Chetek Lakes Protection Association provides ideas to Tainter Lake Rehabilitation District
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By LeAnn R. Ralph
MENOMONIE — The Chetek Lakes Protection Association — with years of experience and success — has provided ideas on projects, fund raising and promotion to the Tainter Lake Rehabilitation District.
Jamey Lideen, president of the Chetek Lakes Protection Association, spoke to the Tainter Lake Rehabilitation District Board of Commissioners at the August 15 meeting.
The Chetek Lakes association places quite a lot of emphasis on education for residents of the five lakes and for tourists who visit the lake, Lideen said.
The City of Chetek has a population of 2,300, but there are 6,000 full-time residents on the chain of lakes, along with several thousand people who are there during the summer and on weekends, as well as 40,000 visitors every year, he said.
Projects have included promoting fish stick habitats (trees, branches and brush in the water near the shoreline), fish stocking programs, a harvester skimmer to remove aquatic plants, shoreline management strategies and exploring new water quality technologies, Lideen said.
The Chetek Lakes association also focuses on education and outreach and citizen science to monitor water quality along with a Clean Boats Clean Waters program to help prevent the introduction of invasive species, he said.
One of the challenges is getting volunteers for the weed skimmer, collecting water quality samples, and the Clean Boats Clean Waters program at the boat landings, Lideen said.
The lake association is funded by dues, donations and fund raisers, and if volunteers can put in only a few hours a month, it can make a big difference, he said.
The lake association competes with other organizations for fund raisers. There were 18 non-profit organizations selling raffle tickets over the summer, Lideen noted.
Annual events include an information sharing event in April by UW-Extension, the Barron County conservationist and the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources lake management, he said.
In addition, there was a meat raffle fund raiser in April, the Protek Chetek fund raiser in July and a fall volunteers appreciation event in which the lake association provided a dinner at a local restaurant for volunteers, Lideen said.
The Chetek Lake association also did a boat landing signage update to rebuild and re-install signs, he said, noting that there are 14 boat landings on the Chetek Lakes chain.
QR codes were added to the boat landing signs so people can use their smart phones to access the lake association’s website to download maps and also to make donations to the lake association, Lideen said.
Sponsorships
The Chetek Lakes association started a sponsorship program in mid-2022 and web-based grant applications in 2023, Lideen said.
Fund raising has been successful and has raised $20,000 in three years and contributed funding for the sediment study and aquatic plant management, he said.
The sponsorships and grant benefits are listed on the Chetek Lakes association website, in newsletters, at the boat landings, and at the event and welcome center, Lideen said.
Sponsors receive a sign at the boat landing of their choice, he noted.
Those who provide sponsorships receive quite a bit of promotion, Lideen said, noting that the Chetek Lakes association has 11 current business sponsors.
The association receives more in funding from the sponsorships than it does from membership dues. The sponsorships include $1,500 per year and $500 per year, he said.
Memberships include Friends of the Lake at $125 year, and a list of members is published on the website, Lideen said.
The Friends of the Lake membership is $125 per year. With 65 members, Friends of the Lake raises $8,125 for the Chetek Lakes association.
Membership dues are $15 to $30 per year, and there are 500 members, Lideen said.
If all of the members are at the $15 level, membership dues would amount to $7,500 per year.
The Chetek Lakes association also accepts “In Memoriam” giving, which is a great tribute to a loved one. People have also asked for donations to the lakes association in lieu of flowers, and some people have made the lakes association a beneficiary of their life insurance policy and have designated 10 percent or 20 percent of the policy to the lakes association, he said.
Clean Boats Clean Water
The Chetek Lakes association Clean Boats Clean Water program follows the DNR program, Lideen said.
The lakes association provides training for volunteers, along with t-shirt and cloths from the DNR to wipe down boats, he said.
Volunteers spend one to two hours per week on the Clean Boats Clean Water program. The boat landings are not staffed by volunteers all of the time, Lideen said.
“Power loading” boats, instead of using winches to load boats onto trailers, results in holes being dug at the boat landings when propellors are revved to move the boat forward onto the trailer, he said.
There is no state law about power loading, but a few counties do have ordinances, and Barron County is one with an ordinance, Lideen said.
The fine is $154, but the ordinances are difficult to enforce, and DNR officials or law enforcement must see the violation in order to issue a citation, he said.
Showing photographs of damaged propellors or damaged trailers from power loading at the boat landings seems to be as effective as having an ordinance, Lideen said.
Sediment study
The Chetek Lakes association received a DNR grant awarded in March of 2023 with support from Barron County to determine the impact of sediment, Lideen said.
Sixty samples were taken at 30 sites in the Chetek Lakes chain, and the samples focused on bays with stagnant water and algae mats, he said.
The samples were used to determine the depth of sediment and the content of the sediment, Lideen said.
The sediment ranged in depth from one foot to 4.5 feet. There was a fair amount of phosphorus in the sediment, which was expected, and a fair amount of nitrogen, which was not expected, he said.
The conclusion is that some bays may benefit from dredging. If the bays are healthy, then the rest of the lakes are healthier, Lideen said.
The next step is to do more analysis of the sediment, he said.
Another goal is to see if the sediment will grow corn, because if it will, then the sediment could be recyclable and could be sold as fertilizer to farms, and the DNR is more supportive of programs that result in recycling, Lideen said.
Red Cedar Watershed
The Chetek Lakes association is part of the Red Cedar Watershed partnership, Lideen said.
The Red Cedar Watershed covers 1,900 square miles in seven counties and the partnership includes the DNR, county conservationists, municipalities, farmers and lake groups, he said.
Phosphorus load reduction projects include no-till and reduced tillage, cover crops, nutrient management, conversion to permanent vegetation, controlling barnyard run-off, proper care of septic systems, bank stabilization projects, stormwater management, and best management practices on lakefront properties, Lideen said.
Over the last 10 to 12 years, phosphorus has been reduced in the watershed, he said.
The lake monitoring program includes water clarity checks and oxygen level checks. The data is collected over the summer, and is entered into the DNR website in the fall, There are 40 or 50 years of data on the DNR website, Lideen said.
Healthy Lakes and Rivers is a state initiative to improve water quality and habitat through grants and includes fish sticks, native plantings, rain gardens, diversions, and rock infiltrations for run-off, he said.
Aquatic management
The aquatic management plan includes an inventory of plant life and a basis for short term and long term goals for managing, Lideen said.
There were 3,000 samples taken across the five lakes in the Chetek Lakes chain funded by a recent DNR grant, he said.
The goal is to manage existing native aquatic plants, to prevent invasive species, to impact water quality and to deal with nuisance vegetation, Lideen said.
Ojaski Lake from 2011 to 2022 had less curly leaf pondweed by using focus areas for the weed skimmer, he said.
Prairie Lake, which is five miles long, also has less curly leaf pondweed, Lideen noted.
Weed skimming started in 2016 and uses volunteers to clean out stagnant bays, he said.
The Chetek Lakes association usually starts getting weed complaints in July, but this year, the first complaint was received in March because of the warm winter with hardly any snow, Lideen said.
Usually weeds are cut for six weeks during the summer, but the weed cutting started early in June this year, he said.
The harvested weed material is taken to Jerry’s Tree Service where it is composted for three years, and then Jerry’s Tree Service sells it as compost. The DNR approves of composting the weed material and selling it as compost because that is recycling of the weeds, Lideen said.
Since 2016, there have been 293 dump truck loads, at 4.5 cubic yards each, removed from the Chetek Lakes chain, he said.
The number of dump truck loads has generally been decreasing over the years. There were 182 loads in 2016 and 88 loads this year in 2024, Lideen said.
There is a map on the Chetek Lakes association website where the weeds have been removed so people know what locations have been harvested. The map also indicates how many loads were taken out, he said.
The Chetek Lakes chain covers 3,800 acres on five lakes. There are 10 acres all together that have been skimmed and produce most of the weeds, Lideen said,
Wake boats
There are also wake boat concerns on the Chetek Lakes because boats that create wakes stir up sediment and erode shoreline, Lideen said.
The deepest lake in the Chetek chain of lakes is 23 feet deep, and the shallow lakes are six to eight feet deep, he said.
Wisconsin does not have a state law regarding wake boats, and the Chetek Lakes association is pushing for state legislation to address the wake boats, Lideen said.
Cyanobacteria
Grant Peissig, a member of the Tainter Lake Rehabilitation District Board of Commissioners, asked about the use of chemicals on the Chetek Lakes to control cyanobacteria.
One homeowners’ association on the lakes has been using chemicals in one bay, Lideen said.
The DNR has become more critical of using chemicals to control cyanobacteria and has stopped allowing the use, he said.
Cyanobacteria causes problems with creating algae mats in the stagnant bay areas, and people have put “water thrusters” on their docks, which are like a fan in the water, to keep the water moving and the algae mats from forming so they can navigate around their docks, Lideen said.
Some people also use lake mats, which are flexible mats that are 10 feet by 20 feet. The mats are placed alongside their docks or along the shoreline, he said, noting that weeds will not grow where the mats are, which allows people to navigate to their docks.
The hope is that a variety of activities will reduce the phosphorus and nitrogen that is causing cyanobacteria problems, Lideen said.
Other business
In other business, the Tainter Lake Rehabilitation District Board of Commissioners:
• Approved the treasurer’s report indicating that there was $9,840 in the lake district’s checking account and $1,131 in the savings account. The savings account is made up of donations.
• Approved a contract for next year with Aquatic Plant Management for managing invasive species and native plants found in Tainter Lake.
* Discussed the annual meeting on August 3 and agreed to streamline check-in for the meeting and to hold the meeting an hour earlier in 2025, at 9 a.m. rather than 10 a.m., so that the meeting would be concluded by noon. All together, 179 people registered for this year’s annual meeting.
