Lake Projects
ELIA receives dnr grants
ELIA has recently received 4 DNR grants for calendar 2023. These grants which require matching funds will help Keep Elkhart Blue in the coming years.
The first grant covers our Clean Boat Clean Water Program (CBCW) for another year. This onsite educational program helps inform boaters coming onto and leaving the lake about invasives. CBCW activity has been in place for over a decade. CBCW also provides information to boaters about the lake and rules of the road while they are enjoying the lake.
The other three grants break new ground and are part of an overall watershed assessment project that ELIA is working on with the DNR, Sheboygan County Planning and Environment, and the Lake shore Natural Resource Partnership (LNRP).
Grant 1-Elkhart Lake Best Management Practices - Native Shoreline Gardens
Partnering with property owners, ELIA is administering a grant to implement best practices from Wisconsin's 2019 Healthy Lakes & Rivers Action Plan. This will include 350 sq. ft. of native plantings, diversions, rock infiltration, and/or rain gardens which will be designed and installed in various location along the lake. All funded best practices, required contracts that must remain in place for 10 years and include minimum operation and maintenance requirements as a condition of the grant.
Grant 2 - Elkhart Lake Habitat Restoration - Prairie Installation & Tree Planting
ELIA is sponsoring a lake protection project to install a 25-acre prairie restoration on the Schaff property, located on a direct drainage area on the south side of Elkhart Lake. Specific project activities include:
Site preparation to prepare the site for seeding.
Placement of native mesic and wet-mesic prairie seed by a tractor mounted seed drill as well as broadcast hand seeding.
Planting of oak trees and shrubs.
Management mowing and spot herbicide treatment to manage nonnative vegetation as needed.
Monitoring the site to map nonnative populations when found.
Grant 3- Elkhart Lake Runoff Management - Feasibility Study & Concept Design
ELIA is sponsoring a project to develop a conceptual plan for the Neuses Bay Tributary BMP installation for Elkhart Lake. Project final deliverables include: Agenda and minutes for the Annual Meeting, and a conceptual design plan that includes methodologies, data complied and collected, and modeling results. Specific project activities include:
Compilation of existing imagery data, land use data, FEMA data and meteorological data.
Collection of site-specific data.
Development of a conceptual design plan including SWAT model, alignment, profiles, instream structures and a revegetation plan.
Presentation of conceptual design plan at the Annual Meeting and other outreach events.
ELIA will also continue its annual invasive weed program to locate and remove or terminate invasive weed beds around the lake. Based on a recent 2022 assessment by the DNR, we have seen a significant decrease in invasive weeds due to this program, while at the same time allowing native weeds to provide excellent fishery coverage for our sport fishing enthusiasts.
Phosphorous Treatment Bed Media Replaced
After a review of the phosphorous filtration system, it was determined that the material used as media had become “cemented.” The media was too small in diameter and was becoming impacted by the accumulation of sediment that was part of the water being processed through the filter system.
Neuses Bay Phosphorous Removal Treatment Bed
Reducing excessive amounts of Phosphorous entering the lake and the resulting encouragement for unwanted growth of aquatic plants has been a key objective for ELIA. The recent implementation of a Phosphorous filtration system in the south side Neuses Bay Area watershed is an example of what is being done. -
Merrybrook – Sheboygan Bay
Iron bacteria are naturally occurring, but they are not always a welcome part of our lake watershed. We have an iron flocculate issue in Sheboygan Bay which we are now starting to assess in conjunction with the country and local DNR, to see what can be done to mitigate this unwanted discharge.
Read More About This Project