OUR GOALS

UPDATE: On November 11, 2022 our Surface Water Grant Application FINAL was submitted to the WDNR.

The goal of every member of the Lake Association is to treat the milfoil and get it out of our beautiful lake once and for all. Our membership has been particularly generous in that regard. In addition to the money you have contributed we are also applying for a grant.

Three main aspects are needed to apply for this grant. 1. Lake Management Plan, 2. Milfoil Treatment Plan and 3. The Grant Application. A team was assembled and has been managing all of these disciplines as they are intertwined. The team consists of Chris Hedstrom, Sarah Kirchhoff, Ginnie Detloff and Fred Koch. The entire board is also involved on an as-needed basis.

What was required

While the approved Pine Lake 2015 Lake Management Plan (LMP) is still in effect until 2025, the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (WDNR) required us to revise it and reflect the current need to treat our milfoil and indicate how we were going to accomplish that treatment over the next three years. Without the revisions to the LMP, the chances of getting a permit to treat the lake were nonexistent.

Also, to receive a grant to cover up to 75% of the treatment expense, and WDNR support for our Clean Boats/Clean Water (CBCW) initiative, we also needed a revised LMP.

What has been accomplished

The revised Lake Management Plan DRAFT has been approved by Ted Johnson (the teams main WDNR contact). Ted will now push it up the chain of command to his superiors for final approval. Some minor changes will most probably be requested by WDNR. This is a standard procedure. However, for the purposes of any grants and permits, we are good to go in that regard and will be in the grant competition.

The Treatment Permit Application DRAFT has been accepted and approved by Ted Johnson with some minor changes to help our grant application look better to the grant review board.

Even though Ted has told us he will approve our Treatment Permit, based on our revised LMP and grant application, our final Treatment Permit Application must also go from him up the chain of command for approval. The Aquatic Chemical Division of WDNR will have the final decision to approve the use of ProcellaCor in the concentrations we are requesting.

The last scientific survey of Pine Lake was accomplished in August of 2020 and showed only 2% of the lake had Hybrid Eurasian Water Milfoil (HEWM). While we all know it has exploded way past that, the Chemical Division of WDNR has no current scientific proof of that.

To influence the Chemical Division’s decision, prior to the Treatment Permit Application FINAL, in late June of 2023, we will conduct a point survey of the entire west lobe of the lake and a subset survey of the east lobe on the milfoil patches we can visually find. If we can scientifically show an increase up to 4 or 5% of the total lake, we have a much better chance of getting the permit.

We are also getting some help from mother nature as the water level keeps going down, which elevates the percentage of milfoil. At the lakes high point in 2020, we were up to 156 acres of water according to the WDNR. We will of course show the reduced water acreage on the final permit application.

How the Grant Competition works

The grant application process is a competition among all the lakes in the state. A review board will look at all the applications and rank them from best chance of successful treatment to worst chance of successful treatment. They start at most successful and work down the rankings until the money is gone.

Our success of getting a grant depends upon the grant money available, the number of grant applications received and the estimated success of the treatment.

For all these reasons, Pine Lake may not get a grant this year. Pine Lake may get a full grant, a partial grant or no grant at all, but know the team has done everything we know to help make our grant application look as good as possible and give the review board a reason to give us some grant money.

We hope, even if we do not get the grant money this year, we will at least get a permit to treat the milfoil.

Once again, it is all up to what the government, in their infinite wisdom, decides.