No Water hyacinth found, Lots of Floating and Submerged Garbage Removed from the Lake

For the third straight year, Fox-Wolf Watershed Alliance staff helped to search for aquatic invasive species (AIS) on the Winnebago Waterways system. The staff was searching specifically for water hyacinth, a free-floating perennial plant native to South America. With several teams of people in kayaks and boats armed with binoculars, the team scoured all the areas where water hyacinth has previously been found in the system. We are pleased to report that no water hyacinth was found! Areas searched included channels in and around Winneconne and down into Lake Butte des Morts. Water hyacinth has previously been found in local waterways in 8 Wisconsin counties, including in Lake Winneconne. The plant was first reported to the DNR in October 2015 by a citizen volunteer. Previous efforts since 2015 have found plants in the waters around Winneconne and all found plants were removed by the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR) and partners (see the map at the bottom of the page). Water hyacinth has the ability to quickly dominate a system and there is concern that the plant may be able to establish a population in the lake.

To learn more about water hyacinth, click HERE. To learn about the Fox-Wolf monitoring trip from 2018, click HERE. Want to read about a plan to import hippos to control water hyacinth in the 1900s, click HERE.

If you are interested in becoming a citizen volunteer to help protect our lakes, contact Chris Acy, Winnebago Waterways AIS Coordinator, at chris@fwwa.org or (920)460-3674. For more information about similar aquatic invasive species monitoring projects, visit http://WinnebagoWaterways.org. 

Follow the Fox Wolf Watershed Alliance’s Winnebago Waterways Program on our Winnebago Waterways Facebook page or @WinnWaterways on Twitter! You can also sign-up for email updates at WinnebagoWaterways.org.

Questions? Comments? Contact Chris Acy, the AIS Coordinator for the Winnebago Waterways Program covering Fond du Lac, Calumet, and Winnebago Counties at (920) 460-3674 or chris@fwwa.org!

Winnebago Waterways is a Fox-Wolf Watershed Alliance program. The Fox-Wolf Watershed Alliance is an independent nonprofit organization that identifies and advocates effective policies and actions that protect, restore, and sustain water resources in the Fox-Wolf River Basin.