Manitowoc County Lakes Association

Have We Made Progress Protecting the Environment as Agriculture Grows?

A presentation by:
Scott Gunderson, Manitowoc County, UW Extension Agriculture Agent, and Jerry Halverson, Manitowoc County Soil & Water Conservation Dept. Director.

Thursday, 19th of July, 2018, at the Manitowoc County Office building, 4319 Expo Drive, Room 300, at 6:30pm. Public and Guests are welcome and encouraged to attend.

61% of Manitowoc County land base is used to produce agriculture products. Manitowoc County has many beautiful lakes used for recreation and for fish and wildlife habitat. What is being done to improve and protect our natural resources, including lakes, and what can be done in the future as agriculture continues to grow and prosper in the county?

Regular MCLA business meeting to follow.

photos ©2018 John Lyons

by Hanna Edelglass

On May 17, 2018, Steven Hogler – DNR Fisheries Biologist, Green Bay – presented Fish Survey results at our bi-monthly Manitowoc County  Lakes Association meeting for members and guests.  Read more

SITKIEWITZ

ZIEGELBAUER

Updated 3/26/2018:

The MCLA forum ‘Meet the Candidates’ took place on Thursday, the 22nd of March, 2018 with BOB ZIEGELBAUER and ERIC SITKIEWITZ.

The Manitowoc County Executive arguably has the highest ability to affect the conditions and quality of the area’s waters. On March 22, candidates for the position conducted a listening session, answered questions, and stated their respective qualifications. Each focused on proposals that would support the Manitowoc County Lakes Association mission, to protect and enhance the quality of area lakes and watersheds. This was a great opportunity to meet and to take your measure of the projected policies of these two individuals.

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The Herald Tribune Reporter published a summary article on the 23rd of March, 2018. Some main points are:

• Bob Ziegelbauer and Eric Sitkiewitz faced challenging questions about water quality and environmental concerns.
• Both agreed that economic growth and the health of ecosystems are connected
• Beaches have had to be closed due to high levels of E-Coli, affecting tourism negatively.
• Although both candidates stated that cities from outside the area were responsible for the degraded water quality, it was pointed out that the Manitowoc River is the highest source of the pollutant phosphorous.
• We need to bolster the County Soil and Water Conservation Department to address locally contributions to polluted waters.

Read the complete Herald Times article: Manitowoc County Lakes Association grills county executive candidates on environment.

Published Feb 26, 2018.

ERIC SITKIEWITZ, a Manitowoc alderman, challenges Manitowoc County Executive BOB ZIEGELBAUER for the county executive seat in the spring 2018 election.

The Manitowoc County Executive arguably has the highest ability to affect the conditions and quality of the area’s waters. On March 22, candidates for the Manitowoc County Executive position will conduct a listening session, answer questions, and state their respective qualifications for that position. Each will focus on proposals that would support the Manitowoc County Lakes Association mission, to protect and enhance the quality of area lakes and watersheds. This is a great opportunity to meet and to take your measure of the projected policies of these two individuals. Public invited and encouraged to attend. No registration.

March 22 6:30pm. Manitowoc County Office Building. 4319 Expo Dr., Rm 300.

Regular MCLA business to follow.

Ice Fishing Manitowoc County Lakes will be featured at the Manitowoc County Lakes Association’s January 25th meeting, Thursday, starting at 6:30 in the County Offices Complex located at 4319 Expo Drive, Manitowoc.

Clint Ward will discuss the latest trend in technology and ice fishing methods that has occurred in recent years. A life long resident of Manitowoc County and avid fisherman he will discuss ice fishing opportunities on area lakes.

The Public is more than welcome to attend this and future MCLA events working to protect and enhance the quality of area lakes and watersheds for the benefit of all and quality of life in our community.

Happy New Year! New year, new faces! The new officers for the Manitowoc County Lakes Association were announced at the final meeting of the year on December 7, 2017. We welcome them and look forward to another great year!

President Tom Ward

Vice President Dave Pozorski

Treasurer Marcia Salm

Secretary Hanna Edelglass

Tom Ward was the Department Director for the Manitowoc County Soil & Water Conservation Dept. for 32 years, retiring in 2008 to work as an Aquatic Invasive Species Coordinator for MCLA thru the end of 2017. He has also worked in County Zoning Departments and graduated from UWSP with a degree in Natural Resource Management.

Tom has a long history with MCLA. Helping to find a solution in 1997 to turn the aerators on Carstens and Weyers lake, he organized the Manitowoc County Lakes Association with a small group of conservationists and sportsman in the community. For the past 20 years, he has served an advisor to the MCLA directors.

During his employment with Manitowoc County, Tom organized shoreland restoration demonstrations on numerous lakes. He also developed a County Lakes Classification System for the County that Classified Lakes in three separate Zoning Classes based on the Lakes degree of developed shoreline. As the Soil & Water Conservation Dept. Director he persuaded the County Board to hold a public referendum to pass the first Manure Spreading Ordinance in Wisconsin that prohibited winter application of animal waste within a 1000 ft. of a lake and 300 feet of a stream; and required animal waste expansions over 500 animal units to obtain a County permit.

Tom has facilitated the development of numerous Citizen Organizations in the County such as the Friends of the Branch River, the Manitowoc County Lakes Association, Watershed monitors, and Conservation Education Inc.

Dave Pozorski is a charter member of MCLA and has published the MCLA newsletter for 20 years.

In 2017, Dave received MCLA’s Lifetime Membership Award. Dave has held the positions of President, Vice-president, Secretary and has been a leader on numerous committees. Residing near Carstens Lake, Dave has a keen interest in protecting his beloved lakes. He was a charter member, helping to form MCLA in 1997. He continues to help with installing hoses and setting up the aerators on both lakes. He has also helped with monitoring test wells for the English Lake farm tile study. Dave jumped in to help Silver Lake and serve as a chair of a committee to plan, redesign, fundraise and build an educational Silver Lake County park, a park he coined a diamond in the rough. Using the creative restoration of Silver Lake Park as a natural shoreline and habitat for aquatic organisms of the lake, Dave became a strong advocate for restoring natural shorelines of our County lakes. Over a ten-year period he raised a total of $185,000 from our community, and carried out the park plan to completion. During his terms as President, Dave worked with Fish & Game units to survey Silver Lake bottom, to create walleye spawning reefs, and helped with fish plantings at Silver and Hartlaub lakes. After serving in multiple officer positions with MCLA, Dave attended numerous meetings, representing MCLA on the Wisconsin Association of Lakes Board from 2005 to 2011; served on advisory member of the DNR’s Citizen Lakes Basin group; and represented MCLA and the State Association in development of DNR’s Strategic Plan. Most recently Dave helped during the summer with conducting Boater education at the boat launches, teaching methods to prevent the spread of invasive species. Dave was also inspirational by encouraging MCLA to apply for an Aquatic Invasive Species Education Grant starting in 2008.

Marcia Salm has been a property owner on Carstens Lake since 2011. Carstens Lake residents are a close neighborly group who share a deep concern for the health of the lake. From these residents Marcia has learned the history of the lake and how the water quality has changed over the years. By kayaking, she has experienced how invasive species are a detriment to fully enjoying water activities. Under the guidance of Brian Robley, Director of Carstens Lake, she has learned the value of maintaining the boat cleaning station and the importance of keeping the boat landing area clean. She is looking forward to using Tom Ward’s training as an Aquatic Invasive Species monitor.

Hanna Edelglass has lived locally on Lake Michigan since 2014. In an effort to connect with others and help preserve our beautiful surroundings, she began attending MCLA meetings, sending announcements and summaries of our meetings to local papers and WPR. She has two sons and a daughter, all living in the watershed area of the Great Lakes.

by Hanna Edelglass

The Manitowoc County Lakes Association is special in several ways, as we learned last Saturday, the 21st of October, 2017, at our annual banquet!  Our speaker for the evening, Mary Knipper, Board President of Wisconsin Lakes, said,

You are one of few county-wide lakes associations in Wisconsin to address watershed
issues as a mission… you are all a fine example of passion and collaboration at its best.

With an overflow attendance, our President, John Durbrow, opened by thanking Dave Pozorski for arranging the banquet, and the Larrabee Sportsman Club for sponsoring the dinner. The ‘year in summary’ reflected the long list of yearly achievements of MCLA: arranging for the Weyers Lake aerator, completing the Phragmites treatments along Lake Michigan, the Aquatic Invasive Species Education Initiative, water quality monitoring, a bi-monthly speakers program, press synopses and announcements, publishing a newsletter for 1500 county residents, helping to institute a TMDL (Total Maximum Daily Load of pollution a water body can handle) protocol for Manitowoc County, serving on the technical Advisory Committee for the TMDL, and initiating a pilot program for Carstens Lake as a watershed model. Credited with their active involvement in the above efforts were the Fish and Game City Unit, LNRP (Lakes Natural Resources Partnership), Stantec, Tom Ward, Gene Weyer, Dave Pozorski and Hanna Edelglass.

Four 2017 Lake Stewardship Awards were presented to those who make us strong.

• Carol Entringer for her 20 years of leadership and dedication in protecting and improving English Lake, as a Board member of the Lake District.  Describing the work, Tom Ward presented recent successful watershed cleanup work at English Lake.  Discharging barnyard, agricultural drain tiles, eroding steep cropland and winter application of animal waste were polluting the lake, destroying fish and healthy plant life. A Lake Planning Grant paid a farmer for a buffer zone, is prairie land
  now and helps keep pollutants away from the Lake.
• John Karbon was recognized for his many years of dedication to the protection and improvement of Carstens Lake  as riparian shoreline owner and Town of Newton Supervisor.
• Gary Robinson was honored for his outstanding dedication and support in maintaining the Manitowoc County Boat Launches and Parks for all those enjoying our County Lakes.
• Amy Pace was celebrated for her exemplary support of the Manitowoc County Lakes Association by developing and maintaining a model of effective web based communication.

Mary Knipper

Our Keynote speaker, Mary Knipper, is an east coast native. Mary grew up going to the beach every summer day. As such, when she moved to the Midwest she thought lake living would pale by comparison and was pleased to be proven wrong!

As she writes in her biographical notes, Mary sees each season on the lake as full of surprises and new experiences, and enjoys sharing this experience with her children and visitors who allow her to see it through fresh eyes time and time again. She and her husband are committed to doing their part to pass this wonderful legacy on to their family, and working to protect lakes gives them an opportunity to meet and work with others who share their love and respect for the waters of Wisconsin. Mary recognizes that the issues facing our local lakes are not unique, and that it will take a statewide effort to address these concerns and promote good environmental policies to ensure that the generations to come will benefit by the decisions we make now.

As board president of Wisconsin Lakes, Mary leads the board and staff’s work and believes in the power of advocacy to effect policy, and be the collective voice that we need. She also sees education and outreach as playing a vital role in protecting our waters.

Mary described her personal experience and involvement in working toward healthy waters, including the history of Delavan Lake. At that lake, it went from being covered by solid green algae and having only carp and rough fish from the 1960’s until the rehabilitation in 1989. The project was completed in 1992, and by 1999, it was once more trending toward a Eutrophic state. This convinced Mary that watershed management is central to lake water quality. The study of the State’s lakes began in 1910 in Vilas and Oneida Counties. Under the Public Trust Doctrine, in Wisconsin’s Constitution, Wisconsin’s waters belong to all citizens, establishing the mandate for collective actions for their preservation.  The DNR has the duty to ensure that they remain free and accessible to the public.  In 1959, Wisconsin Federation of Lakes was founded. The first annual Wisconsin Lakes Partnership Convention took place in 1978, and in the first 20 years 15,000 people attended.  Wisconsin Lakes works with the DNR in addressing regulations and science, and with the UW-Extension addressing education and outreach materials.  Wisconsin Lakes is the non-profit arm of the Wisconsin Lakes Partnership that works with lake associations, lake districts, businesses and individuals to aid local efforts at protecting and enhancing Wisconsin’s 15,000 lakes. Mary made a specific point that non-profits have more leeway than commonly assumed to lobby and be a policy resource for the State legislators.

Plans for Wisconsin Lakes include building targeted programs around organizational capacity for lake groups, aquatic invasive species prevention, over-pumping of groundwater, pollution runoff, and promotion of practices to improve habitat and shore lands to protect the overall health of lakes.  At this point, deliberate attempts to weaken programs by defunding and reducing agency staff and education are seen to be seriously hampering necessary work. The boards and volunteers of  lake associations are committed, passionate and willing to take on the many challenges ahead.  We need to balance all our needs, and how we can do that is up to us.  Mary asks us to bring stories, questions and suggestions to her and she will address them with the Wisconsin Lakes board and staff. She can be contacted at http://www.wisconsinlakes.org