The Vilas County Land & Water Conservation Committee will meet on Thurs May 14, 2026 at 9:00 am in Room B.

Agenda May 14, 2026

Vilas County, Oneida County, and Northwoods Land Trust are holding several workshops on shorelines this summer. These workshops are for shoreline property owners or those who would like to know more about ecology or regulations involving shorelines. Or if you prefer, check out a 1 hour long recording from the Center for Land Use Education on Showing what Shoreline Zoning accomplishes.

Northwoods Land Trust Shoreland Owner Educational Events

Vilas County Shorelines 101

WI Center for Land Use Education: Showing what Shoreline Zoning Standards Accomplish

Iron County recently purchased 1,110 acres around the Gile Flowage. This land spans 18 miles if shoreline on the flowage and protects undeveloped land. It also provides passive recreation opportunities for the public. Funding sources to make this possible included the Knowles-Nelson Stewardship Grant.

WXPR Coverage of Iron County Gile Flowage Land Purchase

The Town of Conover Lakes Committee produces a "State of the Lakes" report to inform their town board and the public. Check out the 2026 report linked below.

Conover State of the Lakes Report

If your public access lake already has a Clean Boats Clean Waters Campaign, great! The state supports Clean Boats Clean Waters inspectors with two statewide campaigns:

• Drain Campaign (Sat June 6 - Sun June 7): Clean Boats Clean Waters inspectors emphasize the importance of draining boats, equipment, and livewells during this free fishing weekend. The goal is for more anglers to become familiar with the need to drain lake water.
• Great Lakes Regional AIS Landing Blitz (Mon June 29 - Sun July 12): Clean Boats Clean Waters inspectors concentrate their inspection efforts around the 4th of July boater traffic. The goal is for a coordinated AIS prevention messaging during this time of heavier boating traffic.

Resources available for the Drain Campaign can be found at AIS Publications Catalog. FH-249 and WT-747 are good ones for this.

Resources for the Landing Blitz:

• Stickers like the seen here. Contact DNRAISInfo@wisconsin.gov to request WY-113 (packs of 50 stickers).

Vilas County Land & Water received funding through a DNR Surface Water Grant to provide a limited amount of towels to Clean Boats Clean Waters inspectors this summer. If you coordinate a CBCW effort on lake in Vilas County, feel free to request some towels. Due to limited supply, you will likely receive a percentage of what is requested. The deadline to request towels is Fri May 15.

Request towels

Revisions to WI's invasive species rules have been underway for some time. DNR is soliciting feedback for economic impact until June 3. Later there will be opportunity for more general public input. Some broad highlights of the rule changes include:

• Spiny waterfleas, faucet snails, and golden clams reclassified as Restricted (vs. Prohibited)
• Bigleaf lupine classified as Prohibited in certain areas of the state
• Disease causing organisms for whirling disease and salamander chytrid fungus added as Prohibited
• Spiny naiad is removed from the invasive species list due to uncertainty of its invasive status in WI
• Remove emerald ash borer and spongy moth from the invasive species list

Members of the public wanting to submit comment on the rules can do during the public comment period (not yet scheduled). See link below for the rule change text.

DNR NR40 Rule Change pages

See the links below for Clean Boats Clean Waters trainings. Inspectors should be trained every 2 years.

In-person 2026 CBCW trainings in Vilas County

Online on-demand training: Now available at the Vilas County Land & Water CBCW volunteer webpage

To the 300+ volunteers working this summer in Vilas County to:

• Collect lake data with the Citizen Lake Monitoring Network
• Educate boaters through Clean Boats Clean Waters
• Monitor streams through Water Action Volunteers
• Monitor bats with us in partnership with DNR
• Help with our purple loosestrife biocontrol and management programs
• Manage and create native gardens for pollinators and seed

Thanks for all the work you have committed to this summer! You help keep the land and water resources in our county in better shape for the future!

Most people love the idea of "Stop Aquatic Hitchhikers". But what does this mean you should be doing to your boat, trailer, and equipment? Did you check all the places you should? Did you actually drain all the lake water? Can you (or should you) take your bait fish with you? Join us on Fri May 22 from 10 am - noon at the Boulder Junction Community Center to go over the What, Why, How and hands-on Doing of cleaning boats, trailers, and equipment.

How to Clean Your Boat at the Landing

Bats are coming out of hibernation! Bats in Wisconsin are insect eaters, and mosquitoes make up a part of their diet. While estimates from sources vary, Wisconsin bats likely eat 100+ to 1,000+ mosquitoes daily. Cave hibernating bats like the little brown bat were hit hard with white nose syndrome infections in recent years, but are showing signs of population recovery. Vilas County Land + Water partners with WI DNR to monitor bats. This is a popular program, and you can contact Quita Sheehan at mashee@vilascountywi.gov if you are interested in bat monitoring. See links below for a bit more on bats.

WI DNR Bat Monitoring

YouTube video overview on bats of the world

The Wisconsin Headwaters Invasives Partnership (WHIP) is our local cooperative invasive species management area. They are currently hiring a WHIP Coordinator. Know anyone who would love this job?

WHIP is hiring!

We got together with a few more partner agencies and revised our "Shoreline Owners Need to Know" brochure. This new version is much improved! New shoreline property owners who purchased property between Jan 2025 - Feb 2026 will get a copy of this mailed to them from Vilas County Zoning. Of the 22,953 lake and river parcels in Vilas County 1,736 parcels had swapped ownership in the last year. These changes occurred over 527 lakes and 109 streams in Vilas County.

Lake organizations in Vilas County - feel free to use this brochure on your websites. If you would like a few printed copies on hand, please reach out to cahigl@vilascountywi.gov.

Shoreline Owners Need to Know rev 3.2026