The Lake Management Planning Grant, also a cost share with DLR, has completed a study you are about to read. We look to this report for recommendations. Desair Lake Restoration has plenty to do: We have constant monitoring of water quality, destructive construction on the watershed, and the watch for exotic invasive species. Farmers will work to keep the nutrients on the fields where they want them. Poorer fields for farming will continue to grow back to forest. And in this process we gather for picnics and fundraisers, to talk and plan, to walk the trails and meet on the lake in our boats. It is this joining together that adds meaning and joy to our work. When the sediment slows to near presettlement levels, we may then dream of clear water again.

On 8 July 2004 cores were taken from three locations in Desair Lake…In summary, the diatom community indicates that Lake Desair has undergone a large change in water quality during the last 100 years. There has been a large increase in nutrients, especially phosphorus, a decline in water color, and an increase in alkalinity. These changes are likely the result of agricultural activities in the watershed. These changes resulted in the increased delivery of phosphorus and sediment from the watershed which caused higher nutrient levels and more solids (alkalinity) in the lake.

Desair Lake Restoration Inc. will conduct a series of analyses to assess the significance of internal nutrient loading relative to external loading to assist in evaluating future lake management alternatives for Desair Lake in Barron County. The USGS will delineate the lake watershed, conduct in-lake, tributary and groundwater water quality monitoring and collect lake stage data. Cedar Corporation will map and characterize watershed landuse including sensitive and habitat areas and the location of recently installed best management practices and conduct a sociological survey of recreational uses and the public's understanding of lake issues.