Board of Directors Meeting Minutes October 21, 2024

TURTLE FLAMBEAU FLOWAGE – TRUDE LAKE
PROPERTY OWNERS’ ASSOCIATION

Oct 21, 2024­ – 6:00 pm.  Via Zoom – Courtesy of Terry Daulton
6:00 PM- Call to Order:  Randy Schubert, President

Present:  Randy Schubert, President; Randy Payne, Vice President; Roger Nelson, Treasurer; Directors: Karl Gustavson, Jeff Wilson, Jim Kohl, Millard Johnson

Treasurer’s Report:  Roger Nelson

Our finances are in good shape. $9510 total income, expenses were $5529 (less CD and road signs). Total cash reserve is $25,236.

Jim Kohl made a motion to accept the Treasurer’s report; all were in favor

Membership Committee:  Roger Nelson

We have a total of 197 members, 52 of those are new. We had lost 23.

Roger has identified 290 non-member TFF-TL property owners, and previously mailed them invitations to join, and we discussed a possible second mailing. No decision was reached on that.

Jeff Wilson suggested mailing out a free copy of Driftwood to property owners  (non-members) as kind of a “here’s what we do” message to entice potential members. This idea was well received, and there was some discussion on the cost of doing this vs the potential success. Randy Schubert suggested a possible mailing of Driftwood that was printed on regular paper (not the more expensive Driftwood heavy bond paper) as the regular Driftwood is rather expensive. Roger Nelson will look into the cost of a Driftwood mailing with the regular heavy paper vs standard light bond paper and we will decide on possible mailing for next year.

Water Level Committee:  Millard Johnson

We welcomed our new Water Level Committee chair, Millard Johnson.

Fish Management Committee:  Jim Kohl

Jim reported a loss of 2 members out of the 8 member committee. They were replaced by Karl Gustavson and Jake Utrie.

We’ve had a very good year for fish. Crappie population is stable. Bluegill population is up, but the size is down.

The flowage is shifting from cold to warm water species.

The fall survey conducted by Zach Lawson had very good numbers. Many young of the year (YOY) walleye where seen, and very good adult size in shallow water. Natural muskie reproduction is up, with an estimate of 29%, which is higher than in the past. There has been much musky pressure but the population seems resilient.

The Elite Series Bass Tournament was held in September. 452 bass (smallmouth?) were registered, which points to a very good smallmouth fishery.

Invasive Species Committee:  Randy Payne

Purple Loosestrife: Numbers were similar to previous years. We are seeing plants in the same locations as previous years, but very very few new sites. This indicates that we are stopping the spread, but are battling seed banks. The water was unusually high in mid summer, and most PL plants were in inches of standing water. The plants grew “biofoam” around their stems where they were submerged, which appeared like a ¾” diameter coating of foam rubber. This was very unusual and the DNR did not understand what exactly it was. The bloom extended from mid July to late August this summer.  Was this due to high water? This makes pulling difficult because if you pull only early you miss many plants, and if you pull only late, the early bloomers have gone to seed.

Curly Leaf Pondweed (CLP): Rice Lake has stopped doing the “Great CLP pull”, (manual pulling of 10’s of tons of CLP), and is instead using a mechanical harvester. There were the usual Turtle River and Pike Lake pulls this summer. Pike Lake CLP is increasing, and CLP has spread to Lake of The Falls, although the number of plants was very low.  TFFTL-POA hired the Discovery Center to pull Pike Lake. Randy Payne surveyed the TFF from the Iron County Park waterfalls down past the Gateway, and did not find any CLP. Good news!

Eurasian Water Milfoil (EWM): Zach Wilson reported that a particular area down by Bonies Mound “exploded”, in other words, the EWM was greatly increasing.

Peter Levi, the main author of the grant to study EWM, is leaving Northland College. Fortunately, the grant for the TFF is still being executed. Northland College has had financial issues, but extra funding, along with some budget cuts, has enabled them to continue to operate. Work so far included a point intercept study down by Bonies Mound, and water level monitoring stations.

Zach Wilson hosted an “on the water” EWM training session this summer, where he brought an EWM sample (onshore) so everyone could see an actual specimen. Everybody went out in boats and looked for EWM in the Horseshoe area. We did not find any.

New Business:

We have a new flowage manager to replace Beth Feind, it is Casey Baye. We also have a new Field Office in Mercer, which had an open house.

Randy Schubert motioned to adjourn, and Jim Kohl seconded.

Respectfully submitted,

Randy Payne

(substituting for Todd Jirous)