Green Lake watershed - Ongoing Monitoring efforts

The information gathered in the various reports, studies, and surveys below is compiled periodically, continually, or over a specific length of time. We'll continue to update this information with as it becomes available. Click on any red text to view a detailed definition or description.

Stream Flow and Water Quality Monitoring, Mapping Big Green Lake's BMP's, Remote Sensing and Water Clarity, Fish Surveys, Fish Stocking, Green Lake County Land and Water Resource Management Plan (2011), Vegetation Studies

Stream Flow and Water Quality Monitoring on Big Green Lake
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) conducts an annual stream flow and water quality monitoring program for Green Lake. The annual cost of the program is shared between the USGS and the Green Lake Sanitary District (GLSD). Read more for locations and monitoring parameters.

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Mapping Big Green Lake's BMP's

Grassed waterways, diversions, and spillways are examples of best management practices (BMP's) used in Big Green Lake's watershed to help protect water quality. With the Green Lake County's Land Conservation Department's technical expertise and cost sharing funds from the Green Lake Sanitary District, lake partners are working together to implement these BMP's to limit the amount of sediment and nutrients (phosphorus) entering Big Green Lake. The GLA worked with interns Brenden Griffin and Tracy Waldinger in 2011 to map these BMP's as an educational tool for watershed education, and we hope to work with Fond du Lac County's Land Conservation Department to include all of the practices that help control runoff in our watershed. To locate and learn more about the practices in Green Lake County, view the larger Google map here.

View Green Lake Watershed Practices in a larger map

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Remote Sensing and Water Clarity

Since 1999, Citizen Lake Monitoring volunteers have assisted in a collaborative research effort with University of Wisconsin Environmental Remote Sensing Center by taking secchi readings on dates when the satellites were overhead. The volunteers' participation has allowed the University to successfully calibrate computer programs that enable satellite imagery to be used to predict Secchi Disc Depth and other water quality parameters on lakes. The researchers at the Remote Sensing Center are continuing their research. The ultimate goal is to put the satellite data into everyday use by making the water clarity data derived from the satellite imagery available to the DNR and to the public. Continue reading about remote sensing and water clarity.

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Fish Surveys in Big Green

In the spring of 2011, Big Green Lake underwent a full fish survey led by WI DNR Fisheries Biologist, Dave Bartz. Fish surveys are typically conducted every five years. At the GLA's Annual Meeting held in June, Bartz presented the objectives of the survey, fish sampling techniques for collecting data on various fish, and what he hoped to gather from the survey. His objectives included sampling coolwater fisheries in the spring that included Walleye, Northern Pike, Bass, and Panfish. In the fall he will complete the survey by sampling coldwater fisheries that includes Lake Trout, Brown Trout, and Cisco. Below is the slide show presentation Bartz shared during the annual meeting. Results from the survey will be available late 2011 or early 2012.

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Fish Stocking in Big Green Lake

Every year 20,000 - 25,000 fish ranging from 7-8 months old, travel from various fish rearing facilities throughout Wisconsin and arriving to the Green Lake Fish Rearing Facility. This number is determined by the WI DNR and is based upon what the DNR thinks the lake and the fish rearing facility can support. In 2010, nearly 21,000 lake trout and 2,500 northern pike were stocked in Green Lake. Historically, brown trout have been a stocked fish species, but were not stocked in 2010 due to recent concerns of VHS, a deadly fish virus categorized as an aquatic invasive species. View all previous fish stocking data from 1972-2010.

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Vegetation Studies

Beginning in 1990, the WI DNR conducted eight plant surveys on Green Lake and Silver Creek with the latest being conducted in 2007. Plant surveys are useful because they can help estimate the frequency of occurrence of plants found in a water body. Read more about vegetation studies.

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