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Lake Martha Lake Association

Meeting Minutes

June 11, 2013 

The June meeting was called order at 7:23.

Minutes from the May meeting were read and approved.

Treasurer’s report was given and approved.  Checking balance on 5/08/13 was $1,782.55. Savings balance was $3,164.93. There are two outstanding checks, COLA dues for $25 and water sampling program for $225.

Craig renewed the Lake Martha website hosting service, there was no charge.

Jim reported the weather has allowed two good days for secchi disc readings, they were 8 ft and 9 ft.  He has been doing the water samples and will do another on next Monday.  The lake looked clear with some algae noted.

In the May meeting we talked about changing the Bylaws to hold officer elections at the August meeting. Jim checked into it and we can only change the bylaws in the September meeting.

Bill and Joyce volunteered to host the July meeting, which was cancelled.  Jim will ask them to host the September meeting, as there was no host scheduled yet.  Julie Kasa volunteered to host if Bill and Joyce were unable to.

To date there are 4 volunteers for Picnic Planning Committee, Sue, Julie, Theresa and Angela.  Julie suggested we have a teen group join in the committee.  All thought it was a good plan.  We welcome additional volunteers.

Kyle Smeby brought attention to a problem he wanted the residents to be aware of.  He has noticed an infestation of Cedar/Apple Fungus.  It has the potential to kill many apple trees.  Attached is a informational sheet. Dave suggested Steve Hancock might be a good resource for this problem as he had worked at 3 rivers parks.

Dave and Jim noted we have new residents in the former homes of the Ladds, Garonsin and Jacobson/Wenzels.

We attempted to place the buoy, but could not locate the hook-up.  We talked about the placement of the buoy, boating rules and etiquette.  All boaters on the lake need to follow these and be considerate of others so we can all enjoy the lake.

Meeting was adjourned at 7:55.

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Sent on Behalf of Kyle Smeby:

I wanted to pass along an issue that may need to be discussed that concerns everyone that has either cedar, juniper, apple or crab apple trees. I've attached a picture of an interesting alien lifeform that has taken up residence in our cedar and juniper trees (this picture was taken on the public land behind my house). That little guy is something called Cedar Apple Rust (it's wet in the picture, when it dries the orange tentacles shrink and look like little brown horns). It's a fungus that requires both cedar and apple trees to survive (which is weird). If anyone has experience with these I'm hoping they'll say it just goes away, but with the wet spring we've had it looks like it could get pretty out-of-hand. Next year if we have another wet spring it could end up killing a lot of the apple trees and disfiguring the cedars. I've seen pictures of cedar trees entirely taken over by the fungus so that it looks like an orange slime tree after it rains.

Apparently it started last year, those with apple trees may have noticed yellow spots on the leaves and some damage to the fruit. That was the same fungus that spread spores to the cedar trees which grow these interesting "galls" that spread the spores back to the apple trees. The only permanent solution is to not have both varieties of trees within several miles of each other. Which doesn't seem practical as there are a lot of both varieties of tree in the area. I also went and looked around on the public land between 33 and the lake and the cedar and juniper there are infected as well.

According to the woman running the nursery where Tatanka Gardens used to be, the only possibility is to treat the apple trees in the neighborhood with an anti-fungal treatment next year before the trees flower and that could break the cycle, but there are a lot of big apple trees in the neighborhood and unless we get all the trees it will only slow it down a little. I'm going to try and prune off more of the galls from the cedar and juniper in my yard and might get a few on the public land behind my house, but I'm hoping someone knows more about this than me and has some other suggestions.

Thanks,

Kyle Smeby

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