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Madison - Lake Monona

Our lakes are at the center of our community, but did you know that the shoreline of Lake Mendota almost looked entirely different? Test your knowledge of the history and ecology of the five Madison lakes!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Beach inventory

Funding for environmental conservation, restoration, and education projects has been awarded this year by the Dane County Environmental Council totaling more than $17,000. These grants go to communities and non-profits that do work within Dane County.

Clean Lakes Alliance will receive around $3,500 to fund projects such as our farm tours and water quality monitoring. This award will help to purchase necessary equipment for our volunteers and provide transportation to offsite projects.

Dane County Executive Joe Parisi said, “We can always accomplish more when we work together. By partnering with these communities and non-profits, we have the ability to educate and inspire others, and continue our work to improve and conserve the county’s outdoor spaces,” and we couldn’t agree more!

To see which other projects were funded, read Sun Prairie Star’s article HERE.

Healthy Farms Healthy Lakes Task Force - Closeup of cow

Our lakes face challenges from urban and rural sources of phosphorus. A new Dane County “Healthy farms, Healthy Lakes” Task Force will focus on agricultural sources of phosphorus, with a goal to promote thriving farms and healthy lakes.

The Healthy Farms, Health Lakes Task Force is a coalition of farmers, government agencies, and environmental advocacy groups, including Clean Lakes Alliance, that was formed in July of 2017. The group hopes to release a blueprint of how to best help both farmers and the lakes by the end of this year.

Learn more about this task force in The Cap Times’ article.

Cyanobacteria (Blue-green algae)

A Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources study of sources of phosphorus pollution to the Wisconsin River has provided more information about human impact on this much-loved waterway.

Clean Lakes Alliance’s Director of Marketing & Development Adam Sodersten comments, “Most importantly it will take a transformational and cultural shift in how we approach lake health, like the societal shift to recycling and composting that took place decades ago.”

The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources has a series of planned public meetings next month to discuss its draft study of the river between Lake Wisconsin and Vilas County.

To learn more about this study, read the State Journal’s article.

February Rain Runoff in Lake Mendota

Urban and rural runoff add algae-creating phosphorus to our lakes

MADISON, Wis. — Warm February temperatures and a high volume of rain are melting snow now, but creating a hazardous problem down the road. Visible runoff can be seen along the shores of all five lakes in our watershed. This brown, discolored water has gathered soil and debris from the frozen land and washed it into our lakes. With more weekend rain in the forecast, this problem will continue to harm Madison’s lakes.

“When we have a deluge of rain in the winter, or a fast thaw, the frozen land can’t accept the water,” said Paul Dearlove, Clean Lakes Alliance senior director of watershed initiatives. “This means more phosphorus has been loaded into the lake, which has the potential to cause more algae blooms this summer.”

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Water quality monitoring

2017 results from our monitoring program

Overview

Figure 1. 2017 monitoring sites (Red: Near-shore; Blue: Off-shore).

From Memorial Day to Labor Day, volunteers at piers and beaches around the five Yahara lakes measured near-shore water clarity, air and water temperature, and noted several visual observations.

Visual observations included presence of algal blooms (green/blue-green), floating plant debris, swimmers, waterfowl, wave intensity, and general water appearance.

Volunteers were asked to log condition reports at least weekly on our website, lakeforecast.org, where all data are updated in real time.

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Lake Mendota Freeze

A Christmas cold snap and low wind helped Lake Mendota officially freeze on Wednesday, December 27. Lake Mendota is the largest lake in the Yahara Watershed. The lake froze 17 days after the smallest lake in the watershed, Lake Wingra, which officially froze on December 10.

The Wisconsin State Climatology Office requires ice to hold for a period of 24 hours before a lake can officially be declared frozen over. After ice took shape on December 26, staff waited to see whether it would hold out through the night. The December 27 freeze date is five days ahead of last winter’s January 1 freeze date, and only seven days later than the December 20 median freeze date. The latest freeze date for Lake Mendota was January 30 – which happened in the winter of 1932.

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lake-mendota-ice

Dear Friends,

Another year has come and gone on our lakes. Thank you for being a Friend of Clean Lakes. Today, I have only ONE thing on my holiday wish list – healthy lakes.

DONATE today to support our work.

As 2017 closes, we’re already pulling together phosphorus-reduction and water quality numbers for our State of the Lakes annual report. In the meantime, I’m looking back on a few things that have made ME happy this year.

Seven things that make James & the lakes happy:

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Leaf Management

Help spread the world about leaf clean up and phosphorus reduction this fall. Removing leaves from the street can greatly reduce the amount of nutrient loading this season.

Listen to NBC15 and Clean Lakes Alliance Marketing Director Adam Sodersten to find out what you can do to help.

Click here to listen.