For Stevens Point News

The students will be out at Schmeekle installing cages this Thursday

STEVENS POINT — Golden Sands RC&D Council, Inc., is getting help from student volunteers at Wisconsin River Academy to continue research on the native milfoil weevil in Lake Joanis, part of Schmeekle Reserve in Stevens Point, WI. Students will help place predator exclusion cages in the lake on May 10th as part of an ongoing study of biological control of Eurasian watermilfoil, an invasive aquatic plant.

The non-native milfoil has ringed the lake in recent years, choking out native aquatic plant diversity. Lake Joanis is next to the University of Wisconsin – Stevens Point campus, so in 2008 the lake became a natural study site for research on biological control options for Eurasian watermilfoil, studies that the University, Golden Sands RC&D, and the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources have been working on together.

Funding for the biological control research became scarce in recent years, making the future of the long-term data collection uncertain.

“Golden Sands is so close to Lake Joanis, it would be easy to continue the research if we had the labor needed,” explains Amy Thorstenson, Executive Director for Golden Sands, “with the volunteer labor the Academy is providing, we can get a ton of field work done with minimal other costs. We couldn’t continue this research without them.”

Predator exclusion cages, 3’x3’ mesh cages, will be placed in Lake Joanis mid-day on Thursday, May 10. Students will return the following day to fish out any fish inside the cages, creating a predator-free “safe zone” for the milfoil weevils in the lake to reproduce and build their numbers. Surveys in August will collect plant and weevil data, and the Academy will return in fall to remove the cages from the lake.

“The data in 2016 suggested weevils thrived inside the cages and the population in the lake was building,” says Thorstenson, “we’re so excited to see what this year’s data looks like.”

Citizen volunteers are invited to help collect data this August. Contact Thorstenson to inquire at: [email protected]