The Quiet Lakes Are Awarded $30,000 of Boat Ramp Monitoring Grants for 2012 and 2013

Despite being declined on our February 2011 grant requests, we learned from the process and resubmitted grant requests in August, all of which were approved by the WDNR in October.

These grants provide funding for us to hire boat ramp monitors Fridays through Sundays from May through September 2012 and 2013.    Boats launching from our public ramps will be examined by our monitors for aquatic invasive species, including Eurasion Milfoil and Curly Leaf Pondweed. 

     

We had 15 volunteers conduct extensive testing for the invasive plants last summer, with the finding that the Quiet Lakes remain plant invasive free (see the Sawyer County Record picture below of our volunteers).   However, many lakes in Sawyer County are dealing with this problem, including Spider Lake just yards to our west.     Invasives “hitchhike” on boats coming to our waters from infested lakes.   As these hitchhikers represent the biggest risk of invasive introduction, a ramp monitor program is our best defense.

Also included in the grant is the update of our aquatic plant study, last done 5 years ago, which provides an updated chronicle of the plant species growing in the lakes.

As part of the ramp monitoring grants, the Quiet Lakes must contribute approximately $19,000 over the two years, virtually all of which we expect to contribute through “in-kind” volunteer aquatic invasive species testing programs.  

Finally, Kristy Maki, the Sawyer County Invasives guru, has agreed to provide a presentation on avoiding invasives in gardening, which our many gardeners will find extremely interesting.

Ice-On at Teal Lake on November 29th!

Thanks to Mary Witt and Jeannie Boersma for noting that Teal is officially iced over on November 29th.   Shari Peterson provided us with this picture for the record.  

Aunt Bert Reunites With Ellen and Red, by Jim & Pat Dooley

Pat and I weren’t even considering Teal Lake when in 2005 we were shopping for a lake home.  It just seemed too far from Hayward and our friends who own a place on Round Lake.  But as soon as we walked through the 1927 log home and saw the grand view of the Teal Lake islands, we were smitten.  We have grown to love the Quiet Lakes, watching families with little kids fishing from twelve and fourteen foot boats with 10 horsepower motors.  We don’t really need to see or hear jet skis and huge bass boats flying by at full throttle.  Little did we know that the “Sunset Lodge” loons would spend most of their time right in front of our windows!   continued..........

That Old Red Boathouse on Teal; by Donna Nickel

In the early twentieth century, our part of the woods was pretty well logged out. The logging companies were able to make a little bit more money off the land a second time by selling off their holdings. It only made sense that the owners of paper companies were the first to become aware of the lands coming onto the market.     continued......

Real Estate Statistics for the Quiet Lakes

This blog entry is for those who are curious as to what is happening with lakehome sales in our area and specifically on the Quiet Lakes .

 

The following statistics were pulled from the Northwest WI MLS system for Lost Land , Teal and Ghost Lake(s) :

·        2008: 8 lakehomes sold with a median price of $517,500

·        2009: 3 sales, median price: $295,000

·        2010: 7 sales, median price: $313,000

·        2011: 4 sales, median price: $537,500 (data through 10/24/11).

 

For 2011, the median price of the 3 Quiet Lakes has risen dramatically as compared to the past 2 years while the # of lakehomes sold has declined as compared to last year.  Similarly, in Sawyer County overall, the median lakehome price rose from $245,000 in 2010 to $285,000 in 2011.  There were 105 lakehomes sold in Sawyer County in 2010 as compared to 79 sales so far this calendar year.       

 

Spider Lake has also experienced an increase in the median price for 2011 ($385,000) as compared to 2010 ($267,450).

 

The buyers of higher priced lakehomes in our market are much more active this year as compared to the last 2 years which accounts for the increase in the median price.  Sales of lakehomes that are “moderately” or “affordably” priced have slowed down this year as compared to 2010 which accounts for the overall decrease in the # of properties sold.    Although the outlook for 2012 is uncertain, the recent increase in higher priced lakehome sales is a welcome change for the Quiet Lakes and Sawyer County lakehome market(s).     

Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow!

We got our first snow of the season this morning at 8:37a,m., thus it may be time to get your cross country skiis and ice fishing equipment out of storage! 

Monster From the Deep?

Thanks so much to Donna Nickel of Teal Lake for sending us the following picture and note:

The last week of September, 2010, I found a rather hard, gelatinous thing floating in the water by our dock. This thing was about four inches long, three inches wide, and about three inches thick. There was a green leaf in it. It looked as though there was brown dirt or sand stuck on the outside.   This year, on October 8, we found growths of the same thing clinging to the bottom of our johnboat.  

Kristy Maki, the Sawyer County Aquatic Invasive Species Monitor, indicates that this is not a monster after all.  Rather it is likely Bryozoa.  continue........

Eagles of the Quiet Lakes: October 2011

Thanks to Ron & Lynn Kunz for these wonderful pictures.

The Great Duck War, by Penny and Roger Hage

It was a sunny, day in July and my daughter, grandchildren and myself were swimming by our place.

We noticed a family of ducks coming our way and the children ran to get some bread to feed them.   This family of ducks consisted of a Mom and 10 teenagers.  Everything was going well until another family of ducks approached us.  This second family was a Mother and 5 downy babies.    continued......

Afraid to get stranded on a rustic road on a winter's night? Russ Streit lives to tell the tale!

It was New Years Eve Day, 1968, and not a typical day in Russ and Anita Streit's lives. In Wisconsin it can get COLD, and on that day it was 30 below with a wicked wind chill.   continued........

Why our waters are pristine:

Because our volunteers are plentiful and focused.    At left, Audrey Divilbiss places aquatic invasive species cards on windshields at the Larson Road boat ramp on Teal Lake. Shown at right is Shari Peterson performing aquatic invasive species testing in her assigned quadrant, the Thoroughfare between Lost Land and Teal Lakes.   Shari is one of 16 volunteers conducting this testing for us.      So far, none of our volunteers have found any invasive species.