The Waterways Association of Menominee and Shawano Counties (WAMSCO) held their annual meeting on May 11th at the Belle Plaine Town Hall. The WAMSCO board put together a stellar line up of talks for the event. There were approximately 18 people in attendance. The entirety of the board for WAMSCO was present, along with three visitors from Legend Lake, the co-president of the Cloverleaf Lakes Protective Association, and a few other visitors who were interested in learning more.
The first talk of the meeting was done by Bob, leader of Wild Ones Wolf River Chapter. He spoke about the importance of native plants and about his work transforming an old, covered landfill into a restored prairie. Bob also talked about the plant sales that Wild Ones puts on every spring as well as the booth that can be found at the Shawano Farmers Markets in Franklin Park.
The second speaker was Emily Henrigillis from Connecting Our Waters, a partnership of Fox-Wolf and WAMSCO. She updated the attendees on the work she’s done over the last year in Shawano County as well as further impressed upon the group the importance of native plants. Emily discussed the results from the Long Lake shoreline survey, the online shoreline tour she’s currently working on, as well as the AIS program run by Anna Bartsch. It was nice to see some many familiar faces in the crowd!
A short break followed the second talk where coffee and homemade muffins were consumed. Brenda Nordin, lake biologist for the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, spoke on the common things found, and complained about, in our lakes and rivers. She spoke on algae, foam, invasive species, and wrapped it up by adding to the message of the importance of native plants along the shorelines.
The final in-person talk was completed by Shanda Hubertus, president of WAMSCO and property owner on Long Lake. Shanda again focused on the importance of native plants on your property but focused it in regards to fish life. She handed out fish cards to the individuals in attendance and made everyone stand. From there, she discussed how increased impervious surface on a lake property leads to an increase in the temperature of the water running off into the lake. As the impervious surface increased, meeting attendees had to sit down to show that their fish could no longer survive in that environment.
The addition of rain gardens and native plants to the shorelines of lakes can help decrease the water running off into the lake which will further protect our fish.
Shanda’s talk was followed by a short video of Nick Homan from Lakescape Solutions talking about his shoreland landscaping business. Nick works with native plants and can design and install shoreland projects for waterfront property owners. The video was very informative and he will be another great resource for Shawano and Menominee Counties. However, the video feed and sound did not match through parts so we
felt like we were watching bad lip reading. It was a funny ending to a very informative day.
Great questions were asked throughout the presentation and it really was a great line-up of related topics. We look forward to being a participant next year!
For more information on WAMSCO, check out wamsco.org or email wamsco@gmail.com
For more information on Connecting Our Waters, call or email Emily at emily@fwwa.org or 920.851.6472 or find us on all your social media @ConnectOurH2O
For more information on Wild Ones, check out wildones.org
For more information on Lakescape Solutions, LLC visit http://www.lakescapesolutions.com/
