E. Plant Survey — Misc. Objectives

The Tier 1 lakes were enjoyable to study because they were secluded and quiet. They each reflected a character or personality that made it unique. Some examples:

• Hay Lake revealed the first Lobelia (Lobelia dortmanna) found, and it was the dominant plant in the little lake. Lobelia is fragile and can't withstand a great deal of water traffic.
• Loon Lake possessed the greatest amount of fern pondweed (Potamogeton richardsonii) witnessed. We could barely move the boat through the masses.
• The darkest water we encountered was in Rock Lake.

We experienced some disappointments also. Some landowners have removed all their shoreline vegetation in pursuit of lake visibility and in the process have destroyed the delicate lake buffers. Of course we were disappointed in the volume of EWM on Tomahawk and Sandbar Lakes.

• Cranberry Lake was the only lake with wild rice which is located in the middle of the lake;
• Sweet Lake had an enormous grove of Horsetail (Equisitum arvense), the largest any of us have ever seen;
• One special joy was observing nested juvenile eagles being fed by the adults in a magnificent white pine on Smith Lake.

Sandbar and Tomahawk Lakes were surveyed by the Tier 2 survey technique because they have EWM and require further study. Relative to their number of sites, some were too deep and some were on shore due to the low lake levels; hence the two designated site numbers.

Other observations were not so joyous:

• The rusty crayfish have invaded several of the Eau Claire Lakes and their sister waters. Much of Middle E.C. and the upper end of Upper E.C. have been infested with the crayfish and they have defoliated much of the aquatic vegetation.
• Bony Lake had small colonies of aquatic plants remaining although it has quite a biotic diversity with 21 aquatic plant species found..

• When such a study is planned, be sure to request maps and GPS points as early as possible to allow WDNR to create the needed information.
• If internet access is less than adequate, request that maps and sampling point and other information be sent on a CD.

Modify the spreadsheet to include:

1. Areas too deep, where the lake is too deep to support aquatic vegetation.
2. Areas lacking vegetation, where the littoral zone does not contain aquatic vegetation.
3. Areas on land, for when the lake level is low and the survey points are on shore/land.

The WDNR should offer a one-day workshop for citizen researchers to better understand the computer methodology necessary to complete a lake survey.