Program Notes from the Mar 30, 2010 Meeting of LKWA

March 30, 2010 at 6:00 pm

Tallgrass Restoration Office

1. Call to order and welcome – Susan Yates, Vice-Chair. In attendance were 25 persons.

2. Minutes of February 23, 2010 meeting as Emailed were approved.

3. Treasurer's report was approved.

4. Sightings around the lake: Wood ducks were seen as early as March 8. Many Sandhill cranes, several Osprey, Bald eagles, Harriers, cormorants, White pelicans, and Great blue herons are in the area. The first Tree swallow has been spotted. The Garter snakes are out and the chorus frogs are singing.

5. Old Business

a. No news on the legal proceedings regarding lake levels.

b. Linn Duesterbeck has been in touch with Stephen Russell of the Army Corps of Engineers. He is the person designated to spearhead the planning process for improvement of Lake Koshkonong. This process is being coordinated by the RKLD. Stephen indicated that they have received approval from the funding agencies to proceed with the planning process and will call a meeting of all interested parties within a month. We should watch for the announcement and plan to attend. Ideas under discussion so far are 1) a carp enclosure in one bay, 2) a breakwater from Blackhawk Island along Gilberts Bay and along the Vinnie Ha Ha Marsh, 3) a program to encourage rain gardens under the leadership of the RKLD, 4) a subsidy or tax credit to promote smaller boats like pontoons, 5) dredging boat landings for better access.

5. New business

a. Penny asked if there is interest in participating in the Rock River Sweep 2010 scheduled for July 31. A not-for-profit group called Rock River Sweep is sponsoring this event. The group is dedicated to a cleaner and healthier Rock River. No one from LKWA stepped forward to lead this effort this year. Perhaps in the future.

b. Penny reviewed our opportunity to work on a Prothonotary warbler (PROW) nest box trail. The coordinator, Andy Paulios is the director of the Wisconsin Bird conservation Initiative. At a winter meeting, he spoke of the success of nest boxes placed in the Avon Bottoms area and in the Koshkonong Wildlife are along the Rock River. Around Lake Koshkonong, there are populations of these warblers nesting in the Carcajou flood plain forest and on the tip of Blackhawk Island both along the River and along the wooded fringe of Mud Lake. Volunteers are asked to place the boxes (which we will supply) in appropriate habitats. Susan Yates volunteered to place 4 boxes in the Carcajou forest, and Dick Wanie will place 2 boxes along the Bark River. Shackelfords have placed 2 boxes in the woods at the southeast end of Thiebeau Marsh and Jim Leute has placed 2 boxes in a wooded area of Shearer's property. In April, the boxes should be places 4 to 6 feet over water in a wooded area and monitored in early June, early July and October. We will ask Andy to check our locations in early May. These boxes are very important to the warblers as they lose more and more of their natural cavities to the high water and blow-down of trees.

c. Purple Loosestrife: Penny discussed plans for a Purple Loosestrife (PL) Project for LKWA. During the 2005 botanical survey of Lake Koshkonong's wetlands, only 4 areas were found to have PL. However, the survey was done in early July when many plants may not have been blooming and thus more difficult to find. Since the floods of 2008 and 2009, a marked increase has been observed in Thiebeau marsh and this can potentially spread quickly around the lake. She introduced Cindy Wagner, our speaker for the evening. Cindy will teach us about bio-control of PL and we will ask for volunteers for each aspect of the project.

Our efforts last year to collect beetles from the Vogel Road sites and release them into Thiebeau marsh were unsuccessful because of the cool, rainy weather. Cindy and I have been in touch with Brock Woods, the state specialist in charge of loosestrife control. This year we definitely plan to raise and release beetles into Thiebeau Marsh. If we have a good hatch, perhaps we can release into other locations.

The meeting adjourned at 6:30 pm

Program: Cindy Wagner, owner of Local Landkeepers, LLC first discussed her background in gardening and then her establishment of a business to help landowners control invasive plants. Since 2004, she has been raising and releasing and monitoring Galerucella beetles along Vogel Road. Bio-control is the only practical way to control this extremely invasive plant in large areas. The only other options are digging or herbicides. The use of herbicides over large areas of wetlands has the potential for excessive collateral damage to fish, amphibians and native plants.

PL was introduced from Europe in the early 1800s by settlers for their gardens and for the use of pollinators. Seeds of the plant also hitched a ride in the ballast water of ships. She reviewed the identification of PL, a beautiful tall plant (2-10 ft.) topped with a dense cluster of pink-purple flowers. Each plant can produce 250,000 seeds that can be carried on water to spread widely in a water system.

After extensive testing of various insect predators of PL in its European homelands, scientists determined that 5 species of beetles could be introduced as bio-controls without fear of negative impacts to our native North American plants. Among the candidate insect predators, Wisconsin chose Galerucella. These are leaf-eating beetles that affect growth and seed production of PL by feeding on the leaves and new shoot growth. Between 1987 and 1991 these were field tested and shown to be safe and effective in control of PL.

Cindy reviewed the interesting life cycle of the Galerucella beetles. When the adults emerge in the spring, the shortly begin to lay eggs on the leaves of the PL. After 2-3 weeks, the eggs hatch and small larvae emerge. The larvae feed avidly on the shoot tips of the plant and go through three instars (increasingly large sizes followed by a molt). This process takes another 2-3 weeks. They then go down into the soil and pupate. After 2-3 weeks in this stage, new adults (tenerals) emerge. These new adults are light tan with no dark coloration on their wings like the older adults. They are VERY hungry!

Our goal is to release as many adult beetles as possible into the wetlands invaded with PL. An initial release to start a colony of Galerucella in a wetland should be a minimum of 2000 beetles.

Here's what we do:

  1. Collect PL plants from along Vogel Road in mid-April. Wash their roots (to remove insect predators) and place them in pots with potting soil. The pots are placed in a small plastic child's swim pool and each plant is covered with a net to keep predators out. Then the plants are watered and maintained until the beetles are available.
  2. The Vogel road sites are monitored frequently until beetles are observed (anytime between May 1-May 21).
  3. Beetles are collected and placed on the plants. Ten beetles are placed on each plant to ensure that both males and females are present and that enough survive to produce the next generation. Ten adults produce about 1000 tenerals (young adults), so 10 pots are expected to produce 10,000 tenerals, plenty to establish a colony.
  4. Alternately, if a lot of adults are found in May, they may be released directly into the wetland as well as using some for the rearing process described above.
  5. In July and August, we would like all wetland owners to survey their properties for PL. This is when the plants are in full bloom and easy to spot. In the areas where beetles have been released, photos should be taken to document the amount of PL. These photos will be used for comparison in future years to document the effects of the beetles.

A motion was passed to give Cindy $250 to help defray her time and travel that she will devote to this project. Volunteers for the project were as follows:

Rearing sites: Linn Duesterbeck, Tom and Lois Shearer farm

Plant digging and preparation: Bob Nickel, Shearer farm (contact, Lois Shearer), Shackelfords, Susan Yates

Beetle collection and release: Bob Swann, Bob Nickel, Shearer farm, Shackelfords, Susan Yates

Release sites: Shearer marsh and Thiebeau marsh NW

Cindy and Penny will arrange a visit from Brock Woods to look at the proposed release sites to determine how to best release the beetles so then can survive the spring and fall flooding. Buck Sweeney is interested in constructing a netted enclosure in the marsh so the beetles can be raised in large numbers on-site. We will ask Mr. Woods how to do this and where it should be placed.

Respectfully submitted,

Penny Shackelford, Secretary-Treasurer