John Goss is the White House Council on Environmental Quality’s Asian Carp Director. Director Goss will be providing an update on the Asian Carp Regional Coordinating Committee's (ACRCC) efforts to prevent Asian carp from establishing within the Great Lakes. The ACRCC recently released the 2012 Asian Carp Control Strategy Framework which unifies Federal, State, and local actions that build upon the proactive efforts to protect the Great Lakes from Asian carp undertaken in the 2010 and 2011 Frameworks. Since 2010, the Obama Administration has spent over $150 million on the Asian carp threat.

 

What's This Green Goop in My Water?

Presentation:  What's This Green Goop In My Water

Recreational boating is a vector for overland transport of aquatic plants due to their vegetative reproductive capabilities, and the tendency of plant fragments to become entangled on boats and trailers. The plants susceptibility to drying out will diminish the effectiveness of boat transport. In 2011, we conducted air tolerance field experiments on Eurasian water-milfoil (em>Myriophyllum spicatum) and curly-leaf pondweed (Potamogeton crispus) to determine how long these species can survive out of water under conditions they would experience when entangled on boats and trailers. We hung aquatic plant fragments to dry for varying amounts of time and assessed viability based on growth following rehydration. Under the experimental conditions, neither plant survived more than 24 hours. The short air tolerance time of these species suggests that management and public education should focus most attention on boats moving in and out of the water within the scale of a few days.

 

 

Presentation:  Crystal Lake and Rainbow Smelt:  A Whole-Lake Thermal Manipulation ot Eradicate an Invasive Species

How to Influence Public Policy

Wednesday 2:40-3:30 pm

This session will give you a better understanding of ways to influence public policy, help determine how government and agency decisions impact lakes and property, and ensure that your voice is heard. We'll discuss how best to communicate with and influence the key officials that make lake policy.

 

Presentation:  How to Influence Public Policy:  An Introduction to Advocacy

LWCD - A Columbia County Experience

Wednesday 2:40-3:30 pm

The Columbia County Land and Water Conservation Department (CCLWCD) will highlight strategies and processes they have used to connect non-point source watershed management to Columbia Counties surface water communities. The comprehensive approach includes watershed inventories based upon the Administrative Rule NR 151 - Runoff Management planning, and WDNR approved Lake and Watershed Management Planning. Other projects have included water chemistry studies, Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) studies, in-lake nutrient modeling, watershed runoff modeling, zoning build out scenarios, aquatic plant inventories, aquatic plant management plans, and bathometric mapping. The information found through these efforts are used to identify and remedy non point solution with a multitude of Best Management Practices with the use of financial resources available to and coordinated by the county conservation office. Could your county conservation office be using these techniques in your community?

 

 

Lake Belle View

Wednesday 2:40-3:30 pm

Lake Belle View, a 90 acre impoundment formed in 1920 by the construction of a mill dam, had the typical problems associated with a shallow, degraded millpond lake, having lost all storage capacity. Use was extremely limited and the fishery was dominated by carp.

 

The Village of Belleville, WI has tried to develop a restoration plan that met varied use objectives for over 30 years. Past project proposals were rejected because of high costs or an inability to meet multi-use objectives.

 

The project now being completed is centered on the construction of a separation berm that isolates the new lake from the river system. The berm provides access to restored wetland areas and serves as a biking and hiking trail that connects the north part of the Village to its southern business district. To meet federal and local floodplain regulations the separation berm has been designed to prevent river water intrusion under all but the most extreme flow events. To minimize costs and to expand a rare floodplain forest wetland, the lakes open water area is reduced in size, with sediment borrowed from lake dredging being used to restore the wetland system.

 

The new lake has its own control system and over 30 different fish species have been stocked in the lake to provide a diverse, ecologically based, fish population. The new wetland areas, comprised of 27 acres of deepwater wetland habitat, 11.5 acres of emergent wetland, and 11.6 acres of floodplain forest wetlands, provide numerous functional values and educational opportunities.

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