Join other local lake organizations, professionals, and volunteers next week on Friday Oct 28 from 9:30-Noon at the Boulder Junction Community Center for the annual Vilas County Lake Conservation Partners Meeting. Each year Vilas County Land & Water facilitates this networking and planning meeting centered around lake conservation work. Hear what neighboring groups are working on, check progress with the Invasive Species Strategic Plan, and voice priorities your group might have for local lake conservation.
06/28/2022 12:30 PM – 04:30 PM CT at the North Lakeland Discovery Center
Our Northwoods lakes have a protective shield – healthy shoreline buffers! Join Mariquita Sheehan, Conservation Specialist for the Vilas County Land & Water Conservation Dept. as she surveys the Statehouse Lake shoreline to quantify the health of the buffer, identify areas that might need some modification, and make a plan to fix any problems we find. Take home skills and materials to use on your own shoreline buffers! This is a free workshop. Registration appreciated by 6/26.
Check out our latest newsletter. Learn about our upcoming, 2022 Northwoods Six-County Lakes & Rivers Conference (which incorporates our VCLRA annual meeting) on July 15th at Nicolet College, which returns to an in-person format. Our theme is wakeboats, lake capacity and other key issues impacting lakes and rivers. This newsletter also has a wealth of information about useful tools, initiatives and resources to keep our lakes and rivers healthy. Finally, don’t forget to renew your membership, or join today!
Lake group leaders and members from six northern Wisconsin counties will convene for a discussion of the environmental impacts of wakeboats, the proliferation of short-term rentals, and other issues related lake recreational capacity on Friday, July 15th. The annual lakes event will return to an in-person event and is sponsored jointly by Oneida and Vilas County Lakes and Rivers Associations.
2022 Northwoods Six-County Lakes & Rivers Conference on July 15th to highlight wakeboats and lake capacity issues
The effects of enhanced wakes from wakeboarding and wakesurfing have been the subject of great concern and extensive scientific research in recent years. Meanwhile, concern is rising about the short-term rentals of lakefront homes and cabins and how they affect lake water quality, lake crowding, and the integrity of lakefront neighborhoods.
Other topics at the annual Six-County Lakes Meeting, from 8:30 am to noon at Nicolet College in Rhinelander, will include aquatic invasive species prevention, lake access and viewing corridors on lakefront properties, and an update on state legislation and policy related to water resources. Attendees are expected from Oneida, Vilas, Forest, Langlade, Lincoln, and Iron counties. VCLRA and OCLRA will separately also host their annual meetings immediately following the event.
See draft agenda for more details. Updates may follow as the agenda is finalized.
Our Winter 2021-2022 newsletter is available online (members who get print copies will get these by mail in a few weeks). Read about Wake Boats, the Northwoods Businesses for Clean Waters partnership, our 2021 scholarships and Blue Heron awards, and much more…
Michelle Nault is the statewide lakes and reservoir ecologist with the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources Bureau of Water Quality and is responsible for providing technical guidance to a wide variety of lake management and restoration efforts. Michelle will discuss how the DNR and its partners use science to deal with these troubling aquatic invasive species.
View all presentations from the 2021 six-county lakes and rivers conference, which was hosted by Vilas and Oneida County Lakes and Rivers Associations on July 16th 2021. Attendees were invited from Oneida, Vilas, Forest, Langlade, Iron and Lincoln counties. Pat Goggin, lake specialist at the UW Extension Lakes, was the conference leader. Climate change, high water, development, and less state protections can all impact water quality in the Northwoods and were some of the topics addressed during the meeting by lake leaders and experts from Wisconsin and Minnesota.
Vilas and Oneida County Lakes and Rivers Associations will again co-host a multi-county lakes workshop on July 16th 2021 from 9am-1pm. Climate change, high water, development, and less state protections can all impact water quality in the Northwoods and will be addressed during the meeting. Six counties are expected to participate: Oneida, Vilas, Forest, Langlade, Lincoln, and Iron.
This is the video of the online Zoom conference held on Friday, July 10. The six-county lakes & rivers event explored ways to encourage lake property owners to follow lake-friendly and environmentally responsible practices. The conference agenda is here.
