About

Minnesota Lake Lookout is a statewide community-based monitoring initiative led by Minnesota Sea Grant and the University of Minnesota Duluth’s Natural Resources Research Institute (NRRI) to address two critical water quality challenges: chloride pollution and cyanobacteria blooms. Chloride influxes and cyanobacteria blooms are difficult to track because they are episodic, occurring unpredictably and often are short in duration making it difficult for natural resource agencies to monitor, particularly in rural areas.

To bridge these critical data gaps, Minnesota Lake Lookout is working with lake associations, Soil and Water Conservation Districts (SWCDs), and Tribal and state natural resource agencies to engage a network of volunteers. By leveraging local knowledge and capacity of those already on the water to collect water samples during key times throughout the spring and summer, volunteers provide the data scientists need to better understand these two water quality problems.

Funded through June 30, 2028, by the Minnesota Environment and Natural Resources Trust Fund (MNENTRF) as recommended by the LCCMR, this project is dedicated to protecting the health of Minnesota’s aquatic ecosystems through local partnership and community engagement.