On January 27, 2001, Darren and I rose at 5:30 (he was earlier since he had to travel out from Chicago to get me!) and started the trip to Milwaukee. The conference was held at the fair grounds in the UW Extension building. At check-in we explored the 2 dozen or so information displays and picked up quite a bit of good info, of which copies will gladly be sent if you contact me.
The five-hour conference (apparently the all day conferences weren't being attended, so they shortened them) was composed of three sessions, all of which looked like relevant topics to Turtle Lake.
Starting off the morning was a talk on geese, their affects on lakes, and what to do about them. The speaker was Dr. Scott Craven, a UWEX Wildlife Specialist who has studied geese for over 20 years. He started by discussing some general info about the life cycle of geese and their migration habits. The geese we see flying overhead or stopping for a rest in Oct. or March/April ARE NOT the geese that cause a lake problems. This migration and stopover is a natural event. A lake gets in trouble when the landscaping of the shoreline makes a pleasant little home for the bird. The number one problem is cutting all natural brush and plantlife from right near the shore, then running a lawn to the edge of the water. This is like a 5-star Hilton hotel with turndown service for geese. The grass is tasty, and the open area makes for a safe, predator free area. The best way to keep the geese from your land is to let the natural plantlife on the shore grow. Geese don't like the tall plants as predators could be hiding there.
Once a geese family takes a liking to a lake, they will return there
year after year, making more geese (which tend to stay also), and before
you know it you have a lake full of geese. It is important to stop
this problem BEFORE it gets bad by making your shore unwelcoming to geese.
The second session was a talk by Hope Oostdik, Owner of Dutch Designs,
a landscaping firm. I was afraid the session would be an hour long
advertisment for her company, but was pleasantly surprised. Hope
spoke mostly on the problems a lake can encounter when the shore is stripped
of its natural plantlife. The biggest threat is that the natural
plants act as a buffer for excessive nutrients leaching into the lake.
With out this buffer, the nutrients cause a spike in algae growth, eventually
choking the lake and making it all but unuseable. It is critical
for the long term health of any lake that the shoreline stay as close to
normal as possible. She suggests leaving at LEAST a 15 foot zone
of natural plant life on the shore, cutting only an at most 30' wide corridor
for lake access. In addition, leave fallen trees and branches on
the shore for wildlife to use for habitat. We picked up a few handouts
that, once again, we'd be happy to send to anyone interested in this vital
area of lake management.
Finally, the third topic of the morning was an open-table forum of a collection of sheriff officers from various lakes and counties in the SE lakes region. The talk was moderated by Bill O'Connor, who is the WAL lawyer, and responsible for many great things helping to protect the interests of lakes in Wisconsin.
Each of the officers had a couple of interesting tidbits and stories to relate, although a couple of them were NOT confortable speaking in public. Probably the most important tidbit relating to Turtle Lake was that (since they can't be everywhere at once) they are more than willing to write a ticket to an offending boat or PWC if the offence is video-taped. This is a good time to remind everyone that the officers in Walworth county have asked us to call the sheriff's number (262) 741-4400) to report violators, thus justifing the need for the boat patrols. Look here for important rules of the lake
The only complaint we had for the conference was that the moderators did a poor job of keeping the sessions moving. Questions often were off topic and no one was strong or brave enough to right the ship, so to speak. Other than this, the day was well spent and informative, and we're looking forward to more half-day conferences in the future.