News

2025 nearshore training

LakeForecast water quality monitoring in 2025

Clean Lakes Alliance’s LakeForecast water quality monitoring program completed its 13th season in 2025. This program is entirely volunteer implemented, with more than 100 trained monitors assessing water quality conditions from nearshore and offshore locations across all five Yahara lakes (Mendota, Monona, Wingra, Waubesa, and Kegonsa).

From Memorial Day through Labor Day, volunteers recorded water clarity, air and water temperature, waterfowl presence, the extent of floating plant debris, and the severity of green algae and cyanobacteria at public beaches, lakeside parks, and private piers. Submitted condition reports were able to be tracked in real-time on Lakeforecast.org or our free app, allowing the general public to stay up to date on current lake conditions.

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Panorama of the Waubesa Wetlands

Behold The Things We Cannot See

About the author: My name is Karin Swanson and I am a student of the Yahara Watershed Academy. I work for Clean Lakes Alliance as the Marketing and Communications Associate Manager and I am a Meteorologist. I am sharing my journey through the Academy in an effort to expand our community’s knowledge and passion for the Yahara River Watershed.

The forgotten and sometimes unknown pieces of our watershed

“Behold the things we cannot see.” Take a moment to think about that sentence. What does it mean? We are so plugged in these days, but there is an abundance of information we can absorb that isn’t on Google or in a text book. There are actions occurring all around us. We may not know those things are happening, but we must trust and behold those occurrences – even if we cannot see the processes happening.

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