’s about being a good harvester,” Bradley said. “There’s trash out there alright — a lot of trash sometimes,” said Carl Klimah, Mille Lacs Band DNR fisheries manager and biologist. Carl, along with many of the staff of the DNR fisheries department spends a great deal of time out on the lakes because let’s face it — that is where the fish are. But that is also where the fisheries and wildland crews, who help maintain roads and fish/spear houses, are finding a lot of trash left behind by winter anglers.
“People need to remember, that when the ice melts in the spring, the trash either sinks or it floats creating what I call a ‘trashberg,’ which gets stuck in bays before washing up on shore,” Carl said.
Items left behind by winter anglers run the gamut from cigarette butts to propane tanks to plastic bottles and aluminum cans, to slabs of wood used to prop up fish houses, and even cases of empty beer bottles and bags of human waste.
Along with the unsightliness of the rubbish left behind it also poses a threat to birds. Terns and the double-crested cormorant who nest on Spirit and Hennepin Islands collect pieces of trash and use it to line their nests. But it can also cause the birds serious harm if they are tangled in it. Pelicans, gulls, and herons can also get caught and tangled in excess garbage, especially piles of loose monofilament fishing line. Over the years, Mille Lacs Band crews along with the United States Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) have picked up hundreds of pounds of trash off Spirit Island as well as along the shore.
“Being out among our gifts we were given as Anishinaabe it is up to us to leave the area better than what it was. That is a good teaching to follow,” Bradley said. “Be respectful to the fish in their home, our relatives who use the lake, and be respectful of the Manidoog who have been placed in the lake to help the Anishinaabe.”
As the fisheries and wildlands crews are out on the lakes doing their daily routines, they pick up these items and bring them back to shore to be disposed of properly. The DNR is asking for the help of every Band member and angler to help in the efforts to keep the lake clean which in turn will help out everyone who uses the lake. “Most people are very mindful to not leave trash and for some it’s left by accident,” Commissioner Applegate said. “So if we all work together, we can reduce the harmful effects of the trash left on the ice. If you happen to see trash on the ice that’s not yours, please take a minute and pick it up. It may seem like a small thing to do to pick up a few empty cans, but you are showing an incredibly generous gesture and truly being a good steward of the lake.”
The month of March marks the end of the winter ice fishing and spearing season for hard water. Something to keep in mind while exiting the frozen lakes is the only imprints you should leave behind on the ice are your own footprints and tire tracks
