News and Events

Straka letter on RLWMA draft_5_30_23

Red Lake WMA planning – May 19th draft master plan

May 31, 2023

To: Kelly Straka, MNDNR FAW, Wildlife Section Manager, Red Lake WMA Planning Team, Executive Sponsor

From: WMA/AMA Stewardship Network

May 31, 2023

Can we talk?

By Stephanie Hemphill | August 20, 2022 |

Tribal and non-tribal governments work harder at understanding each other’s concerns. http://www.agatemag.com/2022/08/can-we-talk/. 

Mercury and the St. Louis River

The Minnesota Polution Control Agency (MPCA) has recently restarted working on the Mercury TMDL (Total Maximum Daily Load) for the St. Louis River. The problem of mercury in fish in the river has long been a concern of the McCabe Chapter of the Izaak Walton League. There is a complex relationship between elemental mercury in the environment, microbes in anerobic organic sediments, sulfate pollution and water levels that determine how much methylmercury accumulates in fish making them unfit to eat.

Here's a research report that helps to explain this issue for those of you who are interested in the scientific side of this problem. For those who are not science oriented, the Plain Language Summary on the first page does a nice job of explaining things in understandable terms. 

Finally, here's a short power point by Bruce Monson of the MPCA that outlines the Mercury TMDL process for the St. Louis River.