Study finds some state waters
have high concentrations of blue-green algae
But concentrations of algae don’t
always produce toxins
MADISON – High concentrations
of blue-green algae occurred in 2004 and 2005 in some waters in
all regions of Wisconsin, but the algae didn’t always produce
the toxins that can pose a health threat to people and animals,
according to a recently released study.
That lack of a clear
association between high blue-green algae concentrations and
toxin production makes it difficult to predict when water
conditions might be unsafe for people and animals and
underscores the advice state environmental and health officials
have been giving swimmers and other recreational users in recent
years, the study’s principal investigator says.
“We all need to use common
sense whenever we choose to recreate in Wisconsin waters,” says
Elisabeth Harrahy, a Department of Natural Resources water
quality specialist. “If you see a scum layer present on the
water, there’s a good probability that blue-green algae are
present. Many blue-green algae are capable of producing toxins
harmful to humans, pets and other animals. Do not swim in the
water nor let your child or pet play there.”
Blue green algae are actually
cyanobacteria, an ancient and ubiquitous group of
photosynthesizing bacteria that have existed in Wisconsin lakes
for millions of years but have become more problematic on some
waters in recent decades as excessive nutrients from human
activities have fueled worsening blooms, Harrahy says.
Blue-green algae can produce a variety of toxins that can affect
human and animal nervous systems, kidneys and skin, and because
they are largely inedible, they aren’t a very useful component
of the aquatic food chain.
The conundrum is that not all
species of blue-green algae produce toxins, however, and even
those that produce toxins don’t produce them all the time. So in
2004, DNR started a study to investigate the frequency, severity
and duration of blue-green algae blooms on Wisconsin waters that
would be suspected of producing toxins.
One hope was to determine
whether high concentrations of blue-green algae meant toxins
were present, providing local officials and water users a quick
and easy way to decide whether water quality was unsafe, Harrahy
says. Under state law, local health departments are responsible
for testing beaches within their boundaries and the authority to
close beaches due to water quality concerns lies with local
health officials. DNR and the tribes are responsible for
swimming areas under their jurisdiction
Until recently, the only test
to determine toxicity involved injecting a water sample into a
mouse to see if it got sick and died, a method that took a long
time, was costly, involved animals, and did not allow
identification of specific toxins. The Wisconsin State
Laboratory of Hygiene recently acquired a new instrument that
allows detection of three different blue-green algae but still
has a lag time between when water samples are collected and test
results can be returned.
The new methodology was a boon
for the study, which gained urgency as several reports early in
the summer of 2004 that dogs became sick after swimming in ponds
or lakes with blue-green algae blooms. So DNR staff around the
state selected five lakes in their region to collect water
samples from, focusing on those waters that had a history of
blue-green algae blooms in previous years or high concentrations
of nutrients such as phosphorus or nitrogen that fuel blue-green
algae growth.
DNR staff drew water quality
samples on five different days during the summer about three
weeks apart, and sent the samples in to the state Laboratory of
Hygiene. A subset was selected for more detailed analyses to
quantify the numbers of blue-green algal cells present and the
concentration of toxins.
Although the study was not
designed to provide real-time information on the presence of
blue-green algae or toxins in particular waters, or to be used
in determining whether a beach should be closed, DNR alerted
state and local health departments when results came back from
the state Laboratory of Hygiene showing high blue-green algae
counts, Harrahy says.
High concentrations were found
in lakes in all regions of the state, but the most severe
problems were found on some of the lakes sampled in south
central and west central Wisconsin, she says.
Lakes with the highest
concentrations of blue-green algae, or where high levels were
found on multiple days, include Tainter Lake and Lake Menomin in
Dunn County, Tomah Lake in Monroe County, Petenwell Flowage in
Adams County, Lake Chetac in Sawyer County, Little Green Lake in
Green Lake County, Lakes Kegonsa, Mendota and Monona in Dane
County, Lake Koshkonong in Rock County, and Redstone Lake in
Sauk County.
Anatoxin-a, a toxin produced by
native blue-green algae that has been associated with dog deaths
and affects the central nervous system, was detected in study
lakes in northern and south central Wisconsin. Microcystin, a
toxin that affects the liver, was detected in study lakes in
northern, south central and west central Wisconsin.
Local public health agencies
that received notification from DNR of high levels of blue-green
algae detected in waters within their jurisdiction handled the
information differently, Harrahy says. Some closed beaches, some
posted advisory signs for a short time, and some posted the
advice for the entire summer, Harrahy says. Dunn County’s health
department received grant funds to conduct additional sampling.
DNR water quality officials are
uncertain about long-term funding to conduct additional research
related to blue green algae but they continue to urge swimmers
and others recreating on Wisconsin lakes to use common sense
when blue green algae are present, including:
- No one should swim or dive
where the water is discolored or algae is visible and looks
like pea soup or forms floating mat or scum layers.
- Children should kept out
of the water whenever algae are visible or the water is
discolored, because it’s possible that children are more
susceptible to algal toxins than most adults.
- People who swim or wade in
lakes and rivers should shower or rinse off upon leaving the
water.
- Pet owners should not
allow their pet to swim or drink the water whenever algae
are visible or the water is discolored.
- Pet and livestock owners
should provide alternative sources of drinking water for
domestic animals and pets.
Harrahy reminds all citizens
that anyone who becomes ill after recreating in a Wisconsin lake
or river should contact their personal physician as soon as
possible.
More information on
blue-green algae can be found on the DNR Web site .
FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT:
Elisabeth Harrahy (608) 264-6260 or
Bob Masnado - (608) 267-7662
Antlerless deer hunting
continues with Dec. 8-11 Zone T hunt
MADISON – Deer hunters will
have an additional hunting opportunity for antlerless deer
during the late Zone T hunt that will be held Dec. 8 to 11 in
Zone T deer management units that are located south of
Highway 8.
“This will be hunters last
chance to pre-qualify for an antlered deer permit for next year,
should the Earn-A-Buck requirement be put in place,” said Keith
Warnke, deer and bear ecologist for the Wisconsin Department of
Natural Resources. “Hunters had asked for this pre-qualification
and now that they have it, they need to make sure that they use
it.”
The Earn-A-Buck rule requires
hunters to first shoot an antlerless deer in order to be able to
shoot an antlered deer. The rule was in place in 2004, but was
not in place this year. State wildlife managers have indicated
they will request the rule is put in the place in the future if
hunters are not successful in reducing deer numbers in areas
where the population is well over established goals.
“With preliminary registration
figures from this year indicating that the buck harvest is up
while the antlerless harvest is down, we encourage hunters to
take advantage of this additional hunting opportunity to help
control the state’s deer herd,” “Harvesting antlerless deer is
key to controlling growth of the herd,” Warnke said.
This is the second and final
Zone T hunt of the 2005 gun deer season. The first was Oct.
27-30. The preliminary tally for the early hunt was around
30,000 antlerless deer taken during the early 2005 hunt. More
than 68,000 antlerless deer taken during the early 2004 hunt.
Hunters took more than 12,000
deer during the 2004 December Zone T season, and more than
14,400 in the 2003 December hunt.
The December Zone T hunt is not
held north of Hwy. 8. This year there are only six deer
management units north of Highway 8 that were designated as Zone
T.
Zone T hunts were first used in
1996 as a means to lower deer populations in certain management
units where the deer population was not expected to be brought
to within 20 percent of the population goal with a regular
season. The hunts are limited to antlerless deer. By removing
antlerless deer hunters help reduce the high productivity of
Wisconsin’s white-tailed deer population. Wildlife biologists
projected the state’s deer population at 1.4 to 1.5 million
prior to the hunting seasons.
Gun deer hunting will continue
in the state’s CWD management zones and archery deer hunting
will continue statewide until Jan 3. Final harvest numbers for
all deer hunting seasons are usually completed in late
March-early April and are published in the Wisconsin Big Game
Hunting Summary.
FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT:
Keith Warnke – - (608) 264-6023 or Brad Koele, - (608) 261-7589
Deer harvest data report
available on DNR Web site
MADISON – Deer harvest data
submitted by registration stations across the state are now
available online at the Department of Natural Resources Web site
. The new harvest monitoring system will be updated regularly
during the remainder of the seasons as stations send in their
registration stubs.
Currently there are
two tables. One tracks registrations sent in to date from
the early (Sept. 17 – Nov. 17) archery season. The second tracks
registrations submitted to date from the early (Oct. 27-30)
antlerless gun season from both Zone T and CWD units.
Additional tables for the Nov.
19-27 gun deer and muzzleloader and for the late antlerless
season (Dec. 8-11) registrations will be added as they are
submitted.
“This system provides an
accurate view of registrations submitted by stations at a given
point in time,” said Brad Koele, assistant state deer and bear
ecologist. “These figures represent deer registration stubs we
have entered in the database up to the date listed. Totals will
change frequently as more data come in allowing hunters to
monitor the harvest down to the deer management unit level.”
One important aspect of the
tables, officials point out, is the ratio of antlerless to
antlered deer. Biologists are asking hunters to strive for a two
does to one buck ratio in order to reduce high deer numbers. In
seasons to come, this ratio will be an important gauge along
with total deer management unit (DMU) populations for
determining whether or not a unit will be recommended for Zone T
hunts or Earn-a-Buck status.
Koele notes that unlike
previous call-in registration counts staged following the
opening weekend, at the close of the statewide gun deer hunt,
and in the past following the Oct antlerless deer hunt, the
numbers provided in the table are accurate representations of
what has been registered and submitted with far more detail and
accuracy.
“The hunters that have been
following the start-up of this new system are very interested in
being able to ‘prequalify’ for a buck harvest sticker in units
that may go into EAB next season,” says Koele. “With this data
system we can track if they harvested and registered an
antlerless deer this year and the unit it came from. If that
unit becomes EAB in the following year, they’ll already have
‘earned’ their buck authorization.”
FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT:
Brad Koele – - (608) 261-7589 or Keith Warnke - (608) 264-6023
Spring turkey application
deadline Dec. 10
MADISON -- Turkey hunters have
until Dec. 10 to apply for a permit for the 2006 Wisconsin
spring turkey hunting season, which will run in six 5-day
periods from April 12 through May 21.
Preliminary permit levels for
the spring season are set at 200,673 total permits, up from
193,826 permits issued for the 2005 spring season, according to
Andrea Mezera, upland wildlife ecologist for the Department of
Natural Resources.
Three new turkey management
zones in northern Wisconsin -- 44, 45, and 46 -- will be open to
turkey hunting in 2006, Mezera said. The addition of these zones
means that turkey hunting opportunities are available statewide.
Wisconsin will now have 46 turkey management zones, and 12 state
parks open for spring turkey hunting.
Successful spring permit
winners can expect to receive a postcard by early February
notifying them of the zone and time period(s) they are drawn
for. Permit winners can then purchase a spring turkey license
and stamp approval at any license vendor. A tie-on carcass tag
will be printed at the time of purchase along with the turkey
license and stamp approval.
“Statewide, the spring season
success rate hovers near the 25 percent level,” Mezera said. “As
long as the weather cooperates, we expect a hunter success rate
at least equal to or a little better than 2005.”
Hunters should note that
starting this spring second turkey permits will not be issued
through the lottery drawing. In the past if the number of spring
turkey permits exceeded the number of applications for a
specific zone and time period all remaining permits were issued
through the lottery drawing. Starting this spring turkey permits
remaining after the initial drawing will be issued on a first
come, first served basis. The permits will be available at any
license sales location, over the phone, or online.
The fee for those permits will
be $10 for residents, and $15 for nonresidents. All hunters will
also be required to pay the spring turkey license and stamp fee,
unless they have previously purchased the license or stamp, or
are a 2006 Conservation Patron license holder.
Residents and nonresidents will
have equal opportunity to purchase these permits. Purchasing
these permits will not affect a hunters’ preference status for
future spring or fall turkey permit drawings. Purchases are
limited to one permit per day starting March 10, until each zone
and time period is sold out.
Free turkey hunter education
clinics will again be offered statewide, typically occurring
February through April. Clinics cover turkey biology and
behavior, hunting methods, regulations, safety precautions, and
hunter/landowner ethics.
Information on where clinics
will be held will be available at all license vendors, on the
turkey hunting pages of the DNR Web site at DNR service centers
or by calling (608) 261-8458, beginning in late-December.
Additional clinics may be added after the initial listing.
Hunters that don’t find a clinic in their area at first should
periodically check the Internet or at a DNR service center for
updates.
Any applications postmarked
after the Dec. 10 deadline or filled out incorrectly will not be
considered for the drawing. Applications and the required $3
permit application fee may be purchased at any
DNR Service Center or
license sales location, by calling toll-free 1-877-WI
LICENSE (1-877-945-4236), or over the
Internet through
the DNR Web site.
FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT:
Andrea Mezera - (608) 261-8458
NRB to consider raising perch
limits in Green Bay
MADISON – Daily bag limits for
yellow perch from Green Bay would increase to 15, and the annual
commercial harvest limit would climb to 60,000 pounds, under a
proposal the Natural Resources Board will consider Dec. 7 in
Madison.
The proposal would increase the
daily sport bag limit from 10 to 15 fish per day, instead of the
25 originally proposed, reflecting public comments made at
hearings on the topic in October, according to Bill Horns, Great
Lakes fish specialist with the state Department of Natural
Resources.
“Some anglers recommended a
more conservative increase in the name of caution, feeling it
was a matter of ‘better safe than sorry,’” Horns says.
Sport bag and harvest limits
were dropped in 200l after a 90 percent decrease in yellow perch
between 1988 and 2000 resulting from poor natural reproduction
during those years with the exception of 1998.
Late summer trawling surveys
since 2001 have shown that natural reproduction of yellow perch
in Green Bay has improved, producing “modest” year-classes in
2002, 2004 and 2005, and a very large year-class in 2003. Sport
and commercial fishers reported good fishing in 2005, suggesting
that yellow perch hatched in 2002 and 2003 are beginning to
support sport and commercial harvests.
However, fisheries assessment
surveys showed a drop in abundance of yearling and older yellow
perch in 2005 after only a moderate increase in 2004, Horns
says. “We recommend caution in increasing commercial and sport
harvests. We are looking for unambiguous evidence that the young
fish have survived and are capable of supporting larger
harvests.”
The final proposal the Natural
Resources Board will consider would increase the commercial
harvest to 60,000 pounds, the same level as proposed earlier,
instead of returning to the 200,000 pound limit in effect before
2001 or some number closer to that level, as some commercial
fishers advocated at the October public hearing.
The department is committed to
equalizing yellow perch harvests by sport anglers and commercial
fishers over the long term, Horns says. The estimated sport
harvest in 2004 approximated the 20,000 pounds taken by
commercial fishers, but it is not possible to predict the number
of fish that will be caught by anglers under the proposed
increased bag limit.
The 10 daily sport bag and
20,000 annual commercial harvest limit are set to expire July 1,
2006, if no changes are made to the current rules.
FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT:
Bill Horns (608) 266-8782 or
Matt Mangan (715) 582-5052
New Nature Trail Viewing Guide
now available
MADISON – A new viewing guide
to the Mississippi-Chippewa Rivers Birding and Nature Trail will
be unveiled on Sunday Dec. 4 in a “Migration Celebration” event
at the Alma Rod and Gun Club. The community-based event will
begin at noon and run until 4 p.m. A live bald eagle will be on
display and children’s events are scheduled.
The Alma Rod and Gun Club is
located next to Rieck's Lake Park off Highway 35 in Alma.
Rieck's Lake Park is one of the best places to view migrating
tundra swans in the fall, and Friends of Rieck's Lake Park will
be on hand at the park to greet visitors.
In addition to the event the
guides are also available from the
Wisconsin Department of Tourism (Exit DNR) by calling
1-800-432-TRIP, visiting travelwisconsin.com, or statewide at
Wisconsin Welcome Centers and DNR Service Centers.
“This new guide and the
Mississippi-Chippewa trail segment are the second in a series of
five planned nature-based driving trails collectively known as
the
Great Wisconsin Birding and Nature Trail (GWBNT),” said
Susan Foote-Martin, DNR conservation biologist and GWBNT
coordinator. “The first segment, the Lake Superior-Northwoods
Region, was opened just a year ago and has been very popular
with visitors to the trail and the communities along the trail.”
The event is sponsored by the
Mississippi River Parkway Commission and the Great River Road
Promotion Committee in partnership with the Wisconsin Department
of Natural Resources and Wisconsin Department of Tourism. There
will be educational booths and exhibits from throughout the
region. Birding and wildlife experts will be on hand to answer
questions, and the National Eagle Center will have a live bald
eagle on display. Activities for the children and a special
program at 2 pm will round out the afternoon. Refreshments will
available for all to enjoy.
The full color, high quality
guide has been produced and published through a partnership
between Wisconsin DNR, Endangered Resources Program and the
Wisconsin Department of Tourism. The guide contains maps,
driving directions, and site contact information for 67 birding
and wildlife viewing areas featured in the 13-county regional
guide and follows the popular Lake Superior / North Woods
Birding and Nature Trail Guide that was published in 2004.
FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT:
Susan Foote-Martin, (608) 266-0545
List of certified plan writers
now available to woodland owners
MADISON – Forest landowners
interested in enrolling their property into the state’s Managed
Forest Law program may now consult a new list of certified plan
writers who can assist them in developing forest management
plans. The Managed Forest Law program, administered by the state
Department of Natural Resources, is intended to encourage
sustainable forestry practices while allowing woodland owners to
pay property taxes at a reduced rate.
The list is available on the
Certified Plan Writer Program page of the DNR Web site.
“A certified plan writer is a
private consulting forester who has been trained in plan
preparation by the department,” said Bob Mather, director of DNR
Bureau of Forest Management. “A plan writer assists landowners
in developing a management plan taking into account owners’
objectives such as wildlife production, scenic beauty, water
quality protection and income generation through timber
production and sale. When it is time to harvest timber they can
also administer the sale, making sure the landowner gets a fair
price and the job is done right.”
Nearly 60 percent of
Wisconsin’s forest lands are owned by individuals and families.
Currently there are about 29,000 landowners owning more than 2.9
million acres enrolled in the forest tax law programs. Beginning
in 2005, all MFL landowners are automatically enrolled in the
American Tree Farm System’s forest certification program unless
they opt out of membership. The certification program verifies
to potential timber buyers that wood coming from a certified
forest has been produced according to widely accepted
sustainable forestry standards. Wisconsin’s state and county
forests also are certified.
Management plans include
scheduled timber harvests determined on the basis of growth
rates and age at the time the management agreement between the
landowner and the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) is
signed. Agreement periods run for either 25 or 50 years. A
portion of lands enrolled in MFL can be closed to public access,
otherwise they are open subject to some access restrictions and
uses. Over 1.3 million acres of privately owned MFL-enrolled
woodlands are open to hunting and other public uses. This is in
addition to about 5.5 million acres of publicly owned lands in
Wisconsin open to these uses.
Enrollment in MFL is open to
all private owners of 10 or more contiguous acres of woodlands.
Under MFL property taxes are set at a low rate, currently $1.46
per acre for new entries. A portion of the taxes saved by
enrolling in the MFL program is recouped by the state at the
time timber is harvested.
“We prepared this list
following passage in 2003 of Wisconsin Act 228 which made
changes to the existing MFL law,” said Mather. “The changes
included a requirement that to enroll, a woodland owner must
have a plan prepared by a certified plan writer or the
department itself.”
FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT:
Carol Nielsen – (608) 266-8019
