MENASHA, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) – With thousands of boaters hitting waterways in Northeast Wisconsin, experts have a warning about aquatic health and the spread of invasive species.
Some of those aquatic invaders may be caught in some uncommon places.
At Jefferson Park in Menasha, people were busy launching and removing their boats.
The Lake Winnebago landing is a busy place and volunteers with Clean Boats, Clean Waters are watching closely for invasive species.
Cheryl Watson, Clean Boats Clean Waters Volunteer, tells FOX 11 she’s on a mission.
“We ask people to remove all vegetation from their boats and from their trailers. Make certain there’s nothing attached at all.”
Bill Turriff used a reaching tool to pluck the plants off his boat and trailer Wednesday morning.
“The Weeds. You have to pick the weeds off, which can be kind of grueling sometimes on blacktop crawling under your boat, picking the weeds off.”
“A little weed can do a lot of damage if it’s not cleaned off and it’s taken into another lake or brought into a lake,” said Watson.
And it’s more than just the weeds.
Chris Acy, Fox-Wolf Watershed Alliance, tells FOX 11 in some areas of Lake Winnebago, blue-green algae are starting to bloom.
“This is unusual that we’re getting it this early.”
Acy says a warm sunny summer pushed the bloom ahead about a month.
“We had a big rain event about a week ago, and that washed a lot of nutrients off farm fields, off parking lots everywhere, the runoff is going right into the lake. So all those nutrients are then fueling the system.”
Ingesting the bacteria can cause health problems in humans, and is toxic to pets.
And Acy says aquatic invaders can hitchhike on places other than big boats.
“They can get caught on lifejackets, they can get on kayakers’ paddles, or maybe caught in some nook on your boat. Or even in the tracks of your shoes.”
This is the 10th Clean Boats, Clean Water Landing Blitz.
Statewide, volunteers typically meet about 32,000 boaters a year.
On the Lake Winnebago System, that number is about 1,200.
