Lake Puckaway Shoreland Restoration Program

The Lake Puckaway Protection and Rehabilitation District announces a shoreland restoration program. This program will promote the establishment of natural vegetation buffers along the shores of Lake Puckaway to protect and restore water quality and fish and wildlife habitat. Buffers with native vegetation have deep roots that hold in the soil, preventing or slowing erosion. The plants offer cover and food for songbirds and other wildlife, while at the same time deterring Canada geese from using adjacent lawns. Buffers also intercept sediment and nutrients that can cloud the water and cause algal blooms.
The District will cost share ten pilot projects around the lake that will contain different types of plantings and erosion control elements. The grants will be competitive, based on the type of restoration and landowner commitment and match. The district will be taking applications through November 25th. Work should be completed by the end of the 2012 growing season. More information and applications are available on the district’s website www.lakepuckaway.com or by writing to Lake Puckaway Protection and Rehabilitation District, W591 Fox Ct., Montello, WI 53949

Water Clarity: October 6, 2011 (+snake)

It was a great day in October to be on the lake with blue skies, light wind, and temperature around 77 degrees.  A real bluebird day as some frustrated duck hunters call them.  I didn't see any bluebirds, and I did not see any ducks flying. Water clarity is improving on the lake because algae growth is slowing as water temperature drops (60 degrees today) and day length shortens.

A bizarre thing occurred while I motored up the Fox River.  I noticed a garter snake crossing the river, which is not odd, and moved closer to take a picture of the snake (see photos below boat).  As I got close the snake turned and headed straight to the boat.  The snake was frightened and decided to take shelter in the only cover in mid-river the Lake District's Jon boat.  I put the engine in neutral and just as I did so the snake zipped up the motor and took refuge in the motor, and then tried to hide in the boat.  I removed the snake and "placed" it back in the water.  Pretty strange.

Garter snake crossing the Fox River

Stowaway

Water Clarity: September 16, 2011

It was a beautiful clam, overcast, but chilly day on Lake Puckaway.  Temperatures have dropped to 60 degrees in the Lake and River reversing the heavy algae bloom of August.  Water clarity is slowly rebounding in the lake, but still poor, and upstream the Fox River is excellent with clarity at 8.75 feet!  For the first time the secchi disk hit bottom at the inlet, but was still clearly visible.  I would imagine the clarity there was in excess of seven feet.

Red indicates the secchi disk hit the bottom and total
water clarity depth cannot be measured.

2011 Emergent Plant Stabilization (EPS) Survey

Yours truly, counting emergent plant stems,
in this case Stiff Arrowhead (Sagittaria rigida)

Once upon a time the East Basin of Lake Puckaway was nothing more than a river channel in a sea of wild rice and bulrushes that concealed the lake below.  Also in the shallows grew arrowheads, cane (Phragmites), sedges, and cattails.  These are all emergent plants, which means a major portion of the plant sticks out of the water.  These plants are critically important to many fish and wildlife.  Northern pike only attach their eggs to vertical stems, so without this type of vegetation, there could be no natural reproduction of northern pike.  Emergent and other vegetation also have a profound effect on water quality by holding sediment in place, dampening wave action, and several other mechanisms.  In parts of a lake, the water clarity may be less than a foot, while in a healthy bed of aquatic plants, the water is much clearer.

Clear water in the aquatic plant bed, Western Lake Puckaway.
Mid-lake the  water clarity was less than a foot.

Starting with the construction of the dam at Princeton, water level management began to have a slow but steady negative effect on emergent plants.  Coupled with poor agricultural practices and shoreland use, this eventually led us to a greater than 80% loss in emergent vegetation.  The Emergent Plant Stabilization project recognizes the importance of this habitat and the need to halt and reverse these losses.

As part a study to measure the current state of and recent trends in emergent vegetation, surveys are conducted on an annual basis since 2010.  Derek Kavanaugh and I surveyed vegetation on August 25th this year.  The tools are simple: a one-meter sampling square made from PVC pipe, something to measure water depth, and a field guide to aquatic and wetland plants.  Together, we estimated the total coverage of floating-leaf plants, the coverage of submergent plants, and counted the stems of emergent plants across three study areas.  A comparison of 2011 and 2010 will appear in a future post.

Derek is using the GPS in the LPPRD's work boat.

Emergent Plants in the Survey

Stiff arrowhead, Sagittaria rigida

Soft-stem bulrush, Schoenoplectus acutus 

Giant Reed (cane), Phragmites australis

Pulling the boat through shallow water to another survey point.

Water Clarity: August 31, 2011

This was the last day of the season for monitoring phosphorous, chlorophyll a (a measurement of algae) and several other variables. When I receive the all the test results from the state lab, I'll report them here.  In the mean time I will continue to get water clarity readings every two weeks to see how the lake clears up as winter approaches.  As the temperatures cool, and the days get shorter the algae will begin to die down and the water will clear up.

  

Water Clarity: August 15, 2011

Water Clarity: August 5, 2011