Report presented to lake district
By Holly Neumann
The overall quality of Lake Iola is considered good, according to a report at the September lake district meeting.
“Many native plants are at nuisance levels, but overall pretty good quality as far as low levels of invasive plant species and good water clarity,” said John Bertelson, chairman of the Lake Iola Lake Protection and Rehabilitation District. “Compared to other mill ponds and shallow bodies of water in the state, we could be worse with more blue/green algae or pea soup-like water.”
For the past two years, the lake has been a part of a lake management planning project sponsored by the district and a Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR) grant.
Bertelson supported the project in order to set a path forward for improvement of the lake.
“Our current lake management plan developed in 2006 to 2008 was no longer very effective in making the lake usable,” Bertelson said. “When the agreement with the DNR for a drawdown was made seven years ago, the lake district did commit to a comprehensive study to evaluate the effects of the drawdown. Unfortunately, budget considerations did not allow us to start the comprehensive study until four years after the drawdown ended in 2013. In 2014, the DNR was able to complete a plant survey for us, which did help fill in the data for this current comprehensive study by Onterra LLC, a lake management planning firm out of De Pere.”
Bertelson said he is encouraged to learn Onterra does have options to help make the lake more usable than it would have been if the lake was poorer quality.
Currently, invasive species, such as hybrid watermilfoil and curly-leaf pondweed, are under control and Onterra will recheck their information for Purple Loosestrife.
“It was emphasized that the plants we have do provide important functions in our ecosystem,” Bertelson said. “Killing off too many native plants will allow the more problematic invasive plants to take over. The other concern I personally have is that the chemicals in use today are approved, but that does not mean some future health study may find them to be too toxic. What we add for chemicals does not leave our system, as it will remain in some form within the plants and animals of the lake for a very long time. I do support limited use where chemicals make the most sense.”
The lake district currently has a contract with Cliff Schmidt, of Schmidt’s Aquatic Plant Control, to harvest aquatic plants from the lake during the summer months.
Schmidt is contracted for 160 hours per year at a cost of $28,000.
“The harvest rate is about 1/2 acre per hour depending on the aquatic plant density,” said Bertelson. “So it takes roughly 80 hours to cover our permitted 40-acre area once through. We normally harvest 80 hours before the fourth of July and 80 hours sometime in August. Cliff will be retiring after next year, and our lake is the only one he will be harvesting in 2019. That means we will have more flexibility of how we split up the 160 hours next year.”
Bertelson thinks most people agree they need to harvest more during the summer months.
The lake district is discussing the purchase of a harvester of its own.
“This is still very much a work in progress, but decisions need to be made at our board meetings in March and April next year with a final decision for 2020 made by our lake district at the annual meeting next June,” said Bertelson.
The final plan for the lake will involve a combination of herbicides and harvesting.
Bertelson said he hopes the community begins to show more interest in lake management activities.
“I was disappointed with the low response rate to the lake survey from those who live off the lake, but at least we now know it is an area where we as a management team need to improve,” he said. “I am open to ideas on how we can do that.”
The next lake district public meetings will be at 5:30 p.m. for the planning group, followed by a board meeting at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 30, at the Iola Community Center, 180 S Main St,, Iola.
“This is expected to be the final board meeting until next spring,” Bertelson said. “Public meetings for the planning group are expected to be held monthly until a more detailed harvesting plan is developed for board consideration.”
The final working meeting with Onterra will be in February, and the final project meeting is expected to be the annual meeting next June.