Debris on Pelican Lake

Last evening, I had the pleasure of a kayak trip on Pelican Lake, just west of our home in St. Michael. I reclaimed perhaps 18 pounds of various trash (I cannot be completely accurate as I did not have my scale along). And I saw hundreds of pounds of additional debris that I could not reclaim from the vantage point of a kayak. There were a number of items that appeared to be one type of farm equipment or another.

Recently, I have learned these items were likely not discarded by someone as pollution. On the contrary, it is likely these items were borrowed by a spring flood -- and never returned -- as a temporary rise became a semi-permanent body of water that became known as Pelican Lake. (But I’ll offer more on that story later.)

© 2010 Mike D. Anderson. All rights reserved.