I know this could turn into a loaded question but here goes:

I bought a small cabin on a small lake(under 500 acres) just east on Mcgregor. I wanted to point out it is not on BSL. Anyway I have been doing alot of improvments over the past few years and stayed away from the shoreline as to find out what I can/cannot do. I have talked to many of the other cabin owners on the lake and the story is quite different from one to another. So I thought I would through it on the forum as many of you seem to be very knowlegeable to theat area.

To give you a idea of what I am dealing with: The shore is sandy and small rocks. The area I would like to clean up is at the waters edge. I have a 2-3 foot drop and the erosion is bad. Just walking into the water earth falls into the water and this can not be good for the lake? Can I put in a natural bolder/rock wall to stop this erosion? I know the DNR is not for altering the shoreline but I believe this wall would be better than erosion.

Again I know many people just do it and hope to not get caught. I even witnessed a cabin ouner with a bobcat dumping loads of sand on his property? I cannot believe this is legal?
Any advise or experiences I wouls love to hear.
Thanks,

I would contact the county and explain the situation to them and you could possibly get a permit. They would come out to inspect the problem and either issue you a permit or not. I think they would work with the DNR to address the erosion problem. I bet you would have a pretty good chance of getting a permit if it's as bad as it sounds.

Good answer .....Contacting the county to get a copy of it's rules as they change from lake to lake depeding on it's classification.

The county does have their rules,from Ordinary High Water up on your land,Below OHW the DNR permits erosion control upon their inspection.Call the DNR first if there are county rules the DNR contacts the county and they show up together.(how it works here)
I commend you on taking the time and effort to do it legally and correct.We need more shoreland owners like you!
You should go online to the DNR Shoreland management request to be on the mailing list for shore Management,They at this time are composing new state wide rules,and want the counties to get a basic common rule above OHW

http://www.co.aitkin.mn.us/
They have a section on shoreline ordanances. I had to contact the Soil/Water Dept in Aitkin.

one thing you can do, if it's still legal, is rip rap with rocks. That's what we did and we like the results. Good luck, Mike.

I'm with sparcebag on this one. You can get great advice from the DNR on shoreline management. Call or email your regional shoreline person, or get ahold of the statewide Shoreland Habitat Coordinator. Then you can have something to really be proud of. Rip rap and you'll be like everyone else around the lake (n/o Mike89)...no cover, nothing to see, no shade, no habitat, just bla. Spend some time doing natural plantings and providing cover and you'll see benefits for both land, water, flora, and fauna. You could even get some limited grant money to help pay for your expenses if you tie it in with a lake association or some other nonprofit. Natural Lakescaping is the way to go these days!

I had the same situation Biggerfish, sandy soil, 4ft drop and losing chunks of shoreline to waves & erosion. We rip-rapped with thick felt & rocks to DNR specs (see MN DNR website) leaving some brush at the top. It looks great, stopped the erosion but sterilizes the life out of the shoreline habitat. I'm restoring a flat area, letting things fill in and plants are taking root again.

Lots of great advice and thanks for being responsible and thinking about whats best for the lake and not just what you want as a cabin owner. Starting with the DNR & getting the right permission / permits is the only way to go.

We have a cabin on a lake about 30 miles east of you in Carlton county. Two years ago a new cabin was built across the lake from us and the owner decided to "improve" the shore line with huge boulders. Was a major change to the shoreline and grade. They didn't get the required permits and were caught. They had to restore the shore line at thier expense to the DNR's specifications. So start with the DNR and avoid making a costly mistake. We have found the DNR a bit hard to get a hold of at times, but very easy to work with once you get in touch with the right person. Good luck with the project.

Thanks to all for the input. As I suspected this is a great place to start due to the experiences many of you may have had. I will be calling DNR in the spring to get a opinion. But from what I read on both the Aitkin site which refers to the DNR standards and from the DNR site that no permit will be required if the shore is falling apart. Again I will get the DNR to agree before I do anything as I do not need to occur more cost than needed in this current economy.
I will post next year hopfully a before and after picture.
Wish me luck and again thanks to all of you that responded.....
Bobbers down to all.....

Maybe I'm too much of a nature purist, but my assumption would be that the shoreline is eroding for a natural reason. I'm not a big fan of altering the way that Mother Nature is trying to do things.

I know that I'm opening a can of worms here, but my crazy view on things is that you shouldn't modify the shoreline for any reason. I know that you own a cabin there. I know that you don't want to lose value on the property that you own. Although I feel that we all need to stop messing with the way the earth does its business.

Just my two cents. No harm intended, just a devil's advocate point of view.

I definitely commend you on trying to find the right way to approach this issue instead of just making changes.

All shorelines are altered. Most of the native vegetation has been eliminmated by things like Reed Canary, Brome, Hybrid cattails. Often homeowners have "lawn to the lip" where it drops off. Yes pieces of lawn fall right off because it's poorly rooted maybe 10 inches deep thats why you need to water all the time. Even Buffalo Grass a native that only gets 6" tall has roots 8 FEET deep.
Contact your local SWCD I noticed on their website that they do shoreline buffer consulting, I love DNR but often they are very backed up and can't get out for a while. Many counties even have cost sharing programs that are much easier to get funded through than the DNR's programs.

I understand what you are saying SkunkedAgain, but we have altered the way Mother nature works, so we have to stay on top of it, in order to prevent more problems in the future. We have dammed rivers, eliminated wetlands, turned forest into cities, turned prairie into fields etc. etc. Had we not done all of that already, I would say you are on the right track, but just us being here eliminates the natural flow of mother nature.

Kudos to you BiggerFish for being so responsible and going about this the right way with the best of intentions in mind.