Carp Exclosure project

The Carp Exclosure project is a method for determining how carp impact our water quality, primarily how they can influence the growth of vegetation. The belief is that with the absence of carp, vegetation will be able to grow without being uprooted. Click here for an animation on how the carp can uproot plants from the lake bottom, especially in the shallow water.

The project consiste of creating a test site (2 in this case) with 2 seperate plots in each site - one fenced and another unfenced. Native vegetation is planted in both plots at each site with the objective to determine if the fenced site flourishes with the absence of carp.

Plants installed include both those resident on Rice Lake as well as some imported from Weaver Lake (in Maple Grove). Harvesting and Planting were both done by James Johnson from Freshwater Scientific Services. Volunteer assistance and support was provided by George Schneider, Jim Kridel, and Bill & Marie Kidder.

Week of September 27th the exclosures were removed from the lake. Formal report on results coming soon.