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Badger prepares to welcome alumni home for All-School Reunion Weekend

Samantha Alme
samantha.tribunepaper@gmail.com

There’s something special about coming home. From July 17–19, generations of Badger graduates, families, friends, and community members will gather to celebrate memories old and new during the Badger All-School Reunion, a weekend filled with hometown traditions, laughter, and opportunities to reconnect.

Whether it’s been five years or fifty years since walking the halls of Badger School, the reunion offers something for everyone while celebrating the people, places, and traditions that have shaped the community.

The festivities begin on Friday, July 17, with a city-wide scavenger hunt, alumni registration at Badger School, and a Remembrance Table and Memory Lane display honoring classmates and loved ones who have left a lasting impact on the community. The evening continues with a community picnic at Rocket Field before alumni take to the softball diamond for a friendly game. As the sun sets, Main Street comes alive with food vendors, Skippy Finn’s Beer Garden, an era-themed dance featuring Ottomatic Karaoke, and a lighted parade through town.

Saturday promises a full day of activities for all ages. Early risers can kick off the morning with the 5K Run and Family Walk before enjoying a community breakfast hosted by the Sons of the American Legion. Throughout the day, visitors can browse local craft and vendor booths, cheer on parade participants, enjoy lunch at the Badger Fire Hall, and cool off during the Foam Party and Water Slide. Children can dig for fun in the soybean pit while alumni reconnect during registration and the afternoon alumni program.

The celebration continues with open cornhole play, the Heritage Wall Open House featuring complimentary root beer floats, exciting Bush Car Races, Skippy Finn’s Beer Garden, and a street dance featuring DRIVE SUNDAY, giving everyone another chance to celebrate together late into the evening.

The weekend concludes on Sunday with a community worship service at the Badger School gymnasium, followed by a farewell brunch sponsored by Badger FCCLA—a fitting way to wrap up a weekend centered on friendship, gratitude, and hometown pride.

Organizers hope the reunion serves as more than just a gathering of classmates. It’s an opportunity to celebrate Badger’s rich history, welcome former residents home, introduce younger generations to local traditions, and strengthen the connections that continue to make the community such a special place.

The reunion would not be possible without the tremendous support of local businesses, organizations, volunteers, and sponsors whose generosity helps make the weekend a reality. Their commitment reflects the same spirit that has always defined Badger—a community that comes together to celebrate, support one another, and create lasting memories.

Whether you’re returning after many years away or have called Badger home your entire life, everyone is invited to join in a weekend where old friendships are rekindled, new memories are made, and the phrase “Where Memories Begin Again” comes to life.

State grants $993,000 for Lake of the Woods water quality monitoring buoys; Red Lake Band of Chippewa Indians to install real-time algal bloom warning system on Lake of the Woods and Red Lakes

Anyone who has spent a summer on Lake of the Woods knows the sight: a thick greenish slime coating the water's surface, sometimes stretching for miles, visible even from the air. Now, nearly $1 million in state funding will help bring a real-time early warning system to the lake — one that could give anglers, resort owners, and families advance notice before a harmful algal bloom reaches the water where they swim or fish.

The Minnesota Legislature this spring approved $993,000 for the Red Lake Band of Chippewa Indians to purchase and install long-term water quality monitoring buoys on Lake of the Woods and on Upper and Lower Red Lakes. The funding, drawn from the state's Environment and Natural Resources Trust Fund, was approved during the 2026 legislative session and must be spent by June 30, 2031.

The Trust Fund is a permanent fund constitutionally established by the citizens of Minnesota to assist in the protection, conservation, preservation, and enhancement of the state’s air, water, land, fish, wildlife, and other natural resources. Currently, 40% of net Minnesota State Lottery proceeds are dedicated to growing the Trust Fund and ensuring future benefits for Minnesota’s environment and natural resources.

The project is being led by Mindy Phillips of the Red Lake Band's Department of Natural Resources. The buoys will collect continuous, real-time water quality data and feed that information into improved forecasts for hazardous algal blooms — the kind of data that could eventually be made publicly available to anyone on or near the water.

“The Red Lake DNR Waters Department is very excited to be working with the St. Croix Watershed Research District and, with the support of the Lake of the Woods SWCD, to begin monitoring for Harmful Algal Blooms and other water quality indicators in Lake of the Woods. The resulting data from this project has the potential to protect the health of the community and ecosystem for many years,” Phillips said.

A problem with deep roots

Blue-green algae — technically a type of bacteria called cyanobacteria — have plagued Lake of the Woods for generations. Fur traders and early European visitors documented the problem as far back as 1823, when the lake was described as "foul, frequently covered with a green scum of vegetable matter." By 1857, a traveler described the southern basin as "tinged with green, deriving its color from a minute vegetable growth."

The Minnesota waters of Lake of the Woods were declared impaired in 2008, and despite mitigation efforts, cyanobacterial harmful algal blooms have continued to increase in frequency, duration, and toxin production. 

Wind plays an outsized role on Lake of the Woods, a big, shallow lake where any breeze above 10 mph can kick up waves large enough to keep anglers off the water — one reason the heaviest fishing pressure on the lake comes in winter, through the ice. But scientists have found that wind, or the lack of it, also plays a significant role in feeding algae blooms.

The blooms are fed by phosphorus, much of it from what scientists call “internal loading” — phosphorus that settled into bottom sediments from decades of pollution entering the lake through its tributaries and that becomes re-suspended in the water under the right conditions. A few years ago, researchers from the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency and the Science Museum of Minnesota installed a system of buoys carrying strings of sensors that measure temperature and dissolved oxygen from the lake bottom to the surface. That data showed that during extended stretches of little to no wind in summer — typically seven to 10 days — the lake becomes “stratified,” with cooler water settling near the bottom and warmer water near the surface. The stratification lowers dissolved oxygen levels near the lake bottom, which in turn draws phosphorus out of the sediment and back into the water column.

“We discovered the rate of release of phosphorus from sediments is 45 times greater during these periods of stillness than at other times,” said Adam Heathcote, senior scientist for the Science Museum of Minnesota, in a report released in 2021. “It is a major cause of phosphorus becoming suspended in the water column that leads to the massive blooms we see later in the season.”

Decades of industrial and agricultural runoff left phosphorus deposits on the lake bottom that continue to fuel blooms even though pollution controls were put in place a half-century ago.

The toxins produced by blue-green algae can be fatal to pets and livestock and pose health risks to humans and animals. There is no way to tell by looking at a bloom whether it is producing toxins on any given day. 

Why the buoys matter

The core problem with the current approach to monitoring algal blooms is timing. By the time a sample is collected, sent to a lab, and the results come back, the bloom may have moved, dissipated, or worsened significantly. Real-time buoy data changes that equation.

The monitoring stations can measure water temperature, dissolved oxygen, nutrient levels, and indicators of algal activity continuously — around the clock, seven days a week — and transmit that data in real time. That kind of continuous information is the foundation for better bloom forecasting, similar to how weather stations feed weather prediction models.

The MPCA’s recent total maximum daily load (TMDL) study for Lake of the Woods — a report that establishes how much of a pollutant a water body can accept and still meet water quality standards — found that phosphorus loading to the lake needs to drop by 17.3% to meet those standards and reduce the algal blooms that affect recreation, said Cary Hernandez, an MPCA watershed project manager.

“The report shows that cleaner water entering the lake from sources like the Rainy River is flushing the lake of phosphorus at a rate of about 1% per year,” Hernandez said. Over time, he said, the lake should eventually meet water quality standards, as long as no new sources of phosphorus develop and there are no increases from current sources.

Long-term data from the new buoy system would help track whether that progress is actually occurring, and where.

Tribal stewardship of shared waters

The Red Lake Band of Chippewa Indians has a history of natural resources stewardship, and their involvement in this project reflects a broader role tribal nations are playing in environmental monitoring across the region. The Band's Department of Natural Resources has developed significant scientific capacity in recent years, including receiving federal recognition to set its own water quality standards under the Clean Water Act.

Lake of the Woods and the Red Lakes are among the most significant bodies of water in northern Minnesota. Monitoring both systems as part of a single project creates opportunities to compare data across lakes that share similar ecological challenges.

The phosphorus-release pattern documented on Lake of the Woods isn’t unique to it. The Science Museum is also working with tribal members and other local partners to study how the same stratification-driven process is affecting Upper and Lower Red Lakes. “We know this is affecting other lakes as well,” said Mark Edlund, another senior scientist with the Science Museum. “And the impacts will only increase due to climate change bringing more periods of warm, still weather during the summer months.”

The project is expected to be completed by June 30, 2031. Details on where buoys will be placed, when installation will begin, and how the public will eventually access the real-time data have not yet been announced. 

What a bloom looks like — and why looks can deceive

Blue-green algae blooms are often described as looking like pea soup or spilled green paint, according to the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA). But a bloom isn’t always so obvious — sometimes only a small patch of a lake shows visible algae, and blooms can also give off a swampy odor as the cells break down. There is no way to tell just by looking whether a bloom is producing toxins. The MPCA’s advice is simple: when in doubt, stay out.

Health risks for people and pets

People can get sick from swallowing, touching, or breathing in water droplets containing algal toxins while swimming, boating, or otherwise recreating in a bloom, or from drinking contaminated water, according to the MPCA. Symptoms — including vomiting, diarrhea, rash, eye irritation, cough, sore throat, and headache — typically appear within hours to two days of exposure. Risk varies by activity: drinking contaminated water carries the highest risk, swimming and water skiing carry high risk, canoeing and kayaking carry moderate risk, and fishing and boating carry the lowest risk. Children tend to be more affected than adults.

Pets, especially dogs, face particular danger. Dogs tend to swallow more water while playing and swimming, are less deterred by the smell of a bloom, and can ingest toxins by licking algae off their fur after leaving the water. Animals can show symptoms — vomiting, diarrhea, weakness, difficulty breathing, seizures — within minutes of exposure, and pets have died from algae toxin poisoning. The MPCA recommends rinsing pets with fresh water immediately after they’ve been in the lake, keeping them from licking their fur, and keeping them out of water with visible algae or scum on the shoreline.

What to do if you spot a bloom

MPCA guidance calls for avoiding contact with water showing signs of a blue-green algae bloom, and rinsing off with fresh water if contact does happen. Untreated lake water shouldn’t be used for drinking, cooking, or brushing teeth — boiling doesn’t destroy algae toxins and can actually concentrate them.

Anyone who spots a large or dense bloom can report it through the state’s BloomWatch app. Residents who believe they or a pet have gotten sick from algae exposure should seek medical or veterinary care first, then report the incident to the Minnesota Department of Health’s Foodborne and Waterborne Illness Hotline at 1-877-366-3455. Fish kills, or runoff and spills entering a lake or river, should be reported to the Minnesota Duty Officer at 800-422-0798.