Board of Directors Meeting Minutes October 12, 2022

October 12, 2022¬ – 6:00 p.m. Via Zoom – Courtesy of Terry Daulton
6:05 PM- Call to Order: Randy Schubert, President

Present: Randy Schubert, President; Jeff Malison, Vice-President; Roger Nelson, Treasurer; Todd Jirous, Secretary; Directors: Jean Burns, Jim Kohl, Randy Payne, Jeff Wilson, Joanna Vodicka.

Water Level Report provided by Tom via email– (as of 10/12/2022)
The 2022 open water season on the TFF will be remembered for close to average water levels up to mid-July. From mid-July to mid-August water levels were approximately 6” below target levels. From mid-August through mid-October the water level was within 3” of target level, and was 6-9 inches higher than last year at the same time. The spring refill target of 1571.50’ was achieved on April 20, 2022, and “ice-out” on Baraboo took place on May 4, 2022. Discharge from the TFF Dam was moderate throughout the season, and was reduced to just above the minimum of 300 cubic feet per second (cfs) in late September. Discharge remained in the low 300 cfs range through the end of October. Maximum discharge of 2,482 cfs took place on April 28, 2022, during spring snow melt. Officially, the “Water Year” runs through the end of October. Our expectation is that TFF water levels will gradually rise over the next several weeks as the annual drawdown of the Manitowish Waters chain started about 10 days ago.

Fish Management Report:
Jim met two weeks ago for several hours. The young of the year Walleye is strong this year. Primary discussion was around walleye and the entire Upper Midwest. We have seen a decrease in population and size, and yet we have good reproduction. Giving a lot more thought and consideration to how do we build a stronger population. We have a very strong Bluegill and Crappie population, and they compete for the same food sources, and we can only support a certain bio-mass. Some discussion around Small and Large mouth bass competing for that same bio-mass.
There is likely going to be a 50 inch minimum on Musky’s in the near future.
There is also a strong Sturgeon population on the Flowage.
There is some thought about developing structure and erosion control that will help the gravel bars for reproduction purposes.
Zach could use some help with the “Sturgeon Watch” on the bike path over the Hwy 51/Trout bridge.
There was some dialog on having a guide or guides do a one-hour seminar on catching fish on the Flowage. There is also a “Lake Links” website that you can watch activity and tips for any body of water…which does includes guides from our area.

Water Quality Report:
Todd, not much to report….it was a good year, and we just have a couple sites that need to enter data and this season will be complete.

Invasive Species Report:
Randy updated us on Purple Loosestrife from this year’s activity.
Curly Leaf Pondweed has been found between Pike Lake and Lake of the Falls. Cindy, Steve Anderson and others are actively pulling Curly Leaf Pondweed late in the season. We really need to provide more downstream support to curtail the spread of CLP.
Should we be looking at the Grant Process and see what’s available for funding to assist in containing CLP?

Education/Communication Report:
Jean shared that Mike Hittle is stepping down as editor of the Driftwood.
The Team has a Newsletter meeting on November 18th; please get any articles to Jean by the 18th.
We would like to get a summary of the survey in the next newsletter. Would also like to get a new Leader in the Education/Communication committee.
Would it be important to maintain a list of those that don’t have an email contact? Can we manage the five or six members that don’t have email.
Can we have next meeting January to set the date for the Annual Meeting in June?
Web page and Facebook: If we have any content to share, please let Jeff M. and Sue P. know

Master Plan Update:
The DNR had two meetings….one in Rhinelander and the other in Phillips. Phil, the chair of planning has been requested to come up and meet locally. Jeff W. is going to call Phil to make an amendment to our suggestions.
Should we consider doing a Recreation Use Survey?

Survey update from Joanna:
The end of the survey gives us a lot of great perspectives and feedback, and helps us start to put together some action plans based on the survey.
1) Is the Survey Good?
2) What actionable items do we want to prompt?
3) Perhaps we can categorize the feedback?
4) Break comments back into the various committees?
What else can we do from an education standpoint? Perhaps a “Calendar” that we can pull actions from…so dialog that this would be great to start internally before we put out to the membership
Jeff W. floated the thought of doing an “Adventure Tour” based on an experience of banding Eagles/Osprey. 30% of our members didn’t know that there is a “Quiet Area”. We could something like a “Natural/History” tour of the Flowage…fish fyke netting, Eagle banding and other activities. We’ll revisit this again in the Spring and keep it in front of us.
Jeff M. brought up “Wake Boats” and that the Natural Resources Board is starting to address wake boats, as well as proposed ordinances in the Town of Presque Isle. Watch for more to come on wake boats, and Jeff will email a couple articles to the Directors and Board.

Meeting Adjourned at 7:43

Respectfully submitted

Todd Jirous
Secretary