The project of removing Curly Leaf Pondweed from Rice Lake will begin soon and your help is crucial.
Iron County is facing a serious threat to our lakes and rivers along the Turtle River Watershed. An aggressive alien invasive species, Curly Leaf Pondweed (CLP) is out of control on Rice Lake and is threatening every downstream lake including the Turtle Flambeau Flowage. The ice is off. The invasive plants are growing.
There is a very short window of time in June when the invasive plants are big enough to be “pulled” and before their seeds are ripe and spreadable. This window will be our initial target with on-going maintenance efforts throughout the summer.
What is to be done?
After 3 summers of manual removal efforts that involved large numbers of volunteers and long days of hard work, the Rice Lake Association (RLA) has decided to purchase an Eco-Harvester. The harvester will automate much of that manual effort from past years and is an expensive investment to save our lake. We will still need volunteers, but in new capacities. 4 new volunteer functions are identified; Eco-Harvester drivers, pickup-truck drivers to dump what the harvester collects, volunteers in kayaks/canoes to trail the harvester picking up misc. pieces of CLP and down-stream net placement on the Turtle River.
What is an Eco-Harvester?
An Eco-Harvester is a floating barge, self propelled with a front scoop lowered into the lake to harvest Curly Leaf Pondweed (CLP) off the bottom then with its self-contained conveyor system, it moves the CLP to the back of the barge where it can be off loaded to a dump trailer for removal to a safe burn location. The harvester does an excellent job, but to ensure the best results, we will have kayaks/canoes following the harvester to catch straggler plants.
When will it start?
From 2020-2024 we embarked on huge, manual harvesting efforts each summer for 2 weeks. This year (2025) we will move to a more automated effort with the purchase of the Eco-Harvester for collection instead of a massive manual task. Our target dates are throughout the summer months of June, July & August. See calendar of events. Initially in June we will have a 2 week effort prior to when CLP plants mature and begin to drop seeds. After that, periodic efforts throughout the summer to continue to minimize & remove the remaining CLP. Volunteer help is needed throughout the summer to execute on this plan.
Donations:
The Eco-harvester purchase is a 6 figure investment by RLA and donations to help procure this equipment are needed. Please go to the GoFundMe link at the top of the main page under the GoFundMe logo.
Will You Help?
If you can assist us with any of the 4 functions during the summer, or make a donation, please contact:
Rice Lake Association, Inc
Aquatic Invasive Species (AIS) Committee Chairman, Robert Kary
Email: treboryrak@gmail.com
m | 217-369-3855
PO Box 134
Mercer, WI 54547