The Vilas County Land & Water Committee will meet on Wednesday, November 8th at 9:00 am. See the link below for the agenda.

Agenda - November 8, 2023

Know someone who does a great job maintaining an outstanding natural shoreline? Nominate them online for the Blue Heron Shoreline Stewardship Award. VCLRA makes these annual awards to generate awareness and educate lake property owners on the importance of shoreland stewardship by showcasing excellence in lake-friendly waterfront development.

Learn more or nominate someone online at https://vclra.org/blue-heron-program/.

Local business Wildwood Outdoor Adventures hosted a Wisconsin River Clean Up in partnership with SOAR High School as part implementing their Northwoods Businesses for Clean Waters conservation plan. Several pounds of trash were removed from the river. Northwoods Businesses for Clean Waters connects conservation professionals with local businesses relying on lakes and rivers who want to voluntarily do more to protect water resources in their day-to-day operations.

WI River Clean Up

Learn More about Northwoods Businesses for Clean Waters

If you missed this meeting, read the notes! Check out Clean Boats Clean Waters data, updates from many Vilas County Lake organizations, and guest presentations.

2023 Vilas County Lakes Conservation Partners Meeting

Reminders:

• Final applications are due to DNR by Nov 15th.

Surface Water Grants

Salting to melt ice is important to keep drivers and pedestrians safe from crashes and slips. But too often operations are over-salting, leading to unnecessary salinization of our freshwater lakes and rivers. Salt at concentrations of 1 teaspoon per 5 gallons of water are toxic to Wisconsin native aquatic organisms, some lakes are showing trends for increasing chlorides (salts). Start with learning more about proper salting techniques, and what we can do at our own homes to use less salt while still playing it safe on ice this winter.

Wisconsin Salt Wise

If you have wetlands on your property and want to consider some conservation practices, this webinar from Wisconsin Wetlands might benefit you.

Wetlands Conservation Practices for Landowners

If your town or municipality has some work to do to manage the potential for flooding, take a look at this DNR grant! Detention ponds, riparian restoration, flood studies, property acquisition, and removal of certain structures are some of the items listed at eligible costs. Cost sharing is 50%. Applications are due March 15, 2024.

DNR Municipal Flood Control Grant Program

If you found some mysterious creatures attached to your dock when you took it out this fall, you aren't the only ones. Algae, bryzoans, and other creatures tend to call this place home for the summer. Wondering what you've got? Send a pic to both Paul Skawinski of Extension Lakes and Patrick Siwula of DNR and get your mystery solved!

We are looking for someone interested in stream monitoring at Plum Creek/Creek Rd from May-October 2024. Ideally, monitoring would occur monthly. This could be done by anyone interested in stream water quality that is able to wade through shallow streams. This would be a great fit for high school students, interested citizens, those needing community service hours, or community groups. If you are interested, contact Cathy Higley to set up one-one-one in-person training in the spring.

Water Action Volunteer - baseline monitoring introduction

If you are having trouble with your private well, here's some good news! WI DNR as a grant program to support the replacement, reconstruction, treatment, or abandonment of contaminated private wells. Check out the DNR's website for more info.

WI DNR Well Compensation Grant Program