We were lucky to have 22 volunteers join us over the field season to sample our local lakes and streams.
Our six in lake volunteers sampled Kolpack Lake, Wolf River Pond, Pensaukee Lakes, White Lake and Schoenick Lake. They all sampled temperature and water
clarity in their respective systems with most of them also taking a dissolved oxygen profile. The majority of the lakes that were sampled remained mixed throughout the summer. This is due to their relatively shallow nature (less than 15 feet).
Mark from Kolpack Lake loved being a citizen scientist and, if available, will continue to sample Kolpack Lake in 2021.
Kathy from White Lake is looking forward to getting a small boat of her own to sample White Lake in 2021. She also is very interested in finding out more about her lake and its watershed.
Tim, our volunteer from SAWM, sampled the Wolf River Pond at its deepest site near the Little Rapids Dam. A member of the Shawano Ski Sharks, we are lucky to have such a dedicated group interested in maintaining the water quality on the Wolf River.
Bernard shared sampling duties with his brother and his sister-in-law. None of them live in Shawano County full time so they worked together to make sure the deep hole was sampled.
Dave, our Schoenick Lake volunteer, joined the sampling volunteers in July due to a lost phone number. Schoenick Lake has suffered from water quality issues for the last couple years so we were excited we found someone willing to become the citizen lake monitor for Schoenick Lake.
We are lucky that the majority of our volunteers are willing to come back and sample their lakes in 2021 and beyond.
We had 4 main stream sampling volunteers that brought along 11 other volunteers to assist with their sampling over the field season. Four of the sites we sampled in 2020 were along the North Branch of the Embarrass River. Emily Henrigillis, regional watershed coordinator with the Fox-Wolf Watershed Alliance, Scott Frank, Conservationist with Shawano County LCD, and Tracy Laude were the volunteers that worked to get the sampling done.
Scott Frank and his land conservation department staff and working on sampling the North Branch of the Embarrass River near County Hwy D and below Pella Pond off of County Hwy M and D.
Emily Henrigillis did nutrient sampling in 2020 on a portion of the North Branch of the Embarrass off Schoolhouse Road near Bowler, WI.
Tracy, our science teacher, sampled the North Branch of the Embarrass above Pella Pond, right outside the town of Leopolis, on North Branch Road. She was able to get the kids that lived next to sampling site to help throughout the summer while teaching them about water and the critters in the water.
We also had a volunteer sample an unnamed tributary leading in to Schoenick Creek. This site, along with two others sampled above and below Long Lake, help
give us insight into the nutrient loading occurring within the watershed.
Finally, Emily added the Red River as it crossed Maple Avenue in Shawano in August to round out the stream sampling occurring through the Connecting Our Waters program. This site was previously sampled as a part of the Wisconsin DNR TMDL. The continued sampling of this stream can be quite informative to the health of the Wolf River watershed.
We are continually looking for volunteers to help monitor the lakes and streams around Shawano County as well as the Fox Wolf Watershed.