October 21, 2006 Minutes

Eurasian Water Milfoil Committee

EWM Committee

October 21, 2006 8:30 a.m.

Barnes Town Hall

Ingemar Ekstrom called the meeting to order. Present were: Ingemar Ekstrom, Barb Romstad, Stefania Strzalkowska, Pam Toshner, John Kudlas, James Joswick, Patti Joswick, Lee Weisner

Agenda items:

1)      Introduction of Members

·        Chairperson – Ingemar Ekstrom

·        Communications – Barb Romstad

·        Stefania Strzalkowska

·        John Kudlas

·        Dave Pease

·        James Joswick

·        Mitch McGee

·        Patti Joswick

·        Lee Weisner

·        Gerald Gustafson (possible)

Pam Toshner was present at the meeting in an advisory role.

This committee is an “arm” of the town board. There may be some funds available for this program. There had been funds budgeted for 2006 summer but none of those funds were used. There is speculation that those funds have been rolled over for use in summer 2008.

·        Lee Weisner made a motion to nominate Ingemar Ekstrom as committee chair. Seconded by Patti Joswick; Passed

·        Ingemar Ekstrom made a motion to appoint Barb Romstad as the committee’s communication person. Seconded by Lee Weisner; motion passed.

2)      Lake monitoring process for summer of 2006 – John Kudlas

A synopsis of John’s lake survey was distributed to the members.

Briefly:

All lakes with public landings were checked for presence of weeds and information access. He checked on reports of milfoil and found it to be northern milfoil. Seems to be no presence of EWM on the checked lakes that had previously been recorded as free of the invasive species.

3)      Observation of Affected Lakes, September 27, 2006 - Pam Toshner

On September 27, 2006, Tim Asplund of the Wisconsin DNR came to the area and accompanied Pam Toshner, Scott Toshner, John Kudlas, Ingemar Ekstrom and Mitch McGee on a tour of Tomahawk and Sand Bar Lakes to view the presence of EWM. Asplund was impressed with the efforts made by the town of Barnes residents to address the containment of EWM and determine if other waters were infested. He summarized that there are two major aquatic invasive species (Eurasian watermilfoil) issues in this area:  1) containment to prevent the spread within and between lakes and 2) in-lake management. Tim Asplund is meeting with the Army Corps of Engineers representative in Madison on November 14, 2006 to discuss the Barnes EWM project.  The lakes appear to be potential research candidates for the chemical control team of the Army Corps.

Pam outlined various funding options for EWM projects and advised the group that an Aquatic Plant Management Plan for the area is a good initial project, which is required at certain steps of funding requests.

4)      Communication process with the property owners of the two affected lakes; Tomahawk and Sandbar – Ingemar Ekstrom

We need to begin communication as soon as possible; a letter should go within the next two weeks to include:

·        Cover letter outlining the problem and announcing the establishment of the committee.

·        Minutes of the initial meeting

·        Maps of the presence of EWM on the two affected lakes.

·        Response request

o       Who is the principle property owner and/or person with the future interest in the property?

o       Were you aware of the problem prior to receiving this mailing?

o       Are you in support of containment and in-lake management efforts?

o       Would you like to receive more specific information concerning the area lake conditions and containment and in-lake management options?

5)      Clean Boats Clean Waters grant – Lee Weisner

Need to have this grant request in by February 1, 2007. There is $2500 available for each boat landing which needs to be matched by local money and “work in kind.” This money would be used to hire personnel to monitor boat landings on weekends. Stefania Strzalkowska will write the grant with the assistance of Lee Weisner, Ingemar Ekstrom and Pam Toshner.

·        Ingemar made a motion that we intitiate a Clean Boats Clean Waters grant for the upcoming two years. Seconded by James Joswick; passed.

John Kudlas gave a brief recap prepared by Gerald Gustafson of the Clean Boats Clean Waters efforts of previous years that was forwarded to the DNR.

6)      Wisconsin Lakes Convention April 26-28, 2007 – John Kudlas

John will present the Barnes EWM project at this event. Pam suggested that John write an article on the Barnes project for the WAL newsletter.

7)      Next Meeting date – Monday November 20, 6:30 pm, Barnes Town Hall

Motion to adjourn: Lee Weisner, seconded by Patti Joswick; passed.