Colder Temperatures Doesn’t Mean We’re In the Clear

As folks start to head out into the snow and on the ice, winter fun is heating up! Snowmobiling, skiing, ice skating, ice fishing, and more are just around the corner! While it may seem like aquatic invasive species (AIS) aren’t a concern during cold temperatures, all you have to do is pull up a line on some lakes to discover plants like curly-leaf pondweed are growing just fine under the ice. Inspect sleds, buckets, and lures for AIS hitchhikers and remove them. That goes for even the tiniest plant fragment or animal, like a zebra mussel. If you added water to a minnow bucket, that bait can only be used on the same waterbody. Always dump leftover bait you won’t end up using into the trash; never on the ground or into the water. For your snowmobiles, give a quick once-over and look for plant fragments. No matter how you end up enjoying our Wisconsin winters, help protect the places you recreate and your local waterways by following these 4 steps:

  1. Inspect and clean all equipment like skis, skates, snowmobiles, sleds, fishing hooks, and fishing lines after each use.
  2. Remove any plant fragments or animals from your equipment.
  3. If applicable, drain all water from equipment and containers before leaving the ice. This includes fish containers. Use ice to transport your fish instead!
  4. Never move any plants or animals from one environment to another. This includes forests, wetlands, and waterways!

Thank you for all you do to recreate responsibly this winter!

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

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.

Check out the Keepers of the Fox Program at https://fwwa.org/watershed-recovery/lower-fox-recovery/

Photo Credit: Amanda Smith, Creative Commons