Program Notes from April 26, 2005 Meeting of LKWA

The meeting was called to order by Chairman, Rick Persson, at 6:05 pm at the DNR office in Janesville

The Summer Picnic will be on July 23 starting at noon. It will be at the Carcajou Hunt Clubhouse, a building built in 1867. Rick Persson and Susan Yates will host.

The August meeting will be a joint event with the Wisconsin Wetlands Association. There will be a pontoon trip around the lake with Quentin Carpenter as leader. He will point out the various types of wetlands in the lake, their natural features and their health or problems. A committee to help plan the event was formed with: Susan Yates, Don Bush and Jim Johnson. Persons with pontoon boats are: Susan Yates, Linn Duesterbeck, and Jim Johnson. We will probably have to borrow some from marinas. Those who know individuals or marinas that might be willing to loan a pontoon boat, please let us know.

We discussed programs for the fall. We will have a decoy carving program given by Bob Small.

The work on our grant to survey the vegetation of Lake Koshkonong's wetlands will begin this summer. We need volunteers to help with the surveys. The botanists will need help with data recording and guidance and transportation to the survey sites.

Penny gave a brief summary of the results of the migratory waterfowl survey that was done on three consecutive weekends, April 2, 9, and 16. On each of the survey days, ducks were counted between 9:30 and 10:00 am from 12 locations on the shore as well as from 5 locations within adjacent marshes. In addition, a boat survey was done either just before or after the shore count. On April 8, an aerial survey also was done. The shore count totals were: 3504 - April 2; 11,285 - April 9; 6813 - April 16. The boat counts were 9292 - April 2; 8602 - April 9; 14,098 - April 16. The aerial count on April 8 was 8268. Ruddy ducks were by far the most numerous, followed by scaup and ring-necked. Also seen were canvasback, redheads, bufflehead, blue-winged teal, hooded mergansers, common mergansers, red-breasted mergansers, shovelers, green-winged teal, and wood ducks. A few black ducks, gadwall and common goldeneye were seen. Unusual sightings included a pair of nesting bald eagles, 1 osprey, 1 common scoter, 2 old squaw, 1 eared grebe, 1 tundra swan, and 10 loons.

New Business

  1. Bill Zeman distributed copies of articles about the history of Lake Koshkonong. They were : Ecological and Biological History of Wisconsin by George Bachay 1971, Early Wisconsin Wisconsin shorebird decoys by Bosworth and Wenzeo in Decoy Magazine,, 2004, and two articles that appeared many years ago in the Gazette by George Bachay regarding sculler duck hunt boats on the lake. We will try to put as much of this information as possible on our web site.
  2. Because of the great interest in the history of Lake Koshkonong, we will try to have more programs related to history. One idea is to have an evening of reminiscences by persons over 70 years of age. We will ask Quentin Carpenter to lead the discussion and will look into have a transcriptionist or court reporter take notes so it can be preserved. We will ask the director of the Hoard museum for advice about how to proceed.
  3. Rick reported that Quentin Carpenter plans to proceed with writing a book about the natural history of Lake Koshkonong.
  4. A suggestion was made to create a "history hot line" on our web site with a link to Quentin's Email. Persons with information can let him know via that link.

The business meeting was adjourned at 7:00 pm.

Program

Charlie Kilian, wildlife biologist and manager of the Koshkonong Marsh Wildlife Area, presented a program on managing wetlands. He suggested that Bill Volkert (at Horicon) and Ron Gady, an expert on bird surveys (from Madison) may be able to give us some help with the IBA nomination.

Charlie referred us to two reference books on wetland management: Wetland Restoration Handbook - put out by the Wisconsin Wetlands Association.

He invited the audience to ask questions about wetland management. Outlined below are the issues addressed.

  1. Control of parsnip in a wetland: repeated mowing of this biennial just after it sets seed, will keep the plant from reproducing. It will require several years to deplete the seed bank. Usually, the plant reaches this stage in early July, and it is possible to get a mower into the wetland. They have used a special wide-track bobcat to do this work. Smaller areas can be cut by hand or with a trimmer.
  2. There was much discussion about the problem of high water in the marshes with loss or river bulrush, and wild rice. Even cattails get drowned out. There is also a problem with phragmites taking over and killing other plants. Then, because it is more susceptible to flooding, after high water, only open water is left. Charlie noted that wild rice cannot withstand waves or carp, so it is possible the breakwaters may be needed to facilitate its return. It does, however, require some gently flowing water, so this should be considered when planting it.
  3. He reported that the new boat landing for the Koshkonong Marsh (at the end of Graeler Rd) has really helped the situation with trash and damage to vegetation at the landing.
  4. In response to a question about nesting habitat for blue-winged teal, he noted that they prefer short-grass uplands near the lake.
  5. The breakwater plan prepared and approved 4 years ago ( a joint effort of the DNR and the Corps of Engineers) has been put on hold until the issue of the RKLD request to raise water levels is resolved. This plan was to create breakwaters around the lake to protect the vegetation and exclude carp in the bays. The breakwaters would be designed to allow access for fishing. It was expected to receive funding of 5 million dollars.
  6. Charlie noted the importance of small islands in the wetlands (which are disappearing due to higher water levels). The nesting success for ducks who use islands is over 80% compared to 13% for ducks who nest on the shore.

The program ended at 8:00 pm.

Respectfully submitted,
Penny Shackelford