Planning e-mail from Dr. Peter Sorensen (U of Minnesota) for 2/16/05 meeting with Rice/Fish Lake members:

Thanks very much for the thoughtful letter.  I am actually quite optimistic that given the time and the opportunity, we will be able to develop real solutions that will help lakes like Rice Lake.   I am sure you can appreciate the carp problem in our state is a huge.  Even with $500,000 over 4 years I can only go so far…   Not to complain – we are very lucky in a position to do anything at all.   Presently I  feel very strongly that I must focus on long-term (real) solutions and not short-term fixes.  Presently, we do not have plans (or funding, our funding was cut by 2/3) to test controls but this could change.  However, as our program develops, we hope to develop some kind of ‘outreach’ component that can link people in the state with carp problems and establish the long-term support that is really needed.  Your support is greatly appreciated (and absolutely necessary) here.  In particular, I would like to know whether their might be support from Rice Lake to help me develop a network of people with carp problems so that we can all work together on this together.  I would be very happy to talk with you further about all of these issue and hope have not been too vague or discouraging.

Best regards,

Peter

PS.  A particular reason to be optimistic is that I have partnered with a large group in Australia (phttp://www.pestanimal.crc.org.au/) that has substantially more funding, time, and technological know-how on carp and invasive species control than anyone in the US – we are not in this alone!

Peter W. Sorensen
Professor,
Dept. Fisheries, Wildlife & Conservation Biology*
University of Minnesota
1980 Folwell Avenue
St. Paul,  MN 55108
* Graduate Appointments in Ecology, Evolution & Behavior, Neuroscience, Conservation Biology
612-624-4997 (office)
612-625-5299 (FAX)
-----Original Message-----
Subject: Carp Control problem on Rice Lake (Hennepin County)

Dear Professor Sorensen:

I saw your name mentioned in the Star Tribune today in regard to the Carp Research initiative authorized by the Legislative Commission on Minnesota Resources and wanted to provide you with the opportunity to use our lake (Rice Lake in Maple Grove) as a potential lake for your research.

Our lake appears to meet several of the criteria outlined in the news article (smaller (330 acres); shallow; heavy carp population)  and I would be happy to discuss our lake association's concerns about reducing the carp population on our lake. We have the ability to draw down our lake, making it more likely to confine the carp in certain areas for capture. Our desire to seine these carp have been denied by the DNR since our lake is not a public access lake, so our options are limited to hiring commercial fishermen or take on the task ourselves.

We have hired a lake consultant who has many years of experience working for the DNR in the Fisheries department. One of the primary goals for hiring him included rough fish removal (he'll start doing spawning bed checks for us this spring).

Please feel free to contact me by e-mail ([email-masked]) or phone (daytime - 763-593-2044; evening - 763-420-8027).  I look forward to your response.

Feel free to visit our website at: http://homestead.RiceLake.com/.

Cordially,
George Schneider
Rice Lake Area Association