Heavy snow and difficult travel expected again, heaviest snow in southern Minnesota

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Kirsti Marohn

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Paul Middlestaedt

Volunteers this summer are rooting bulrushes and other plants into the mud flats of the drawn down, central Minnesota lake. It’s an experiment they hope will filter out pollution and help restore the lake's health.

Last week, Little Rock Lake's water level was lowered by several feet, and it will stay there for the next six weeks, while volunteers plant aquatic plants in the mud flats. The goal is to return the lake to its condition decades ago, when the water was clear and plant life thrived.

Native plants become a weapon in battle to save algae-choked Little Rock Lake

Clouds reflect in the lake as two volunteers plant in the mud.

Paul Middlestaedt for MPR News

Trays of tall green plants on a lakebed. 

A man in a blue shirt and yellow boots holds a tray of green plants. 

Two boys in green shirts carry a tray of plants along a lake. 

A boy in a hat and sunglasses put a plant in the mud near a lake. 

Seen from above, a volunteer makes footprints in the mud. 

A neon green t-shirt reads "the drawndown is on."

A boy drags a red sled with green plants along a lake shore. 

Evan Trompeter wades through algae-filled water in Little Rock Lake.

Green algae on the surface of a lake meets the shore. 

A small plant pokes through the mud as a hand presses it down. 

The sky is reflected in the lake beyond the muddy lakebed. 

Seen from above, a man drags 4 red sleds of plants across the mud. 

Native plants become a weapon in battle to save algae-choked Little Rock Lake

Go Deeper.

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