About Us
How We Got Started
In the Spring of 2001, the Lake Plantagenet Landowners’ Association was formed in response to a concern for the future of lake and water quality that would be affected by a new state law. A Minnesota State Law had recently been passed to allow logs - many from the 1900’s logging era - to be “harvested” from three “test” lakes. Lake Plantagenet was one of them.
Several concerned Lake Plantagenet landowners immediately began organizing a grassroots opposition to the timber harvesting. After several meetings, it was concluded the first step in changing the law would be to form a lake association.
In May of 2001, the first official Lake Plantagenet Landowners’ Association (LPLA) meeting was held. By late May, the Association called a public meeting and invited all local political and DNR representatives to make known their opposition to the log removal plan.
LPLA’s position was that the log removal could be:
- hazardous-there was no conclusion that it was a safe practice
- environmentally risky: possible release of mercury or other contaminants
- a disturbance of established fish habitat
- a long term risk to entire ecosystems and safe human consumption of fish
- noise pollution
The Association felt that other steps toward estimating environmental impact, as well as a cost-benefit analysis should have been done first before actually going into a lake and removing logs.
The LPLA moved aggressively as the July start date on the harvesting of the timber was to begin. They established a political partner in Tony Kinkel who helped overturn the bill by drafting a bill that would prohibit the harvesting of timber from the bottom of Minnesota lakes, repealing the 2000 law. A number of individuals on the LPLA put in many hours of work to generate public interest and involvement in the successful turn-around of the law in 2001.
Log removal may be a thing of the past, but the Lake Plantagenet Landowners’ Association remains a viable and active organization to this day. LPLA members continue to work toward sustaining and preserving this amazing resource.
