Thursday February 26, 2015: Speaker John Nelson, now serving as president of the Sheboygan River Basin Partnership, and formally a W-DNR Fisheries Biologist, is project manager for a Watershed Restoration project in Sheboygan County sponsored by the Nature Conservancy and the Sheboygan County Planning Department. John will address a broad scope of watershed management initiatives, as well as practices installed to treat field tile outlet discharge and other runoff control methods.
“Phosphorus Control Efforts in the Sheboygan River Basin” lecture materials
Thursday March 26, 2015; “Birds of Our Lakes” to be held at the Wisconsin Maritime Museum, 6:30pm. The joint spring lecture will be by an Ornithologist specifically on aquatic bird species. The talk will address the interaction of emergent avian populations, the fish predation of cormorants, herons, cranes, etc., the sudden appearance of White Pelicans in the region, shoreline bird population changes, the rebound of eagles, the loss of grey terns, and role of the Lake Michigan flyway and similar areas of interest. Free and open to the public.
Thursday May 28, 2015; Gary Van Vreede from US Fish & Wildlife Service and representatives from the USDA Regional Conservation Partnership Program will explore grant opportunities available to individuals and associations to improve area waterways and habitat. The review of specific proposals will allow all participants to develop an understanding of partnering opportunities and the grant application process.
Thursday July 23, 2015: Steve Hogler, W-DNR Fisheries Manager, and panelists from sportsman’s organizations such as Walleyes Forever, Trout Unlimited and those promoting Bass and Panfish populations will be invited to inform MCLA about their projects and goals in the area. Lakes Associations will be invited to review management goals and planning options specific to their waters.
Thursday August 27, 2015;
“ENGINEERED NATURESCAPES”
“How can I leverage every land-use change to enhance or restore ecosystem functions?”
MCLA and the Wisconsin Maritime Museum will host a presentation, “Engineered Naturescapes”, by Mark O’Leary and Dave Wolmutt of SmithGroupJJR. The discussion will document a survey of initiatives which require engineered responses to create a restored, or rather a rehabilitated, environment, when the extant natural systems have been either reduced or de-graded beyond being ecologically operative. The Constructed Reefs project, comprising constructed sturgeon spawning reefs in the Saint Clair River, is only one such example which has been generating optimism. The ethics of environmental interventions in the light of accepted depredations is a broadly fascinating undercurrent to this topic. Joining the engineers will be panelists Titus Seilheimer of SeaGrant and Berel Lutsky of UW Manitowoc to consider such installations from a conservationist’s perspective and their potential as environmental art. Questions regarding this event may be addressed to John Durbrow using the contact form.
Thursday Sept. 24, 2015; At our September meeting, we will feature an overview presentation regarding a proposed TMDL (Total Maximum Daily Load) regime in Manitowoc County. Introducing the initiative will be 
Keith Marquardt; Fox Wolf TMDL Project Manager – Bureau of Water Quality/Division of Water; of the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources. No activity can match the TMDL program in meeting the mandate of the Manitowoc County Lakes Association mission statement. Note that this programming is in lieu of the Managed Grazing Presentation previously announced.
A TMDL is a calculation of the maximum amount of a pollutant that a waterbody can receive and still meet water quality standards, and an allocation of that load among the various sources of that pollutant. Establishing the TMDL will incorporate water quality testing in all subject waterbodies, their contributing watersheds, and the sub-watersheds. The scale of sub-watersheds can be those which comprise your lake watershed. Pollutant sources will be ascertained, and mapped, and protocols required to bring water quality back to acceptable levels will be established. The procedure incorporates advanced computational modeling which can be utilized to monitor subsequent water quality conditions.
You will want to understand the potential of this process for your Lake!!!
Download the MCLA Meeting Agenda 9.24.1 (Word docx file)
Friday October 16, 2015; The annual MCLA membership banquet held at the Autumn Ridge on Pigeon Lake. This is always a fun time, with many of door prizes and raffle items.
Thursday Dec. 3, 2015: General lake members meeting, and annual wrap-up of organizational concerns. This meeting was canceled.
