Reflections of Days on the Water’s Edge
Clean Boats Clean Waters
By Diane Schauer
Signs like this have been installed throughout the Winnebago system
and many launches throughout Wisconsin. They serve as a reminder
of the steps to prevent the spread of aquatic invasive species: inspect
your equipment, remove all plants and animals, drain all water, and
never move live fish or plants away from any body of water.
In 2011, UW-Oshkosh hired 13 summer interns to work the CBCW program within the Winnebago system. They each spent their summer at boat launches, chatting with boaters about AIS. These highly trained and ambitious interns put in 2,908 hours talking to 17,221 people about preventing the spread of AIS. Shannon Davis-Faust, their supervisor, asked them to keep journals. Below are excerpts from three of these journals written by UWO interns.
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Working with Boaters to Protect our Waters is the message on the t-shirts worn by our CBCW watercraft inspectors all around the state of Wisconsin. |
Exterior decontamination photo: In addition to the CBCW inspectors, WI Conservation Wardens have purchased some portable watercraft decontamination units for use at busy launches. There will be a demo of this unit in the Winnebago system on June 9th, 2012. For the location, look for press releases or contact Schauer.diane@co.calumet.wi.us. |
Many of their entries include weather reports:
Light wind, cloudy, 47 degrees F, sort of busy for there still being snow on the ground.
Really windy, 15-20mph coming straight up the mouth/entrance of the Fox River creating whitecaps and rough conditions. Talked with only one boater who contemplated going out to fish today, but didn’t because of the wind. Proving that anglers really are not as crazy as people say!
Today is a great day; the sun is shining and I’m busy talking to boaters. Time is flying fast today.
Drizzling on and off; cloudy with a chance of meatballs.
There were bird reports:
The only things fishing were American White Pelicans.
The best thing about today was watching a Bald Eagle catch dinner. The Eagle was flying in circles then flew straight down to the water and grabbed a fish. This was awesome.
(Months later at the same launch as the previous entry): Got to watch the baby bald eagle fly around today also.
They finally finished painting the parking lot at the Fox Point Landing, it looks really nice. There must have been a ton of geese hanging out at the launch because their crap is everywhere.
The CBCW interns survey boaters and anglers about their knowledge of AIS. The interns also emphasize the simple steps to prevent spreading AIS: inspect equipment, remove plants and animals, drain all water, and never move fish or plants from a waterbody.
This was a great group of young people who spent their summer working to protect the water resources in our state. While on the launches they raked weeds and went out of their way to assist people who needed it.
There will be new watercraft inspectors wearing the ubiquitous blue and white Clean Boats Clean Waters t-shirts around the Winnebago System and throughout Wisconsin during the summer of 2012. Thank them for their work and their concern for the resource. The CBCW interns and volunteers are valuable resources themselves. For additional proof of that, read more comments from the journals of our UW-Oshkosh interns:
Helped a guy ID the difference between a sauger and a walleye. The man had 2 saugers. Must have thought they were walleyes.
Educated the difference between Eurasian water milfoil and northern water milfoil. It was fun tonight.
Stockbridge Harbor: So far it has been steady with boaters, time going by real fast. Talked to 3 kids and their dad about AIS. Gave them stickers, cards, and bobbers. It was awesome to see their faces light up!
Boating is probably slow today due to the Packers preseason game going on later this afternoon against the Arizona Cardinals (at home).
There is a trailer in the parking lot that is covered in weeds, all the other trailers have only a few weeds. This trailer was launched somewhere else and not cleaned. I’m very interested to talk to the owner to see what he has to say about the trailer and weeds!! (The guy was disabled - I helped him clear the weeds off his trailer.)
Informed a man that it was illegal to take lake H2O in cooler. I told him he must dump out the H2O. He did comply and was thankful. He didn’t know it was illegal to take H2O from the lake.
It was cool today but good day for fishing. Gave away bobbers today to kids, it was awesome to see their smiles light up.
The highlight of the day was when I talked to a dad and his 2 girls. I talked all about AIS laws and problems. Gave the girls bobbers, cards, keychains and give out the last Winnebago System Maps. It was awesome to see the girls’ excitement about fishing, now I know why I took this job and why I love it.
This sums it up best:
9/30 Tonight was our last meeting, sad. We turned in our CBCW equipment. I was sad to see the end of the season. Summer was blazing fast, time seems so short.