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HomeMy WebLinkAboutAquatic Invasive Species Committee - Minutes - 11/20/2019Bayfield County Aquatic Invasive Species Committee Chair: Nan Olson Vice Chair: Jim Krueger MINUTES November 20th, 2019 Present: Sally Pease-Eau Claire Lakes Association, Reed Saam-Red Cliff Treaty Natural Resources Division, Andrew Teal-AIS Coordinator, Ramona Shackleford-NCWMA Coordinator & Melissa Kraft-LWCD Assistant Meeting began at 9:04 a.m. No quorum was present, no motions were made. Discussions below. Grant Updates-Clean Boats Clean Waters: Lake Superior and Iron River changes were discussed for 2020. Interns reached close to 1000 hrs. Next year the interns will rotate at three landings and Loons Foot will not be one of the landings in 2020. Iron River Lakes: Recently received match from the Pike Chain Lakes. Will need $6600 for match. Long Lake did not hit 200 hours at their landing which may be a problem, but Andy will be checking into it further. Discussion of possible pairing up with another lake. Andy noted next week he will attend a meeting at the North Lakes Community Center (NLCC) to discuss NLCC work on the payroll for the CBCW-IR employees. The meeting is for discussion about how the season went and what they can approve on for next season. Andy reported the AIS#6 grant is in good and he doesn’t have any concerns with the funding for 2020. Buckthorn-Mapping on Clough Island discussion. Ramona noted that next year she will be working on manual control and getting volunteers to help pull. Work done this year was to help with mapping. Reed discussed a grant that Gabby received to purchase a CD3 Mobile Trailer-Waterless Cleaning System with solar panels. The unit was approximately $32,500. The mobile waterless free, user-operator cleaning equipment was purchased through a GLRI-Lake Initiative grant. Reed said he could bring it to AIS Snapshot day or other event to show people how it works. It was suggested that the Student Science Symposium or Father’s Day event in Port Wing may be better attended therefore a better option than the AIS snapshot day. The CD3 will likely be located at the casino landing in Red Cliff. Potential AIS Ordinance language addition: Andy noted Cheryl Clemens said she recorded only 26 boats that used the decontamination unit throughout the summer and there were over 1000 that were inspected that came through. It was estimated around 75% went through the northwest landing which may have been the reason for the extremely low number. Cheryl attended the last Land Conservation Committee (LCC) meeting on Nov. 8th to discuss the possibility of changing the AIS Ordinance language to require boaters to use the decontamination unit, if needed. The LCC noted at the meeting that they agreed she should research the ordinance language that other counties use and bring back the proposed changes for review and approval. If the Bayfield County Board of Supervisors approve the language change to require boaters to use the decontamination unit, she believes it will increase public participation. Ideas for ways to improve the search for 2020 CBCW summer interns were discussed. The position descriptions will be revised in hopes to promote greater interest in the positions. Possibility of including other AIS projects that could be done while at the landings in between doing the inspections/surveys. Possible potential projects working on yellow iris work, purple loose strife, and growing beetles were some of the suggestions discussed. It was noted that this year, the interns went over 200 hrs. at some landings. Andy was asked if he had ideas as to what other AIS type work the interns could do during the “down time”. Another suggestion was made for Andy to reach out to Zach Wilson for some ideas to help make the position more desirable. Reed suggested the Little Sand Bay landing as a potential future site for 2021 as he noted it is a busy landing for boaters, especially those coming from MN. Discussion on drone use and ideas for invasive plant aerial survey sites in 2020. Andy spent some time with Scott Galetka who used the county drone to obtain imagery of areas with plant coloring in hopes to identify invasive species by their coloring. They surveyed areas at C&W Trucking as it is known to have knotweed. Some plants were found to have similar coloring as invasive plants, however, the imagery did provide detection of invasive plants. Reed asked what program they used for color pigmenting the invasive species. He discussed work he knows regarding pigment of wild rice from drone imagery. Reed noted Gabby is working on trying to get drones for their work as well. Discussion regarding some obstacles with the drone imagery are that colors of knotweed may be different depending on the time of year, if they are flowering, and due to climate variations in different areas some plants may be at different stages of growth. Discussion on whether or not trucking companies wash and clean off the trucks after moving dirt from area to area and the potential of invasive plants spreading to other areas was talked about, and also that wheelers/side-by-sides, bikers, and hikers also potentially spread invasive species as well. Lakeshore work regarding yellow iris was discussed. Discussion on Brule River and yellow iris. Sally noted she talked to cabin owners where yellow iris was found and they were already aware of it. AIS Coordinator’s Report was discussed in detail and it is on file. Partner/Department Reports: Reed noted that AIS larvae fish study will be held in June 2020. Zoo plankton sampling will take place again with attention on their diet which can get very costly at $250/sample. He believes it is worth it as they found the new invasive species last year doing that type of sampling. Reed noted he will try and do plant sampling again and extended an invite to Andy to go along. Ramona reported she had a meeting in Madison yesterday for NR-40 on reassessing what’s prohibited. Next summer after further research is done, a determination will be made as to which plants will be added as prohibited/restricted. Discussion on restrictions across the states versus just areas of Wi with those restrictions. Ramona also noted she has been trying to spend some of the grant money on items like a cover for the boat washer and herbicides. Sally noted that the weed harvesting boat is put away for the winter. Trees have been cleaned out on Lake Tomahawk. Sally didn’t notice any curly leaf pond weed in Middle Eau Claire Lake, so hopefully the patch is gone now and focus will be on other areas. The LEEP program that took place in September went well. The spring LEEP program will take place at Lower Eau Claire in May. Please contact Sally if you are interested in volunteering. Future AIS/Surface Water Activities a. North Lakes Conference is June 19, 2020 b. AIS Snapshot Day, August 15, 2020, statewide-rendezvous site TBD c. Upper Midwest Invasive Species Conference, October 12-14, 2020, Duluth MN Other Business- Sally discussed an issue on Kelly Lake regarding a speed boat coming on the lake. It’s a small lake and has flooding issues in some spots. Working on solutions to try and remedy the issue. Andy noted he would like to nominate Sally Pease for the Lake Stewardship Award. He will need to talk to her more about it. Adjournment of meeting at 10:20 am. Any person wishing to attend who, because of a disability, requires special accommodations, should contact the LWCD at 715-373-6167, at least 24 hours before the scheduled meeting time, so appropriate arrangements can be made.