RED LAKE – Ice fishing season is just around the corner, and the Upper Red Lake Area Association’s Keep It Clean Committee has taken action to address the growing problem of trash and human waste left on the ice during the season.
One can only guess where all the beer cans, fish guts, human waste, propane cylinders and tons of trash go when the ice melts in the spring, making it an uphill battle against fishing trash. on ice because they affect the environment, summer tourism and lake fishing.
In the fall of 2021, the Upper Red Lake Area Association joined the Keep It Clean campaign. The campaign was founded 10 years ago by Mike Hirst, a resource technician with the Lake of the Woods Soil, Water and Conservation District and Joe Henry, executive director of Lake of the Woods Tourism. They saw the need to start focusing on ways to prevent ice fishermen from polluting the lake with human waste and bio-waste during the ice fishing months.
“(The committee) started their efforts because the people up there recognized that there was a huge amount of garbage, garbage and human waste left behind by those who enjoy the winter fishing season,” said Robyn Dwight, president of the Upper Red Lake Area Association. , who also helped introduce Keep It Clean to Red Lake.
Contributed
A number of popular ice fishing lakes are also starting to see the problem. Lake of the Woods, Upper Red Lake and Mille Lacs Lake have all seen a major increase in the popularity of ice fishing over the past 15 years resulting in a large amount of trash and trash being left on the ice each season.
These three lakes, along with a recent alliance with Lake Vermilion, are all part of the Keep It Clean committee, advocating for change and hoping to form more alliances with other Minnesota lakes to grow the movement. throughout the state.
“It’s a dirty problem that needs to be talked about”
The Department of Natural Resources reported that the sport of ice fishing is growing, in part due to the surge in outdoor recreational activities during the pandemic as well as the growing popularity of “wheelhouses.”
With better technology, better gear, and recreational-style fishing houses, staying on the ice for longer periods of time is more enjoyable. But that comes at a price – increased activity means more trash and trash left on the ice.
“Fish houses that have the ability to stay on frozen lakes for days and weeks at a time have black water holding tanks, but we don’t have four-season dump stations in northern Canada. Minnesota where these people can empty their trailers. toilets,” Dwight said. “It’s a nasty problem to talk about, but it ends up being a huge problem for the residents who end up cleaning up that trash every spring when they come to shore.”
Annalize Braught / Bemidji Pioneer
This is noticeable in the statistics. According to a survey conducted by the DNR, a report from the Winter Creel survey recorded that Upper Red Lake estimated 85,000 ice fishing nights in the 2020-2021 season – its highest number on record. And more than 79,000 over the 2021-2022 season. Compared to previous years, 2014-2020, when the numbers hovered around 60,000.
Unfortunately, there are no RV dump stations in the area for winter use, except for two locations in the town of Baudette. The problems associated with emptying holding tanks in sub-zero temperatures make emptying stations expensive to build and maintain.
“It’s a problem for the fishery (Red Lake) because we don’t need more phosphorus loading in the lakes. Extra phosphates are hard on all life forms in aquatic systems,” Dwight said. “We also have to worry about summer tourism, nobody wants to swim at the beach when there is a potential bag of human waste stuck in the sand.”
Contributed
The local Keep it Clean committee responded to this issue by creating a pilot program to run during the 2022-2023 winter fishing season. They will set up 15-meter dumpsters, lidded and labeled with sani liners and place them at four major resorts on the shores of Upper Red Lake, just to drop off toiletry bags.
Dwight and the committee hope that once anglers and visitors know how, where and why their remains and waste should be handled and that they cannot be left on the lake, under the lake or along the shore, they will do a better job of disposing of it and disposing of it the right way.
The regional Keep It Clean committee strives to create education and awareness of this issue while providing the resources and infrastructure necessary to achieve its goals. While there are no specific winter fishing waste and garbage regulations in Minnesota, the team continues to fight for change through legislation.
“We need things like proper bins and trash bags. We need dumpsters specifically for human waste,” Dwight said. “We need more regulations specific to winter fishing, because believe it or not, there is no legislation in Minnesota specific to the needs of people who fish in the winter.”
Dwight also said there may be a future Keep it Clean push for a state litter law specific to frozen lakes that could be enforced during ice fishing season by state conservation officers. .
“We need more attention on anglers doing the wrong thing to make sure they change their ways,” she added.
Annalize Braught / Bemidji Pioneer
To help reduce the amount of litter left on the ice,
Keep It Clean encourages ice anglers and their guests to follow these steps:
- Make a plan for garbage and waste removal before you arrive. Whether you access the lake by public or private access, plan to remove from the lake what you take onto the lake. Many hotspots and resorts offer garbage collection services. If your site doesn’t, make a plan to ship it home for disposal.
- Use colored garbage bags. In snowy conditions, white garbage bags can be difficult to see. Brightly colored or even black bags are easier to spot, reducing the risk of waste being inadvertently left behind.
- Take a moment before leaving the ice to make sure you’ve picked up all the trash in your area. And if you notice someone else left something behind, take a moment to pick it up and bring it with you.
- Secure your waste before you travel. High winds, bumpy ice roads and other conditions on or off the lake can cause unsecured trash bags to fall off truck beds and trailers and sleds without you even realizing it.
- Make sure you have the tools you need to move or remove a fish house. Support blocks, insulation, landscaping fabric, wood and other materials should be properly disposed of and not left behind.
“Human waste has no place on the ice, under the ice, or along our shorelines,” Dwight said. “It’s a way forward to develop a truly sustainable program across all lakes, not just ours.”
For more information, visit the Red Lake Association’s Keep It Clean website at
