Looking for Boat Ramp Monitors

The Quiet Lakes were awarded grants by the WDNR to monitor our boat ramps to protect against the introduction of invasive species into our lakes.   We will hire monitors for the Lost Land Landing Camp, Teal River Dam, Teal Lake Larson Road and the Ghost Lake ramps; and expect this to encompass the following:

• Approximately 12 - 15 hours each weekend from Friday afternoon through mid-day Sunday between Memorial Day and Labor Day
• The monitors will examine incoming and outgoing boats for invasive species, help educate the ramp users on invasives, etc.
• We expect activity at the ramps to be hectic at times, and then hours of no activity.   Thus, a college student would be the ideal candidate as they could study during the down times

We will conduct training in May for the monitors selected.   Our Environmental Director, Rex Clevenger, will begin interviewing for these roles in April.   Thus, if you know of dependable candidates, please respond directly to the Quiet Lakes at quiet_lakes@yahoo.com.

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.