The city applies for a DNR permit every five years to harvest weeds, and once a year for chemical treatment. This year’s permit authorizes a single herbicide treatment for 44.35 acres of aquatic plants and remaining areas will be harvested using the city’s four aquatic weed harvesters.

In the city’s annual seaweed-harvesting report submitted to the DNR for 2021, Ryan Londo, Sturgeon Bay’s seasonal harbormaster said 371 harvester loads of seaweeds were hauled out of the bay and marinas, which was 273 more loads than in 2020, and the second-most loads since he began working for the city in 2013, when 407 loads were hauled out.

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I fondly remember sitting on the pier with my brother; toes just skimming the top of the water’s surface; watching the weed harvester cut the mats of weeds growing along the surface knowing that the swimming and fishing were going to be so much better when the operator was finished.

I grew up on Potter’s Lake, a relatively small lake in Southeastern Wisconsin. Little did I know that I would not only work for the company that produced the weed eating machine I used to watch, but that one of my co-workers grew up on the same lake watching an Aquarius Systems harvester cut and collect plant material.

Chad, Aquarius Systems’ customer relations manager, recently visited our customers on Potter’s Lake and sent a photo of the aquatic weed harvester. When I mentioned to Chad that I used to watch that weed harvester, but recall it being all blue (the photo he sent showed a weed harvester with a stainless-steel barge) he thought I was “stealing his story” about watching the harvester as a child. What a small world! Chad also grew up on Potters Lake and spent time watching the weed harvester as well.

Of course, after a little digging through our archives (yup, we have a room dedicated to all the equipment we produced) we discovered that while we both watched an Aquarius Systems’ aquatic weed harvester operate on the lake they were in fact different machines.

The machine I watched was purchased in 1976 and was indeed all Aquarius Blue; my memory was correct. Potter’s Lake Protection and Rehabilitation District traded up in 1985 to the machine that they are still operating today, over 36 years later!

For 40 years – 1945 to 1985 – the sanitary district used herbicides, including 2-4-D for 17 years, in an attempt to control the weeds. Since 1947, the district also harvested weeds from the lake and would pick up the weeds that washed on the shoreline.

In 1985, the use of chemical herbicides was discontinued on the lake and an expanded weed harvesting program began. The harvesting and removal of the plant material reduced nutrients available for the regrowth of the invasive watermilfoil and allowed for a better diversity of native aquatic plants.

The Lake Pewaukee Sanitary District understands the value the aquatic plants have on the stability of the lake bottom as well as value the plants have on the aquatic life thriving in the lake. They also understand the importance of keeping the aquatic plant levels down to allow human recreation.

The District starts its harvesting program earlier than any other lake in Wisconsin and runs the program longer than any other lake in Wisconsin in an effort to knock back the invasive species and promote the native species. The challenge becomes what the budget and time allows and the cost benefit of what is being accomplished. The District has been slowly increasing the equipment and labor force in an effort to continuously improve the harvesting operations. Small budget increases are helping increase manpower and more importantly set up the 2nd shift program for years that the cycle provides a peak aquatic plant growth season.

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