Lake & Waterway Management focuses on the practices and strategies that keep lakes, rivers, and wetlands healthy. Topics include lake health, ecosystem balance, climate change impacts, shoreline restoration, fish populations, and sustainable management techniques that protect water resources for the future.
Surrounded by some of the world’s richest soil and home to two major grain processing plants, Decatur has long been a hub for agribusiness in the United States. One major trade-off comes in the form of excess nutrients, specifically nitrogen and phosphorus, that runoff from fertilizers used on local farm fields and from discharges from
WISN met with our team at Aquarius Systems as well as visiting the Lake Beulah Management District to see these amazing machines that are “Made in Wisconsin”. According to Jane Dauffenbach, President of Aquarius Systems, at the factory in North Prairie they make metal float. The raw material comes in and the talented staff bend
Starry stonewort was first discovered in Minnesota waters in Lake Koronis in 2015. It’s now found in 19 Minnesota waterbodies. Lake Koronis is helping researchers understand how a changing climate may influence this invasive and how we can better manage it. Overall, the research showed year-to-year variability in the total biomass of starry stonewort. There
Kirksville City Council members voted to approve a resolution to allow weed harvest operations at Forest Lake in Thousand Hills State Park, Missouri, as the invasive curly leaf pond weed is not only negatively affecting recreation activities, but also impacts water quality and the drinking water treatment process. In 2018, the city entered into a
In September, 2020, as Hurricane Sally battered Florida’s panhandle with a deluge of rain and high winds, some locals said their living shorelines were their best defense against the area’s storm surge. Instead of a hardened seawall aimed at protecting shores from erosion, living shorelines use vegetation and other natural elements like oyster shells to
The past two months have been productive for the Chautauqua Lake Association in New York, and the work is just getting started. July is expected to be even more productive with the expansion to a third site to efficiently maintain Chautauqua Lake’s ecology. To date this season, the Lakewood and Long Point crews have removed
DeGray Lake was once known for thick beds of aquatic vegetation, which included non-native species such as hydrilla and Brazilian elodea that grew to as deep as 20 feet in some places and caused issues with boating and other recreation. In 2008 and 2009, extremely low water throughout winter exposed the root systems of this
Pete McGeshick II, 80, a Sokaogon Chippewa tribal member and former Rice Chief, recalls when he and Sokaogon Chippewa tribal members used to harvest wild rice on Spur Lake. The wild rice is all but gone, but DNR ecologists are working to clear Twin Lakes Creek, hoping to revive wild rice on Spur Lake. The
In recent years Fox Lake in Wisconsin has responded to a decade of water quality management that has shifted the lake from being turbid with frequent algae blooms to a clearer water condition. This has fostered improved lake use, the return of aquatic plants and a more balanced fishery. One consequence of the water quality
More than 25 years ago, biologists in Arkansas began to report dozens of bald eagles paralyzed, convulsing, or dead. Their brains were pocked with lesions never seen before in eagles. Birds were dying at lakes and reservoirs throughout the southeast, and at every lake Susan Wilde, an aquatic ecologist at the University of Georgia, Athens