Friday Concurrent Session 5
50 minutes
April 12, 2019 ~ 8:00-8:50 am
Agenda subject to change.
We are building on the success of Healthy Lakes, a statewide initiative to improve habitat and water quality with simple and inexpensive projects for lakeshore properties, to engage more property owners. From 2015-2018 the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resouces funded 559 best practices on 353 properties along 66 lakes! Exciting Healthy Lakes updates, including expansion to rivers and shoreland properties, a new ambassador program and improved promotional tools will be shared. Share your feedback and ask questions so that we can continue to learn and create Healthy Waters together!
Presenter: Pamela Toshner, Statewide Healthy Waters Coordinator & Northwest Lakes Biologist, Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources
A Tale of Two Gardens: Mini-Wetlands that are Paying It Forward
We discuss two gardens funded by the DNR through the Beaver Dam Lake Improvement Association. These gardens, a three-year old, 250 sq. ft rain garden and a two-year old, 750 sq. ft. lakeshore buffer, are DIY projects on our one-acre residential property on Beaver Dam Lake at the northwest edge of the Upper Rock watershed. Our overarching goal was to establish “mini-wetlands”; to collect and filter rain and lawn run-off and return this captured water to the aquifer. To this end, we chose plantings found in the wet and wet-mesic prairies and sedge meadows of southern Wisconsin. The common element of the two differently-planted gardens is a diversity of root structure essential for a successful wetland. We show how these robust gardens flourished in the typical wet-dry cycle of a Wisconsin spring-summer, and how they mitigated the detrimental effects of the atypical late summer 2018 flooding.
Presenter: Carolyn Aita, Distinguished Professor Emerita of Physical Chemistry, University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee; Gardener & Citizen Activist
Programmatic Capacity
Organizations and collaboratives demonstrate the depth and breadth of their capacity every time they embark to carry out specific projects and programs. Whether installing a rain garden, holding an educational lake fair, or taking on aquatic plant management challenges, they are getting things done that help protect and restore lakes. There are some key ways that groups can improve their programmatic capacity and truly leverage their other three capacities in order to maximize effectiveness. We’ll discuss some of the basic strategies that groups can use, and this session will also be a springboard for a series of case studies and examples that highlight strong organizations operating at the local, regional, and state scales.
Presenter: Eric Olson, Director & Lake Specialist, Extension Lakes
The Written Word
UW-Extension Lakes team member Patrick Goggin will be joined by several other presenters who together will read aloud inspiring and interesting passages from water related literature and the written word relating to natural history and life around water. Participants can just sit back and relax in this session, as readers will share the writing of some of our most famous Wisconsin conservation writers along with other authors and poets from beyond the badger state. Titles from each work read will be shared in an effort to reconnect attendees to some of their old favorite writers and to expose them to new possibilities in their exploration of the written word.
Presenters:
Patrick Goggin, Lake Specialist, Extension Lakes
Alison Mikulyuk, Lakes Team Leader, Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources
Ted J. Rulseh, Author, Lake Leader, and Founder of TJR Communications
Learn the basics of the legislative & rulemaking process and how you can best influence water policy from the local level to halls of the state Capitol. We’ll discuss topics such as how a bill or ordinance gets created and passed into law as well as the procedure DNR and other state agencies must follow to create new or change existing rules and guidance. You’ll also learn the best ways and right timepoints to influence the decision makers as they govern in this basic level session.
Presenters: Mike Engleson, Executive Director, Wisconsin Lakes
*Two 25-minute presentations
Carpageddon: Green Lake's Battle with Bottom-feeders
Green Lake has long struggled with water quality problems caused by the common carp, and has been embattled with the bottom feeders for decades. The combined efforts of several agencies have implemented commercial netting, trapping, exclusion barriers, electric gates, bubble barriers, electric shocking, and more. Come learn about Green Lake’s successes and hard-learned lessons clashing with the fish which everyone loves to hate.
Presenters:
Derek Kavanaugh, Soil Conservationist II, Green Lake County Land Conservation Department; Board of Directors, Wisconsin Lakes
Stephanie Prellwitz, Executive Director, Green Lake Association
A Brief History and Current Status of the Indian Lake Rehabilitation Project
Shallow lakes pose a unique challenge to resource managers charged with balancing public interests and resource limitations. These lakes are, by definition, shallow, relatively small, and susceptible to alternating between clear and turbid states with cascading impacts to water clarity, quality, and ability of the public to utilize the resource. Land use, managing aquatic invasive species, and fisheries composition are important elements to maintaining or flipping from one stable state to another. Indian Lake, situated in Northwest Dane County, is a very popular recreational property and has undergone several clear/turbid states due to, and in-spite of, intensive management efforts. Here, we offer a brief history of the lake and watershed, the outcomes of various management actions and status of Indian Lake with detailed reports of how the aquatic plant and fisheries communities have changed over time with an eye towards future management efforts yet to come.
Presenter: Dan Oele, Fisheries Biologist, Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources
* Two 25-minute presentations
Bryophytes from Central Wisconsin
Bryophytes will be introduced with information about their structure, life cycle, evolution and ecology. Examples of local bryophytes will be highlighted.
Presenter: Virginia Freire, Professor of Biology & Curator of Bryophytes for the Museum of Natural History, University of Wisconsin - Stevens Point
Lichens! What's Not To Like?
We'll review the biology and ecology of these amazing organisms. Since they are terrific indicators of air quality and often used in Forest Health, perhaps they can they tell us something about our little corner of the world.
Presenter: Mary Bartkowiak, Invasive Plant Specialist, Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources
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