Wisconsin’s annual campaign that reminds boaters to drain all lake and river water, clean equipment, and check watercraft for aquatic invasive species experienced a slight change this year due to Covid-19. This week, the two summertime Clean Boats, Clean Waters initiatives – Drain Campaign, normally held in early June, and Landing Blitz, normally held the week of Independence Day – have been merged. The Connecting Our Waters program of Fox-Wolf, which focuses on water quality issues in Shawano and Menominee Counties, is participating in the combined event that started on Sunday, June 28th and will run through Sunday, July 5th.
During this week, Connecting Our Waters staff and volunteers have been giving away hard sided ice packs and boat towels to visitors at the Shawano County Park boat landing. The ice packs are stamped with the reminder to drain lake and river water from fishing buckets and live wells. Any natural freshwater might carry disease or microscopic invasive animals, such as the larvae of zebra mussels. Also free to visitors this week are Stop Aquatic Hitchhikers! towels. These towels are great for wiping down watercraft while removing any easily seen plants from boats and trailers.
Connecting Our Waters is also encouraging the use of watercraft cleaning and decontamination stations when available. Anna Bartsch, Aquatic Invasive Species Coordinator for Shawano and Menominee counties, says that watercraft should ideally be thoroughly cleaned between different water bodies. “A lot of invasive species, in their early stages of life, are microscopic. So you can’t necessarily see them all the time, but they might still be there,” she says. The Shawano County Park features a pressure wash station which is free to all visitors of the public boat landing.
*Photos are courtesy of of Eric Peterson, WLUK.
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Written by: Anna Bartsch
AIS Coordinator
Connecting Our Waters Program
Fox-Wolf Watershed Alliance
E-mail: Anna@fwwa.org
