Citizens Lake Monitoring Network
The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR) runs a Citizen Lake Monitoring Network (CLMN). The core of the Wisconsin Lakes Partnership, CLMN creates a bond between over 1,000 citizen volunteers statewide and the DNR. Its goals are to collect high quality data, to educate and empower volunteers, and to share this data and knowledge.
Data from the CLMN program help us to track water quality and the efficacy of our aerator systems. All of our lake monitoring data are available online through the program: Pickerel Lake, Smoke Lake, Little Pickerel Lake. Thanks to Jim Lamers for working with the DNR to set up our CLMN program!
Open water season. PCLA volunteers take water quality and chemistry samples four times each open water season. The first is taken within two weeks of ice out, and the remaining are taken during the latter half of the months of June, July, and August. We measure water clarity, using the Secchi Disk method, as an indicator of water quality. We collect water to test for phosphorus and chlorophyll levels, and we collect temperature and dissolved oxygen data. We also monitor for aquatic invasive species near boat landings, other access points, or along the shoreline.
Closed water season. During the winter months, we take dissolved oxygen readings and report on ice in and ice out on the lakes.
