On April 14th, Dr. Dale Robertson of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), presented the USGS’s annual “State of Big Green Lake” to the GLSD Board of Commissioners, the GLA Board of Directors, and the Lake Management Planning (LMP) Team. The focus of the meeting was for Dr. Robertson to provide an overview of the nutrient loading (specifically phosphorus) into the lake from the watershed as well as recap lake sampling results from 2019 and 2020. Phosphorus is the main nutrient that drives plant an...

Cover crops are grasses, legumes, and other forbs that are planted for erosion control, improving soil structure, moisture, and nutrient content, increasing beneficial soil biota, suppressing weeds,providing habitat for beneficial predatory insects, facilitating crop pollinators, providing wildlife habitat, and as forage for farmanimals. Although cover crops can perform these multiple functions in an agroecosystem simultaneously, they are most often grown for the sole purpose of preventing soil...

There have been many surprising footnotes to the Covid pandemic. One such tidbit is that when people are forced to stay home, apparently they clean house! In speaking with Waste Management this spring and summer, they updated us on the fact that residents within the GLSD put out more than 15% more trash in the 2nd quarter of 2020 than average. WM found this trend to be similar across all the communities it serves. Additionally, WM has seen a huge increase in cardboard being thrown away due to t...

In the fall of 2019, the Green Lake County Health Department (GLHD) secured an Environmental Health Tracking Grant from the Wisconsin Department of Health Services to “protect and enhance the groundwater in Green Lake County.” Sampling was completed in early March of 2020. Several parameters were tested for including bacteria, nitrate, and pH. Due to the overwhelming requests for participation in the project, the GLSD funded the 111 samples taken within the Green Lake watershed. By doing so, th...

Our Waste Management contract only covers the pick up of household trash.  Building materials, furniture, and e-waste and other bulky items should not be placed in your WM cart. Instead, you can bring them to the GLSD’s Annual Spring Cleanup. Dumpsters will be available at the GLSD Wastewater Treatment Facility (located at N5295 County Highway TT in the Town of Princeton). If social distancing restrictions are in place in late July, the event may be postponed or cancelled. Please visit www.gla...

The GLSD and Lake Management Team Partners have been working for years to improve the water quality entering the lake from the County K marsh. The marsh contributes a disproportionate amount of nutrients to Green Lake than is accounted for by the size of its 3 subwatersheds (Wurches Creek, Spring Creek, and Roy Creek). This has long been a concern to our lake managers. The highly turbid water and lack of aquatic plants indicate the marsh is not functioning as it should. We know that to reduce t...