News from the Wisconsin Association of Lakes

January 2008 

• Let your legislator know you're coming!
• Knocking at the Gates:an AIS workshop 
• Public listening sessions scheduled for proposed invasive species classification rule
• Monitors make the difference with invasives
• Monitoring to show climate impact on Minnesota's lakes
• Is Wisconsin poised to ratify the Great Lakes Compact?
• Who are the people in your neighborhood?
• Working with you for clean, safe, healthy lakes

 

Let your legislator know you’re coming!
	Join hundreds of citizens from every part of Wisconsin for Conservation Lobby Day on Wednesday, January 30, 2008. Sign up online on the Wisconsin League of Conservation Voters website by Tuesday, January 22nd, 2008!   This free event is a great opportunity to tell your legislators why you care about Wisconsin lakes and how action on Wisconsin's Conservation Priorities can help ensure a clean, safe, healthy future for our lakes and people who enjoy them.   This year's Wisconsin Conservation Priorities feature three issues that are important to the future of Wisconsin's lakes: Preventing water diversions from the Great Lakes by passing a strong Great Lakes Compact Taking steps to minimize the impacts of climate change on our lakes Restoring integrity to natural resources management Carpool coordination and promotional materials for Lobby Day are available on the Wisconsin League of Conservation Voters website We encourage you to extend an invitation to others interested in lakes and these issues to join us at Lobby Day. If you are unable to attend, please consider sending a letter to your legislator to highlight how these issues are important to your lake (sample letter available online) and/or encourage your lake group to pass resolutions in support of these priority issues.
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Knocking at the Gates: an AIS workshop
	Learn more about the newest invasive species to be on the alert for, what has been done—and what still needs to be done— to control these unwanted visitors by attending the Aquatic Invasive Species workshop set for February 16, 2008, at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in downtown Milwaukee. Download event brochure. The all-day Saturday event will explore aquatic invasive species prevention and management tools available to fully address the concerns posed by new invasive species with the potential to gain a foothold in Wisconsin’s waters. Featured speakers  Robert Dahl, Wis. Dept. of Agriculture, Trade, and Consumer Protection (DATCP), will talk about DATCP’s role in AIS control, and Wisconsin’s recent experience with hydrilla. The first documented occurrence of Hydrilla was discovered in summer 2007 in a private, artificial pond in Northeast Wisconsin. Robert will describe how this occurrence came to be, its likely source, and how two state agencies and the local government cooperated with the landowner to contain and control this new aquatic invader (the hydrilla population is currently contained at this site).    Michael Staggs, WI DNR Bureau of Fisheries Management, will talk about Wisconsin’s integrated approach to control the invasive pathogen Viral Hemorrhagic Septicemia (VHS). VHS, a serious fish disease, was found in Spring 2007 in the Lake Winnebago system and Lake Michigan. Mike will describe key aspects of Wisconsin’s VHS control program: regulations, surveillance and monitoring, biosecurity measures, bait fish quality control, research, plus public education and outreach to prevent the spread of this virus. Peter Flaherty, Attorney at WI DNR Bureau of Legal Services, will discuss Wisconsin's invasive species laws and administrative rule development. Peter will summarize Wisconsin's current laws to control invasive species, plus review the new invasive species identification and control administrative rules being developed by the DNR.  Registration information  Download the workshop brochure, which includes the program agenda, registration form, and other event information.   Cost to attend the Saturday workshop is $35\person before January 31, 2008; $40\person thereafter. The fee covers all meals and workshop materials. Register online at the Wind Lake Management District website: www.wlmd.org  or call 262-514-3238.     Join us for a Friday Night Fish Fry at the Rock Bottom Brewery!   Plan to join the conference hosts at a traditional Wisconsin fish fry on the Friday evening preceding the conference. Cost is $15\person.
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Public listening sessions scheduled for proposed invasive species classification rules
	The Department of Natural Resources (DNR) and the Wisconsin Council on Invasive Species (Council) have released the proposed administrative rules to classify and regulate invasive species (NR 40). Six public informational meetings (see WAL’s online calendar) will be held across the state in January so folks can learn more about the classification system as well as provide feedback about the proposal before formal public hearings on the rule are scheduled. View the draft rule and provide comments online. Background information The rules—which have been under development for the last two years—classify invasive species into four categories: prohibited, restricted, watch list, and non-restricted. These rules include species of invasive plants, animals, and pathogens that live in land or water environments. Prohibited species Species classified as Prohibited are not currently present in Wisconsin—or are present only as isolated or pioneer populations—but have the potential to become established and cause significant harm to our natural resources or economy. Prohibited species that may be familiar to lake enthusiasts include hydrilla, Asian and common carp, quagga mussels, and spiny water fleas among many others. The rules prohibit the transportation, possession, transference, or introduction of a Prohibited species. The rules also outline control measures that can be taken to eradicate Prohibited species, should they be discovered.   Restricted species Species classified as Restricted are already established in the state, or have high potential to become established, and cause significant harm to our natural resources or economy. Examples of familiar aquatic invasive species classified as Restricted include Eurasian watermilfoil, curly-leaf pondweed, rusty crayfish, and zebra mussels. Like species classified as Prohibited, Restricted species cannot be transported, possessed, transferred, or introduced.   Watch List and Non-restricted species Species classified as on the Watch List are not currently found in the state or the extent of their limited presence or impact in Wisconsin’s environment is not sufficiently documented. Non-restricted invasive species may have beneficial uses and most are already integrated into Wisconsin’s environment to the extent that state wide control or eradication is not practical or feasible. Species classified as Watch List or Non-restricted are not regulated under NR 40. However, if additional information becomes available, Watch List species can be moved into another category.   Preventative measures included in the rule The rules also require certain preventative measures and limit some common activities that may become pathways for the inadvertent introduction or spread of invasive species, many of which are of interest to water lovers. The rules would require immediate drainage of boats and equipment (including bilge water, ballast tanks, bait buckets, and live wells) after the watercraft, boat trailer, or other gear is removed from inland or outlying waters. Boats and equipment traveling into Wisconsin from other states would be subject to the same drainage requirements. The rules would also prohibit the launching and transport of any watercraft, trailer, or other equipment if there are aquatic plants or aquatic animal attached.   The rules also establish criteria for classification of new invasive species.
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Monitors make the difference with invasives
	When Eurasian-Water Milfoil (EWM) was discovered in the Pike Lake Chain four years ago, it prompted property owners and state/local government to develop a strategy to monitor and prevent further AIS from entering the lakes. Extensive volunteer monitoring/inspection programs at the boat landings and education—funded by the DNR, Bayfield County, the Iron River Lakes Association and the Delta Area Lakes Association over the last several years—have helped shine a spotlight on AIS and increase awareness. Last year the DNR provided a $5,000 grant and Bayfield County provided $7,200 in matching grant funds to hire a Clean Boat, Clean Water Program (CBCW) coordinator for monitoring the Bayfield County boat landings at Delta Lake and the Pike Chain. The CBCW program is facilitated by the DNR and UW-Extension Lakes Program. Monitoring Coordinator Karen Austin places her crew at the boat landings starting the first weekend in May for the fishing opener, and has them back on board for Memorial Day weekend. They work throughout the rest of the summer/fall season for a total of 17 weeks with a 5-8 p.m. shift on Friday evenings and 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. shifts on Saturdays and Sundays. Extra shifts were added to the schedule to cover fishing tournaments, holidays, and festival weekends when the landings are extremely busy.  Over the 17-week period, the crews inspected about 100 watercraft per weekend. Of those, 37 boats were possibly infected and were treated. The water was drained from the boat motors and live bait wells and the boats and trailers were washed and hosed down and in some cases a vinegar and salt solution was applied for spiny water flea or VHS. Boats leaving the Pike Lake Chain are also inspected because EWM exists in three of the five lakes. Over the course of the summer, nearly 1,700 boat owners were surveyed with a standard CBCW survey that supplies vital data to the state about AIS and identifies and quantifies the type of AIS and its location in the state. Inspection and education is of the utmost importance at the boat landings. Controlling AIS has taken both the private and public sector to be effective.  Read full story.
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Monitoring to show climate impact on Minnesota lakes
	Two dozen lakes across Minnesota will become the bench markers for scientists to study how the state’s waterways are handling an onslaught of problems including global warming, lakeside development, exotic species and polluted runoff. These lakes represent a cross section of Minnesota’s 13,000 lakes and are scattered across the state. This four year pilot project is scheduled to begin in 2008. Scientists will observe a variety of indicators including water temperature, oxygen, phosphorus, zooplankton, invertebrates, fish growth and population rates, and others. Steve Heiskary, a research scientist leading the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency’s part of the project, said tying combinations of issues together will be critical — such as figuring out a way to measure how higher temperatures couple with increased phosphorus to cause algae blooms. “We need to see how the changing climate is affecting all the indicators and then determine how we can best adapt our management,” Ray Valley, project leader for the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources said.  The state hopes to partner with counties, townships, lake associations and other groups not just to monitor lakes but to enact change that will protect them. The plan is to keep studying these sentinel lakes intensively into the distant future. Eventually, being able to measure the impact and degree of change for specific lakes should help land and water managers figure out how to better protect the water.   Countering Climate Change is one of three Conservation Lobby Day Priorities. Read more about how climate change may affect Wisconsin Lakes and sign up for Lobby Day. If you are unable to attend, consider approaching your lake group about passing a resolution in support of a strong Compact and sending your legislator a personal letter.
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Is Wisconsin poised to ratify the Great Lakes Compact?
		Wisconsin remains only state to fail to introduce legislation Governors of eight Great Lakes States have signed the Great Lakes Water Resources Compact to manage and protect this most valuable resource. The Compact must be ratified by the legislatures of each state and by Congress. Two states — Illinois and Minnesota — have adopted the compact, and five other states — Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania and New York — have legislation pending. Wisconsin is the only remaining state that has not fulfilled its duty to its citizens to ratify the Compact.     A bipartisan group of four state legislators—Sen. Rob Cowles, Rep. John Richards, Sen. John Lehman, and Rep. Cory Mason— plan to introduce a bill in late January that would only adopt the Compact, and include a water conservation management plan. The group took on drafting the bill after a special legislative committee on the Great Lakes compact failed to develop legislation and disbanded in September. Fifty legislators have made a pledge to protect the Great Lakes from sending water to other states and countries by supporting the Great Lakes Compact.   Since the Great Lakes hold 90% of the nation's freshwater supply, the pressure may increase on Congress to approve taking water from this region. Already, the Great Lakes supplies drinking water to 30 million people in Wisconsin, Chicago, Toronto, Buffalo and elsewhere. If Congress does not ratify the compact by the 2010 census, redistricting may result in Great Lakes states losing 10 to 15 congressional seats to states in the South and West with water shortages. Adopting a Strong Great Lakes Compact is one of three Conservation Lobby Day Priorities. Read more about how Great Lakes water management may affect Wisconsin Lakes and sign up for Lobby Day. If you are unable to attend, consider approaching your lake group about passing a resolution in support of a strong Compact and sending your legislator a personal letter.
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Who are the people in your neighborhood?
	Who are the people, groups, leaders, and businesses that have made a positive impact to your lake this summer? The Wisconsin Lakes Partnership gives out these awards each year in celebration of the extraordinary volunteer and professional efforts given to protect and improve lakes in Wisconsin. The Stewardship Awards represent our best collective effort to honor and celebrate all the incredible work that goes into ensuring the future of our state's Legacy of Lakes. Please join us in that spirit by nominating a deserving person or group today. This year's nominees and winners will be celebrated at the 2008 Wisconsin Lakes Convention, to be held in Green Bay on April 17-19, 2008. Stewardship Awards nomination guidelines and online nomination form are online at the UW- Extension Lakes Program website. For more information on the awards or for nomination materials in another format, please contact the Wisconsin Association of Lakes office at 800-542-5253 (toll free in Wisconsin) or at 608-661-4313, or email us at wal@wisconsinlakes.org. Nominations are due no later than February 22, 2008.
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Working with you for clean, safe, healthy lakes
	The Wisconsin Association of Lakes is the only statewide organization working exclusively to protect and enhance the quality of Wisconsin's 15,000 lakes. We represent citizens like you who care about Wisconsin's lakes as a natural resource, and who also recognize the value healthy lakes bring to property values, tourist economies, and overall quality of life. Learn about our statewide voice for strong lake policy Learn about our lake education events Learn about our lake publications, The Lake Connection and E-lake Letter Join Us in working for clean, safe, healthy lakes for everyone.
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