Adaptive Management Committee

The Adaptive Management Committee was established along with the revised Lake Management Plan which was adopted in 2004. The committee is comprised of two Lake Puckaway District Commissioners, two DNR staff, and three Lake District members.

The committee may call upon other experts as needed for assistance. They serve at the pleasure of the District Chairman and can be appointed or replaced at the time of the Annual Meeting each year.

The AMC’s charge is to summarize and evaluate data from past and present monitoring of water quality, water levels, aquatic vegetation, carp and fish populations. The committee will monitor the health of the lake, set up a baseline for the lakes condition and recommend specific targets for the lakes health based on science, not emotions, and make recommendations to the Board of Commissioners who will present them to the membership at the District’s annual meeting for approval. .

This years AMC consists of Roger Swanke, Brian Zimmerman, Derek Kavanaugh, Mark Sesing, Paul Gettelman and Randy Schmidt. The committee meets once a month and here are some of the things we have been doing this past year and plan on doing in the coming months.

The AMC successfully wrote a grant to hire a Lake Assessment and Planning Specialist. The District has hired Nicholas Bach a grad student from U.W. Oshkosh. Nick will be gathering all the data on the lakes historical water quality, water levels, aquatic plants, watershed, and fish populations. This data will be compiled and added to the Lake Management Plan and presented at the annual meeting.

The AMC held Lake Tour 2007 on June 25. This tour is a floating classroom on pontoon boats with the help of Mark Sesing and Derek Kavanaugh as instructors. We learn aquatic plant identification and monitor invasive species beds on the Lake. This keeps the AMC and District Members in tune with what is happening on the Lake.

We will be installing three permanent water gauges on the Lake this spring. The gauges will be placed on each end of the Lake and at the Princeton Dam to monitor water levels. We will also be constructing carp enclosures this spring in sensitive areas to monitor vegetation growth to see the affect of carp and boat traffic. The water level gauges and carp enclosures will be funded by Lake Puckaway Improvement Association.

Randy Schmidt

2-23-08