Lake Koshkonong Wetland Association:

Program Notes from 4/25/06 Meeting

April 25, 2006 at 6:00 pm

Janesville DNR Station

The meeting was called to order at 6:05 pm by Rick Persson.

Susan Yates reported on the programs for upcoming meetings and asked for suggestions.

May 23 meeting: Water in the Mississippi. This is an interactive computer program on the effects of water control on the Mississippi. It shows the impacts of dams and dredging and the benefits of new programs to allow regeneration of the backwaters.

June meeting (June 27): Our annual business meeting devoted to program and priority review. The board will elect members and officers.

July meeting (Sunday, July 23): The annual picnic will be at the Shackelford’s. We will have a pig roast and everyone will bring a dish to pass.

August: no meeting

September 28: A walk at Prince’s Point Wildlife Area, east of Fort Atkinson. This is a very beautiful area with a successful wildlife management program. We hope to have Charlie Kilian as a guide. We also will ask Dick Wannie to discuss his enjoyment of the area.

Roger Martin reported that the board officially gave our support to The Lake Ripley Management District Board to ask Jefferson County to ban the sale and use of lawn fertilizers containing phosphorus. Our soils are naturally phosphorus rich and added phosphorus encourages algae and weed-choked recreational areas. Rick noted that in local stores, there is no price difference between fertilizers with or without phosphorus.

Rick reported on the contested case hearing which concluded April 14. Rick attended all of the sessions. He thought that the experts who testified on behalf of LKWA did an excellent job demonstrating the valuable natural resources that would be adversely affected by the proposed higher water levels on the lake. Now the various parties will submit briefs to the judge. These are due in June, July, and August. The judge will then make his decision.

Sightings around the lake: The wood ducks are nesting, the white pelicans are back, and 76 sandhill cranes were counted in one of the marshes on the official crane count day (April 22).

The business meeting adjourned at 6:55 pm.

Jeff Kraemer of Natural Resources Consulting (NRC) gave a presentation on the methods and results of our research study to assess the vegetation in the wetlands of Lake Koshkonong. The goal was to identify as many species as possible and to characterize and map the various wetland plant communities. Specifically, we assessed the quality and diversity of the vegetation in the wetlands. The secondary goals were to understand the potential impact of increasing the lake water levels and to provide a basis for a long-term plan to preserve and improve the wetlands.

The first step in the study was to identify the survey areas. We needed to select representative areas from among the more than 4000 acres of Lake Koshkonong’s wetlands. This was done by selecting a diversity of sites based on review of aerial photos. Then preliminary field surveys were done and the selection of areas was refined.

A total of 48 sites were selected that encompassed 527 acres. Teams were then sent into these areas to identify each plant species and establish the abundance of each using a scale of 1-5. Each team had a botanist and 2 volunteers to record data, act as guides, and carry equipment.

215 species were identified of which 88% were native. Only 25 non-native species were found and these accounted for only 11% of the total cover. The dominant native species were bur-reed, arrowhead, marsh skullcap and field mint.

The community types found were:

Forested wetland: The lake has over 1000 acres of this community. It is now very rare in southern Wisconsin and is home to many important bird species. We found two types of forested wetlands, one dominated by silver maple, green ash and swamp white oak, the other with green ash and willow.

Mud flat: Because the survey was conducted during a drought period, this community type was extensive. The plants of mud flats are primarily annuals. In this survey, there were extensive areas of wild rice! Other annuals were barnyard grass, beggar’s tick, smartweeds, and rice cut grass.

Shallow marsh: Two types of shallow marsh were found. 1. Emergent marshes were the community type that often bordered the lake and was dominated by river bulrush, wild rice, giant reed and cattails. Fortunately, the cattails of Lake Koshkonong are usually mixed with other species and are not occurring as dominant monocultures. 2. Transitional marshes were found at the transition between sedge meadow or mud flat and the emergent marshes. The vegetation profile was distinctive and very diverse.

Sedge meadow: Only 85 acres of this community type was surveyed. They are difficult to find and usually occur at the upper gradient adjacent to the uplands. They are very diverse and contained 2/3 of all the species found even though they accounted for only 1/6 of the total acres surveyed.

Overall, the quality of the vegetation in Lake Koshkonong’s wetlands was high. Floristic Quality Assessment (FQA) is done by ranking each species from 0-10 based on its “conservatism”. A plant that is very sensitive to disturbance (such as pollution, grazing, trampling, etc) is given a higher value (5-10 range). A plant that can tolerate disturbance gets a score in the range of 1-3. When averaged, a score of 4.5 or more is indicative of a “natural community”. Another score was also calculated that weighted the abundance of various species. Each of the communities described above received a score of about 3.9 to 4.1.

Finally, Jeff discussed what we might consider next. Possibilities are:

Examples of projects would include monitoring and control programs for reed canary grass, phragmites and purple loosestrife. For each of these infestations, it would help to collect seeds from native plants to disperse in the areas after removal of the invader. Grants would probably be available for these type of management projects.

Respectfully submitted,

Penny Shackelford, secretary