Minnesota’s Small Lakes: Archiving stories, climate observations, and attitudes about climate change

Citizen Science for Understanding Climate on Minnesota Lakes

Minnesota is home to more than 14,380 lakes larger than 10 acres, and 39 percent of those lakes are smaller than 100 acres. Larger lakes in Minnesota are well studied in the context of environmental change, but smaller lakes are not.

With so many lakes to choose from, many Minnesotans have strong personal connections to particular bodies of water - perhaps to a special lake near a family cabin, a favorite trout stream, a lake where they harvest wild rice or even just the landscape that is the backdrop to a family reunion. Those water bodies are often stressed from human use and climate changes: some are not drinkable, fishable or swimmable, despite millions of dollars invested by various agencies and landowners. 

This project seeks to link personal stories of climate on lakes – ice-out dates, dock-out dates, fishing, swimming and boating stories – to weather and lake records to examine how climate events are impacting our small lakes and stakeholders on those lakes. It will also evaluate whether participation in citizen science helps link a personal connection to a global understanding of climate.

This will involve recruiting and training a new team of citizen scientists on small lakes in Minnesota to collect data on precipitation and water quality, building on the successful training, measurement and reporting of the citizen scientist network of the Community Collaborative Rain, Hail and Snow Network (CoCoRaHS). 

Project Goals

• Identify 4–6 lakes and compile pre-existing data sets including Minnesota Lake Explorer Data, CoCoRaHS observations of precipitation, and other public data sources for lakes and nearby streams
• Recruit and train citizen scientists to collect daily weather records, weekly lake temperature and lake water clarity data
• Survey citizen scientists before and after participating in data collection to assess the effect of participation on scientific curiosity and attitudes towards environmental change
• Collect oral histories that contribute to a cultural and historical climate record for the surveyed lakes