Rough fish of Lake Menomin

MENOMONIE — A project intended to improve Tainter Lake’s water quality got off the ground and into the water this week.

Friends of the Red Cedar Basin were issued $65,000 from the state Department of Natural Resources to improve the lake north of Menomonie. The group is in a cooperative agreement with the DNR to aid in restoring the lake’s health.

https://www.leadertelegram.com/news/front-page/k-dnr-grant-targets-algae-bacteria-in-lake-tainter/article_8c7adb62-e8a9-56bd-9629-03d38a67c928.html

Lake Menomin rhyme

The Menomin Tourist Trade.

The lake is fixed.

The word is spreading.

Point Comfort Dredgings

Expectations and a time frame for desired results have gone unreported. 

Will the cemetery bay side become a clear water paradise or will the clear water paradise only remain for the private individuals around the corner?



  

The parking lot for this boat landing did not handle the weight of the sediment and machinery during this project.   There is needed repair, was this an expected outcome of this project?   Or do the ruts and massive rolls remain to welcome boaters for the 2019 boating season?    Or will more rumors be spread that some unknown millionaire is paying for everything?

The beaches

It would be hard to "restore the beaches" when a location scene like this is 10 feet under water currently.

When Wolske bay was about 10 years old.

May 29, 1969.

An 80 year difference in Lake Menomin

Seasonal changes have been fun to take in.   We all know how it cycles along the spring, summer, fall, and winter seasons.  Little changes often go noticed and forgotten. 


The Red Cedar river here on Lake Menomin has most certainly seen changes season by season and for well over a century.   I find it fascinating to explore Menomonie on foot to find how so many different people have changed the seemingly never changing shoreline of Lake Menomin but the "footprints" are often still out there just waiting in almost plain sight.

Other "footprints" are now more challenging, consider the 10 feet of water on top of old lake Menomin and the extra feet on top of the old Log Reservoir from long before. 

Lake Menomin 80 years ago

 There are some great maps that help find lead to discoveries but in between it is hard to know how things were manipulated since that map.   For instance, a recent conversation with someone dealing with current reservoir issues did not realize the south lake bank had a reconstruction even while being in town while it happened.
(or how an island was allowed to purchased for private ownership, let alone that such an island existed on the lake, and this is not either of which you are thinking.)

 

Still some growth.... ?!

Wolske Bay

 Here we are on October 7, 2018 in Menomonie, WI.   Cooler temperatures and fall colors a part of the season.   It is still hanging on and while the water is mostly clear around the island the northern bay still seems to have some growth.

Lake Menomin

Lake Menomin

Wolske Bay

Will this location look similar to last year this upcoming October 28th?

The Junction Trail overlook Menomonie

Lake Menomin

Above is a familiar Menomonie site on the Junction Trail.   This is a very picturesque location overlooking Wolske bay park.   With the overlapping layers of trees and land curving of the land into the horizon this location can be found in many photographs, quite a few online.

Lake Menomin

 Sadly, the location that was chosen widely has not seen the upkeep to enhance the passive viewing experiences.  Originally this bench was installed in 2007 along the Junction Trail but the city failed to step up on invasive species management at that time and since then.
Below the bench is city owned land and it is quite steep.   As a neighborhood resident I wanted to introduce a new feature into the hillside and slowly work to build a neighborhood based team of caretakers that could enhance the Wolske Bay hillside road and work to connect it to the Junction Trail while clearing the invasive species and replacing more sustainable ground cover.
The city did not seem to want to to allow this.

Another angle that would offer a fantastic view of Lake Menomin that would benefit from the Wolske bay hillside trail neighborhood project.

Colder and cloudier, but still odor?

Above is the corner near the roadway and even with the colder temperatures that left mild frost in the upper neighborhoods I was surprised to be finding the odor of the decaying bacteria in the back yard.   I thought this would have been the spot of the odor, but farther south along the west bank was very bright blue.

I was hoping to catch a duck in a photo. I did catch this "trapped" area of decaying cyanobacteria.   It makes sense, it had no where to go and the log protected it from wave dispersing.  

The seemingly still active bacteria bloom continued down the shore and the odor was strongest in this stretch by the more recently cleared vegetation along the roadway.

Unlike the patch of blue trapped by the log, these patches are free and are seemingly holding tight on a very still day.

What does it all mean?
  
Does it mean the more water volume (created by dredging) in the northern bay allows bacteria to grow more and then become packed in the western bay?  And then pushed just a little farther south than before?

Does it mean there is still more health risk from being hit by a car while trying to enjoy Lake Menomin?

Either way, ending September with any odor was surprising especially considering the more recent drop in temperature.

Could the Jarrett Creek dredging be releasing more nutrients into the water this year?

I

Menomonie dredging results

Lake Menomin

 I don't think the results can ever be measured since any given day and each individual person brings their own expectations to the location.

Above is the most amount of blue-green decaying spotted for many years.   This small spot is enough to fill the surrounding Menomonie neighborhood with the unpleasant odors.

Still, below, past  the year 2 (out of an expected 20 year project life expectancy) the dredged location is still green, a very active cyanobacteria bloom.    All of that "muck" that was removed has not changed anything here.   In fact, compared to 2017, this bloom is lasting much longer.

Lake Menomin cyanobacteria bloom 2018

There is no news, no follow up, and in the 5-1/2 years since I have been on site, not much change.

I don't think a lot of people were aware of the size and scope of the project as I have found in my own conversations with people in Menomonie, many don't even know the name of the road they used to get here.    And some of these are longer term residents than I.



History does not repeat but rhymes, as it is said, so I have to wonder if the same cycle of small town ego plagues the lake as much as the cyanobacteria.   I have had limited conversations with higher-valued lake property owners from Tainter Lake that have nothing but contempt for rules that limit their impact on the watershed, but in the same conversation they expect something to be done about it all.


That's why I keep looking back while observing the present.   2013 had a large media and local business backing presence to support dredging Wolske bay.   Let's take a look at one example, from a person not really from the Wolske bay neighborhood at all.

If a person was asked to take the money out of their pocket and pay for the project on the spot, I think more people would be hesitant to hand it over.    A lot of people will gladly spend other peoples money, and this is a more conservative personality starting off this conversation, a person who supports less regulation toward the watershed as a whole and more unregulated building and industry that will impact the watershed.   All resulting in more impact to the watershed and more nutrients for the cyanobacteria to bloom.

There are even some threatening comments toward city council members who did not support Mayor Randy Knaacks idea, likely some of the very people who denied this very Mayor a free hand-out of $25,000 public money for his scum sucker machine.    And still, the Mayor looks like someone who wants a more full time office with recent runs for the state assembly and county sheriff.   This does not sound like a person who wants to be here at Wolske bay.

Let's look back at that 2013 media and business push.....

Lake Menomin worst algae since 2009?

There is no missing the odor released from the decaying cyanobacteria around the upper neighborhood.   It was just as strong the previous day and will likely be the same tomorrow.

What do you think?

We had a long thick ice cover back in spring, a dry July reducing run-off.   Coming with some rain in August and into September with rather moderate temperatures.

How can it be decaying this bad when the previous few years, well prior to the dredging, was not that bad in comparison?

Will tomorrow and the rest of the week bring more favorable conditions for favorable decay and stronger odors?

Will anyone in Menomonie even remember?


Here is Lake Menomin in 2009. 

www.facebook.com/lakemenomin

Apparently Lake Menomin was once red.

Show the pictures or it didn't happen?

No it isn't a divided America.  It is an issue of who is going to pay.

Those with the most surplus have the most ability to pay.   But woundn't that be socialism?   In a conservative city, in a conservative Dunn County, in a conservative controlled state, those at the top of the conservative chain hold all the cards that disable local effective solutions and withhold all regulation and funding.

Sliding into August

Here we into August 2018 already.    July of 2018 seemed to pass quickly to me.   It was only in the last weeks of July that the water of Lake Menomin really started to get a green tint to it.

In some ways it is fascinating to bear witness to this perennial display of algal and bacteria growth.

Meeting people at the waters edge is one of the more interesting things, too.   Even with very clear water up until just a short couple weeks ago, there weren't that many people coming down to the water.
The Lakeside boat landing has only seen a half-dozen or so boats in the parking lot since the fourth of July at any one time.    This is even with the Point Comfort landing blocked for the Randy Sommerfeld's shoreline dredging.

Where does everyone go?

A most interesting appearance of the "slow" green figure with flag appearing near the Roy Ostenso rental property was really welcome.   The double yellow and white lines of Wolske Bay road definitely add safety and confidence but sadly also allow motorists to more easily speed through what should be a park road.  Unlike Wakanda park, which does not have any yellow lines, most curiously.  Perhaps the more wealthy residents of Wakanda Shores would find this reprehensible in style for their neighborhood?   They do have the ability to get a nicer neighborhood placard and a turtle crossing sign, afterall.

July didn't see much rain for us in Menomonie, either.   Past last nights welcome rain, looking back July was rather dry.

The advantage of the longer, possibly normal, ice coverage of Lake Menomin this year and the clear water that gave some advantage to aquatic vegetation (weeds) seems to have been tossed aside swiftly with that somewhat dry July weather.

Now that the blooms are forming, the LAKES REU and TMLIA are spending their efforts and time at the Menomonie Farmers Market.    That's not very close to the lake, or river, in my opinion, and it shows a true lack of these organizations ability to even get to the water themselves.

That is the true nature of why Lake Menomin is a failing feature in Menomonie: accessibility.

At the Dunn County Level, a new dock was installed in Menomin park, but the city, TMLIA, and LAKES REU have failed in really showing any "improvements" that are usable by residents of Menomonie.   Unless TMLIA is going to step up and take ownership of the Point Comfort dredging, which they should.

Meanwhile, what can I do?    Resources are lacking but I do believe that we in Menomonie have the people power to do the work, I think we are also being somewhat bullshitted into what we can and can't do to "improve" Lake Menomin.   Sadly, most people will not get out of their cars or give up their speed, as they make the smallest of efforts to even turn the steering wheel as they pass by.

Lake Menomin Menomonie Wisconsin

December 23rd, 1953

July 25th, 1956

 July 2nd, 1958