Crews Making Progess Moving Massive Bog On North Long Lake
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) – It looks like Mother Nature is giving up some ground in that battle with a stubborn floating bog in the Brainerd Lakes Area.
WCCO's Bill Hudson is keeping tabs on efforts to move the 4,000-ton mass blocking Legionville's beach on North Long Lake.
It was just last Wednesday when a flotilla of boats and backhoes pushing from shore tried to budge the bog. Since then, it's been sliced into smaller sections.
A view from the WCCO drone shows the mass of tamarack trees and cattails. This thing measures about three football fields long and weighs an estimated eight million pounds.
On Thursday, volunteers sliced it up a little more. Smaller pieces should be easier to move. Their goal is to remove the bog from where it's lodged, along the camp's swimming beach.
They could use more horsepower in the water -- trying to do this with just four boats.
"Yesterday we were successful in moving smaller pieces. We bit off a good sized chunk today, had several boats here and we were able to move it 40 or 60 feet or so," Legionville Spokesman Randy Tesdahl said.
That small piece from the center of the bog was moving until it got hung up on one end.
They'll take the holiday weekend off and try again next weekend - hoping more folks show up with their boats.
The bog is completely blocking the beach, where campers take swimming, boating and canoe safety lessons. Time is pressing because hundreds of campers will begin arriving in June.
