LOVE LAKES

On The Cover

TITLED “SUNSET SUPERMAN,” SAMANTHA ZABUKOVER SHARED THIS PHOTO OF HUK, THEIR ENGLISH SPRINGER SPANIEL, TAKING A SPLASH TO COOL OFF BY DIVING INTO THE DEEP END OF WHITE SAND LAKE IN BAXTER.

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The PineandLakes Echo Journal is a weekly newspaper covering the Pequot Lakes and Pine River areas and is owned by Forum Communications Company in Fargo, North Dakota

Love of the Lakes combines stories with information and maps for different lakes in the area We dedicate the magazine to the families and businesses around each featured lake or lake chain

Sources for lake map information and statistics include the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources: http://www dnr state mn us

“We were serious. We couldn’t do it all anymore,” Brandt said. “We need some good people who can step in for us.”

Volunteers coordinate and do the work necessary to keep the islands open to the public.

The islands offer 12 campsites, each with a fire pit, on a first-come first served basis; no reservations are taken. There’s no running water or electricity. There are five privies.

Big Island has 1.5 miles of hiking trails.

People can use the islands for free, though there are donation boxes, as well as bulletin boards with information and rules.

Had enough volunteers not stepped up, the joint powers board also considered no longer providing firewood for campsites, eliminating overnight camping and/or fire pits and not having monitors visit the islands during the summer.

They weren’t looking for more campers or people to use the islands; there are plenty of both. They needed volunteers.

People answer the call

Many of the same people have been doing all the work since the islands opened to the public. Back then, they were retirees in their 60s.

Fortunately, new volunteers came forward both at the start and end of summer 2023. About a dozen people indicated interest, though some are seasonal cabin owners or had other projects going on as well.

“We had five good people that came to our (August) meeting,” Brandt said. “They said, ‘We’re interested.’”

He was happy with the number who came forward, as well as relieved, but noted there are still openings.

“This is really an area of wonderful people,” Brandt said.

At a May 2024 meeting, the joint powers board invited the new volunteers from the previous summer meeting, along with other new volunteers who indicated an interest in the past.

They planned to define and dole out duties and form monitor and maintenance crews.

Volunteer duties

Volunteer monitors take shifts to go to the islands every day from June to September to educate campers. If there are enough volunteers, monitors may be needed once every two weeks instead of weekly.

Volunteer crews help maintain the islands weekly and clean up after big storms that may knock down trees over trails or after ice-out that sometimes causes damage.

They clean up the sites, mow the grass and check the trails.

Volunteers provide all firewood for the islands, cutting and splitting wood in the fall. New volunteers showed up last fall to split 25 cords.

“All of a sudden people said, ‘I’ll help here. I’ll help there,’” Brandt said, noting they had a dozen people and four to five wood splitters last fall, which is more than usual.

The Big Island camping area is shown in August 2023.

They load and haul the wood to the islands during the winter when the ice is thick enough and a road’s been plowed. Then they unload all the wood by hand and haul it to designated areas on each island.

Of course, the winter of 2023-24 wasn’t cold enough to freeze the ice to a thickness considered safe enough to haul wood to the islands. Brandt said this was the first time in his memory this happened.

“We didn’t haul any firewood to the islands with the unsafe lake ice conditions this past winter. We’re nearly out of wood in the cove,” he said. “Now, how do you get wood — 15 to 25 cords — over open water to all the Islands?”

To volunteer

Anyone interested in becoming a Big Island volunteer should contact Jim Brandt at 612-716-7840 or jbrandt@ uslink.net; or Judy Topinka at haylake@ tds.net.

In summer 2024, the joint powers board plans to put a memorial on the island for longtime volunteer Dave Topinka, who died in January 2024.

“He was a phenomenal part of the organization,” Brandt said.

That’s a task the joint powers board and volunteers will tackle.

Once a year, restoration work may take place on one or more of the islands’ shorelines and steep sandy slopes, so volunteers are needed not only to transport a Conservation Corps Minnesota & Iowa crew to the Islands, but also to help with the restoration project.

Big Island history

In the late 1980s, the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources owned the islands and wanted to sell them. Resorters and others realized the islands were a big asset to the Whitefish Chain and wanted to keep them.

Now, the state and Crow Wing County each own parts of the three islands. A land transfer from the federal government to the state required it not to be logged or developed.

The joint powers board made up of representatives from Ideal Township, Crow Wing County and the DNR formed in 1990 to govern the islands.

The recreational area is named for the late Rollie Johnson, a resort owner who was instrumental in taking care of the islands in the 1980s and early 1990s, up until the joint powers board was formed.

In the last 20 years, the board became more aggressive in its efforts to maintain the islands.

Literature says: “Big Island is a rare surviving example of an undisturbed oldgrowth maple-basswood forest. Trees 150 years old tower up to 100 feet above the forest floor, sheltering a rich assortment of flowering plants unusual this far north in MInnesota. The butternut tree found here is the north-westerly-most record for this species.”

Nancy Vogt is editor of the Pineandlakes Echo Journal weekly newspaper in Pequot Lakes/Pine River. She may be reached at 218-855-5877 or nancy.vogt@pineandlakes.com.

An architectural rendering of the National Loon Center campus shows the loon center at center, which will be built between County State Aid Highway 3 and Swann Drive in Crosslake, between Reed’s Market and the CSAH 66 business strip. For reference, from top left is the business strip from Andy’s Bar & Grill to Pine Peaks. Contributed