February 16, 2009 Minutes

EWM Committee meeting

Monday, February 16, 2009,  6:30 p.m.

Barnes Town Hall

Ingemar Ekstrom called the meeting to order. Members present: Ingemar Ekstrom, Barb Romstad, Mitch McGee, Pamela Toshner, Stefania Strzalkowska, Gerald Gustafson, Jim Joswick, Dave Pease

Absent: Lee Wiesner, Patti Joswick

Agenda items:

1.      Minutes from the October Meeting

Minutes from the last meeting were reviewed. A motion to accept the minutes was made by Dave Pease seconded by Mitch McGee; approved.

2.      Well Sampling Outcome

Pamela distributed a letter from the DNR and reported that the US Corps of Engineers, after sampling eight wells in the Tomahawk Lake area, found that “The herbicide 2,4-D was not detected in any of the well samples.”

Testing of the lake water in October of 2008 indicated there was no residual 2, 4-D in the lake water.

3.      Clean Boats Clean Waters Program

Pam brought some maps that showed the presence of different aquatic plants in Tomahawk and Sandbar Lakes in 2006, 2007, and 2008. There was no presence of Eurasian Watermilfoil in Tomahawk Lake at the end of 2008. It appears that some of the native plants were also affected by the 2, 4-D application. The DNR is speculating that it is because the residual 2, 4-D lasted much longer than was expected.

Some discussion followed concerning what will happen to both lakes in the study in the future. John Skogerboe will be giving a progress report soon.

Pamela indicated that we should reconvene with Jane and see if we can transfer some of the funds from the research project to the CBCW program.

4.      Volunteer Appreciation

Barb will organize the volunteer lunch, which is scheduled for Friday, May 1, 2009. Ingemar will provide the list of volunteers to Barb and we will also invite the POA members who gave money to CBCW program.

5.      March/April CBCW Hiring Process

Barb will take care of getting the job postings and advertising done for the 2009 positions. We will use the same job descriptions and postings that were used in 2008.  

Dave Pease, Jim Joswick and Mitch McGee will be available to conduct interviews.

Coordinator will start working to prepare for the opening weekend, May 2, Paid staff will be trained in Cable on Thursday evening, May 7, 2009 with anticipated starting date of March 8^th.

6.      Other Business

Pam reminded everyone that the Lake Convention is March18-20^th in Green Bay, with the focus being AIS.

Stephania will follow-up on getting us the newest boat inspection form. Ingemar thanked Gus for responding to Stephania’s request for project costs.

7.      The next meeting is scheduled for Monday, April 20^th, 2009, 6:30 pm at the Barnes Town Hall.

Motion to Adjourn: Dave Pease, seconded by Mitch McGee; approved.

Meeting adjourned at 8:30 P.M.

 Summary  of Town of Barnes Clean Boats Clean Waters program - 2008

The Town of Barnes Clean Boats-Clean Waters program for 2008 has now been successfully completed.

The Town began the 2008 program year with a training session for volunteers and staff. A light luncheon was provided by an anonymous donor for this session. It was very well attended and all totaled we had 63 volunteers registered in our program this year.

The paid staff consisted of three landing monitors and one project coordinator. The three landing monitors were assigned to the busiest landings which were the Upper, Middle and Lower Eau Claire Lake landings. Their work year began on the fishing opener weekend of May 4^th. They continued to work all weekends, Holidays, and the full week of July 4^th up through Labor Day weekend. A number of their hours were filled in by the volunteers on weekends and during the week of July 4^th. The volunteers were also assigned to a number of the smaller land-locked lakes on the busiest of weekends.

Project Coordinator, Jack Conklin, determined the weekly schedule for the staff and volunteers. He also monitored their performance, collected their daily records, maintained their supplies, provided training when needed and sometimes monitored a landing when necessary. He also regularly visited the boat ramps which gives access to 25 lakes as described, in this project area of Bayfield and Douglas Counties. Jack did a variety of other administrative work. He and the Town Clerk-Treasurer, Elaine Brustad, managed all payroll records and the payment of bills.

The Town’s Eurasian Water Milfoil Committee met the third Monday of each month. The Project Coordinator gave his up-to-date report at these meetings. The Committee and Project Coordinator always supported each other as needed. One member of the Eurasian Water Milfoil Committee, Gerald Gustafson, continues to work very closely with the Project Coordinator and the State DNR to make sure all records are recorded accurately.

The success of this project can be summarized with a few statistics, they are: 3,377 boats and trailers were inspected, 7729 persons were contacted, and 496 volunteer hours were provided. Our final project for the CBCW program year was to provide landing monitors at the Eau Claire Lakes during the recent Muskie Tournament. This feat was accomplished totally with volunteers.

Summary of Tomahawk/Sand Bar Lakes Research Project 2008

The Town’s EWM Committee has also been involved with a second very important project this year. This is the EWM Research Project on Tomahawk and Sand Bar Lakes. This project is a serious scientific effort which we believe will have a positive impact on the future success of managing the spread of Eurasian Water Milfoil. This is a cooperative venture which includes leadership from the US Army Corps of Engineers, the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, and the Town of Barnes.

The EWM Committee has been very involved in this project. Our efforts have included:

·        Communication with the lake property owners to make them aware of the date for treatment in their lake

·        Taking necessary water chemistry samples for the Corps after the treatment process

·        Installing a temporary fences on the sand bar separately the two lakes

·        Posting signs which encouraged slow-no-wake behavior on Tomahawk Lake

·         Placing two buoys on Tomahawk Lake reminding boaters that a research project is occurring on the lake

·        Assisting the DNR staff person with collecting well water samples from eight property owners on both lakes

·        Organizing the necessary arrangement for the Corps and DNR to use a private boat landing on Sand Bar Lake

·        Sending out additional written communication about the progress of the research project to the property owners

·        Posting information about the research project on the Town of Barnes Web site

The WDNR and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will submit a report on their findings for the first year of this research project.  We will post these findings on the Barnes web site when they are completed.  Right now, we are finding no EWM in Tomahawk Lake.  And, the private wells which were tested on October 9 showed no chemical contamination.

Ingemar Ekstrom

Eurasian Water Milfoil Committee Chairperson

Town of Barnes