2012 Bog Removal

In the summer of 2012 tremendous downfalls hit the northern state of Minnesota, more specifically the Duluth area. The northern rivers brought us our highest water levels in decades. With high water levels comes big problems. Numerous lake homes flooded, lake shores eroded, and bogs broke away from the marsh lands. Big Pine lake is unique in that there is a river running through the north end of the lake all year long. Unfortunately, this meant the pieces of marsh land (aka bogs) broke away and started floating towards the dam. Many lake owners decided they were an eye-sore and pushed them down the river and right into the dam. Bogs are like icebergs – the smallest part of them is above water. With numerous lake owners continuing to do this during the high water level, the dam became clogged with bogs. Water in a river is constantly moving and it will find a way around any blockage. The river no longer free-flowed over the rock dam, but instead went around the dam taking down many trees, shore line and of course the lake water level.

The water level continued to decrease and for a very short period of time, it seemed as if everything was back to normal. But problems were a brewing and with the DNR out of the picture it was up to Big Pine Lake Association and SSD to take care of the severely damaged dam. The Association had to pay a company $11,000 out of the “New Dam” fund to fix the dam so a truck could cross and remove the bogs.

After the bogs were removed, many lake owners still continued to push the floating bogs down to the river. After a few members of the Lake Association saw this, they obtained a permit from the DNR allowing lake owners to take floating bogs and attach them to stable marshes.

Here are pictures of the numerous bogs that damaged the rock dam on Big Pine Lake.