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| 7/31/2009 8:15:00 AM | Email this article • Print this article |
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| Steve Ave’Lallemant |
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| DNR Northern region shoreland zoning specialist Tom Blake spoke during a session discussing the rights of riparian owners as water slips further and further below the original high water mark. Though newly exposed land belongs to the state, limited riparian rights still apply.
Rachel White photo |
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Low lake levels: The cause? It depends ...
Many questions remain unanswered
Rachel White
Writer/Photographer
A crowd of nearly 200 attended a workshop focused on low lake levels held in Minocqua Tuesday seeking answers to the question of how to deal with the low water plaguing area lakes.
The predominant response from the experts? "It depends ..."
The workshop, sponsored by the Wisconsin Association of Lakes and held at The Waters of Minocqua, focused on several aspects of the low water and its effects.
Guest speakers from the Department of Natural Resources, University of Wisconsin, and U.S. Geological Survey Wisconsin Water Service Center spoke about issues ranging from the impact of perceived climate change on lake levels to the consequences of low water on humans, plants, and animals who live in and around the lakes.
A multitude of factors contribute to the low lake levels, according to the presenters. How specific lakes respond, how wildlife reacts, and what humans living and recreating on the lakes are allowed to do often differs from lake to lake.
However, the information presented at the workshop provided a solid basis for understanding the issue - at least understanding what is currently believed.
It was a lively discussion with not enough time to answer all the questions that followed each presentation.
A similar workshop was held last spring in Eagle River.
The issue of low water is a "hot topic" said Susan Tesarik with the Wisconsin Association of Lakes. A total of 186 people registered for this most recent workshop in Minocqua.
According to Tesarik the turnout was much larger than anticipated, especially because of the similar workshop last spring.
Though the issue of low lake levels has been much discussed recently, things have yet to change. Water levels are still dropping to some of the lowest in recent memory. Changing lake levels continue to affect human recreation, aquatic vegetation, fisheries, and wildlife both positively and negatively, again depending on a variety of factors.
One of the main issues addressed throughout the day was the role of climate change on declining lake levels.
Though northern Wisconsin has been experiencing lower than normal precipitation, that alone may not be the answer for such a drastic fluctuation in lake levels.
The presenters said indications point to global warming as strongly influencing the water cycle and in turn, lake levels.
"The temperature changes we've seen are robust. The historical record does show that," Daniel Vimont, assistant professor at UW-Madison in the Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences and the Center for Climactic Research, said.
Vimont, who is also co-chair of the Climate Working Group for the Wisconsin Initiative on Climate Change Impacts, was among the morning speakers at the workshop. He presented recent research on past climate trends in Wisconsin and potential changes expected for the future.
Vimont's presentation was followed by talks from Paul Juckem, a hydrologist at the U.S. Geological Survey Wisconsin Water Science Center, aquatic biologist Susan Knight, and DNR northern fisheries coordinator Steve Ave'Lallemant.
DNR limnologist Tim Asplund opened the series of talks by introducing the connections between climate and lake levels that would become the backbone of much of the day's discussion.
Though the consensus seemed to be that climate change plays a role in the recent trend of less rain and more evaporation, how much a particular lake is affected depends.
Closed basin lakes - those with no springs leading into or out of them - tend to respond more extremely to the combination of less rain and more evaporation that is sucking lakes dry. Other lakes in the area may be regulated by dams or other management systems, making their response less drastic.
Also difficult to predict at the moment is whether lake levels will rise again, which, as Knight said during her presentation, "... we are really hoping for and expecting."
Until that time, the question remains as how to deal with low water. Each guest speaker had different suggestions depending on the specific concerns.
Questions from the audience that could not be answered during the morning talks were collected and distributed to guest speakers during break-out workshops and panel discussions pertaining to several different topics related to lake levels.
Many of the questions focused on what rights riparian owners have for extending piers or docks and removing vegetation. Other questions focused on how much low water affects fisheries, what to do to manage aquatic plants and invasive species during low water, and whether dredging muck away from dock areas is allowed.
One lake district representative asked about the legal and political issues that would surround constructing a commercial well to bring their lake up to normal levels. The lake district is considering construction of a well that would pump 1,000 or more gallons of water per minute.
Participants received mostly general answers to their questions and were often pointed to the DNR water permits website to look for more specific direction.
But the question everyone, including the researchers was asking, is what to expect in the future.
The answer right now, of course, is ... it depends.
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Reader Comments
Posted: Wednesday, August 05, 2009
Article comment by:
Ted Engler
I have been visiting these lakes for over 50 years. It seems to me that these changes in level are a natural phenomenon.
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