Monthly Archive For Curly Leaf Pondweed

Upcoming events

The spring LOFA board meeting is coming up this Sunday, May 29 at 10:00 at Beavers Resort on Lake of the Falls Road. Everyone is welcome to attend! Bring your questions and concerns and get to know some of your neighbors around the lake.

 

Remember that Rice Lake’s Great Weed Pull is scheduled for 9 days between May 31 and June 7. Keeping the invasive Curly Leaf Pondweed contained upriver is a vital step in preventing its spread down the chain and into Lake of the Falls. Volunteers are still needed, so if you have a free day and want to do something pretty great for everyone on the Turtle River chain, follow this link to the Rice Lake Association’s website and sign up!

 

And Zach Wilson of the Iron County Department of Land and Water Conservation is leading river trips on the Turtle River the week of June 12-16 to identify and remove CLP growing between Pike Lake and Rice. Canoes, paddles and related supplies will be provided, so all we need are some willing paddlers. We’ve created a new Google Group to help coordinate this effort;

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The 2023 newsletter is here!

The Summer 2023 Newsletter (click here to read it) has a larger format because there was so much to say! Read about our latest efforts to control invasive species upriver, news about the upcoming Directed Lakes Survey project with the Wisconsin DNR, and get the dates for this year’s board meetings and the Annual Meeting and Picnic. And watch this website for a new page, coming soon, which will offer lots of suggestions for ways we can defend Lake of the Falls in the face of the new challenges we face, and keep it just as beautiful for future generations as it is right now.

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Thinking about spring

. . .and wondering how long it will be before we can get out there and pull some more pondweed! Many of us received this letter from Bob Kary of the Rice Lake Association reminding us that help will be needed again in 2023 in the ongoing battle against Curly Leaf Pondweed and other aquatic invasives in the Turtle River watershed. It’s not too early to think about how we can get involved in the effort.

Your LOFA board of directors has been talking to some nice folks at the Wisconsin DNR about other steps we can take to ensure the health of Lake of the Falls going forward. We’ve got some plans in the works and will be releasing details once everything’s firmed up. So stay tuned, and in the meantime, enjoy the snow!

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Update from Rice Lake, and the May board meeting minutes

After the first two days of “The Great Weed Pull” volunteers on Rice Lake have harvested over 6000 lbs of Curly Leaf Pondweed from the north shore of the lake. That’s 6000 lbs in two 8-hour days, and it’s just a drop in the bucket. On Wednesday there were about 15 people representing several lakes (including Rice, Lake of the Falls, the Turtle Flambeau Flowage, and Long Lake) in 8 boats hauling the weeds in with long rakes and packing them into mesh bags which were then taken to the Hadley brush pit. It’s hard work, but really worth it to see how CLP is impacting Rice Lake, and trying to imagine what that would be like here on Lake of the Falls.

 

The good news is that the Rice Lake Association has received their permit from the DNR to install a public boat landing, so it seems that their grant is safe and the project can continue to go ahead as planned. They’re still recruiting volunteers, so if you have some free time next week, visit RiceLakeAssociation.org and offer to help!

 

And here are the meeting minutes from the LOFA board meeting that was held last Sunday.

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Pondweed and fish update

Here is an excerpt from the thank-you letter sent by the Rice Lake Association to the many volunteers who participated in The Great Weed Pull 2022. Several families from Lake of the Falls joined weed-pullers from all over Iron County and beyond in the effort to control Curly Leaf Pondweed in Rice Lake and the Turtle River during the first 2 weeks of June. While it’s unlikely that CLP will ever be completely removed from our watershed, this year’s effort was a great success and much progress was made.Go to ricelakeassociation.org to see photos of the weed-pullers in action, and please consider volunteering for next year’s event. It’s starting to look like we may be able to beat this, with everybody’s help!

 

“…We think back fondly on each and every day we spent with you on the water. The herculean effort you made to pull those big loads of pondweed into your boat.  The friendly competition of who had the most bags of CLP. Your sense of humor and kind and gentle good nature. The sharing of a meal each day prepared by our wonderful Rice Lake family. The memories are endless and dear.

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