PuckawayGreenLake Sept2017 Final - …

1 Lake Puckaway Green Lake & Marquette Counties, Wisconsin Comprehensive Management Plan September 2017 Sponsored by: Lake Puckaway Protection & Rehabilitation District WDNR Grant Program LPL-1560-15, LPL-1596-16, SPL-385-17 Lake Puckaway Green Lake & Marquette Counties, Wisconsin Comprehensive Management Plan September 2017 Created by: Tim Hoyman, Paul Garrison, Brenton Butterfield, Todd Hanke, & Emily Henrigillis Onterra, LLC De Pere, WI Funded by: Lake Puckaway Protection and Rehabilitation District. Wisconsin Dept. of Natural Resources (LPL-1560-15, LPL-1596-16, SPL-385-17) Acknowledgements This management planning effort was truly a team-based project and could not have been completed without the input of the following individuals: Lake Puckaway Protection & Rehabilitation District Planning Committee Paul Gettelman* Jeff Kimber*Mick Masters Kurt McCulloch* Randy SchmidtRoger Swanke* Gene Weber* Brian Zimmermann*LPPRD Board of Commissioners member Lake Puckaway Protection & Rehabilitation District Phil Malsack Adam Malsack Green Lake County Land Conservation Department Derek Kavanaugh Krista Kamke Wisconsin Dept.

2 Of Natural Resources Ted Johnson Dave BartzKeith MarquardtDave Bolha Lake Puckaway Comprehensive Management Plan 1 Document Information TABLE OF CONTENTS Executive Summary .. 4 Introduction .. 10 Stakeholder Participation .. 13 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION .. 20 Lake Water Quality .. 20 Watershed Assessment .. 41 Shoreland Condition .. 46 Aquatic Plants .. 54 Aquatic Invasive Species in Lake Puckaway .. 84 Fisheries Data Integration .. 86 Lake Puckaway Wave and Sediment Resuspension .. 95 Implementation Plan .. 97 112 Literature Cited .. 116 FIGURES Select survey responses from the Lake Puckaway Stakeholder Survey .. 17 Select survey responses from the Lake Puckaway Stakeholder Survey, continued .. 18 Wisconsin Lake Natural Communities .. 24 Location of Lake Puckaway within the ecoregions of Wisconsin .. 24 Lake Puckaway weighted average growing season and summer near-surface total phosphorus concentrations measured from the Deep Hole station in the West Basin and the East Mid-Basin.

3 26 Lake Puckaway weighted average growing season and summer near-surface total phosphorus concentrations .. 27 Lake Puckaway weighted average growing season and summer near-surface chlorophyll-a concentrations measured from the Deep Hole station in the West Basin and the East Mid-Basin .. 29 Lake Puckaway weighted average growing season and summer near-surface chlorophyll-a concentrations .. 30 Lake Puckaway weighted average growing season and summer Secchi disk transparency depths measured from the Deep Hole station in the West Basin and the East Mid-Basin .. 31 Lake Puckaway weighted average Trophic State Index values measured from the Deep Hole Station in the West Basin and the East Mid-Basin .. 33 Comparison of total phosphorus, chlorophyll-a, and Secchi disk transparency in the Fox and Grand rivers above the entrance into Lake Puckaway, the lake itself, and values measured at the lake s outlet during the period 2011-14.

4 34 Internal loading in Lake Puckaway as calculated from the difference between the amount of total phosphorus entering the lake from the Grand and Fox rivers and the amount leaving the lake .. 35 Lake Puckaway Deep Hole 2015-2017 temperature and dissolved oxygen profiles ..37 Lake Puckaway East Mid-Basin 2015-2017 temperature and dissolved oxygen profiles .. 38 Stakeholder survey response Question #14 .. 40 Stakeholder survey response Question #15 .. 40 Map of the subwatersheds of Lake Puckaway .. 43 Lake Puckaway land cover types .. 43 Lake Puckaway Protection 2 & Rehabilitation District Document Information Lake Puckaway estimated potential annual phosphorus loading.

5 44 Lake Puckaway Shoreline Survey .. 53 Spread of Eurasian watermilfoil within WI counties .. 67 Lake Puckaway proportion of substrate types .. 68 Lake Puckaway relative frequency of vegetation across water depth .. 70 Lake Puckaway 2015 aquatic vegetation total rake fullness (TRF) ratings .. 70 Lake Puckaway 2015 littoral frequency of occurrence of aquatic plant species .. 77 Littoral occurrence of aquatic vegetation in Lake Puckaway in 2005, 2014, and 2015 .. 73 Littoral frequency of occurrence of select aquatic plant species in Lake Puckaway from 2005, 2014, and 2015 .. 74 Lake Puckaway 2005, 2014, and 2015 Floristic Quality Assessment .. 76 Lake Puckaway 2005, 2014, and 2015 aquatic plant community Simpson s Diversity Index .. 77 Lake Puckaway 2015 hybrid watermilfoil locations .. 79 Lake Puckaway 2015 curly-leaf pondweed locations .. 80 Lake Puckaway 2015 brittle naiad locations .. 81 Stakeholder survey response Question #25.

6 83 Stakeholder survey response Question #20 .. 85 Stakeholder survey response Question #10 .. 86 Stakeholder survey response Question #11 .. 86 Aquatic food chain .. 87 Wisconsin statewide safe fish consumption guidelines .. 93 Wind direction count near Lake Puckaway during open water season from 2011 to 2015 .. 95 Modeled wavelength on Lake Puckaway based upon northeast wind at 5, 10 and 15 mph .. 96 Sediment resuspension probability in Lake Puckaway during the 2015 open water season .. 96 Aquatic plant occurrences in Lake Puckaway during 2015 point-intercept survey .. 105 Estimated bottom sediment exposure and remaining water depths during a water level reduction on Lake Puckaway .. 106 Predicted plant occurrence following a successful water level reduction sequence in Lake Puckaway .. 106 Relationship between Fox River flow measured at Berlin and Princeton .. 114 Relationship between Fox River flow at Princeton and lake level in Lake Puckaway at Fish Camp.

7 115 TABLES Lake Puckaway 2016 informational and planning meetings .. 14 Mean summer values from both open water stations .. 32 Area of subwatersheds to Lake Puckaway .. 42 Aquatic plant species located in Lake Puckaway during 2005, 2014, and 2015 aquatic plant surveys .. 69 Lake Puckaway 2015 acres of emergent and floating-leaf aquatic plant communities .. 78 AIS present within Lake Puckaway .. 84 Gamefish present in Lake Puckaway with corresponding biological information .. 88 LPPRD Walleye Hatchery summary 2010-2016 .. 89 Stocking data available from the WDNR from 1983 to 2015 .. 90 Lake Puckaway Comprehensive Management Plan 3 Document Information Walleye stocking data available from the WDNR from 1980 to 2015 .. 91 PHOTOS Lake Puckaway, Green Lake-Marquette Counties .. 12 Example of coarse woody habitat in a lake .. 49 Example of a biolog restoration site .. 50 Example of emergent and floating-leaf communities.

8 54 Example of aquatic plants that have been removed manually .. 56 Mechanical harvester .. 58 Granular herbicide application .. 59 American lotus (Nelumbo lutea) colony in Lake Puckaway .. 72 Eurasian watermilfoil, a non-native, invasive aquatic plant .. 78 Curly-leaf pondweed and presumed curly-leaf X white-stem pondweed hybrid .. 80 Brittle naiad (Najas minor), a non-native, invasive aquatic plant .. 81 MAPS 1. Project Location and Sampling Information .. Inserted Before Appendices 2. Watershed Boundaries and Land Cover Types .. Inserted Before Appendices 3. 2015 Point-intercept Survey: Substrate Types .. Inserted Before Appendices 4. 2015 Point-intercept Survey: Vegetation Distribution .. Inserted Before Appendices 5. 2015 Community Map Survey Results - West .. Inserted Before Appendices 6. 2015 Community Map Survey Results - East .. Inserted Before Appendices 7. August 2015 EWM Results .. Inserted Before Appendices 8. June 2015 CLP Results.

9 Inserted Before Appendices 9. August 2015 Brittle Naiad Results .. Inserted Before Appendices APPENDICES A. Lake Puckaway Issues Assessment, L Stoll Consulting B. Stakeholder Participation Materials C. Planning-Information Meeting Materials D. Stakeholder Survey Results E. Water Quality Data F. Watershed WiLMS Results G. Aquatic Plant Survey Data H. March 2017 Draft: Public & Agency Comments and Responses I. 2017 Public Information Meeting Lake Puckaway Protection 4 & Rehabilitation District Executive Summary EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The design of this project was intended to fulfill three objectives: 1) Collect current and compile historical information regarding the Lake Puckaway ecosystem.

10 2) Utilize the information to raise the overall understanding of the system among district members, its board of commissioners, and agency staff. 3) Develop a comprehensive management plan for Lake Puckaway aimed at increasing the overall health of the lake for future generations. Lake Puckaway is a very complicated system. Add in the fact that it is a very large lake with a vast watershed draining to it and the complication compounds. This section summarizes the findings of the studies completed on Lake Puckaway and the conclusions drawn from them. While it is a good source of basic information, to fully understand Lake Puckaway, the sections in the main document above should also be read. The water quality data collected as a part of this project and earlier studies indicate that Lake Puckaway is a hypereutrophic (overly productive) system with high nutrient and algal levels and low water clarity. While there is a high degree of variability between years and within a year with these parameters, on average they are typically considered to be poor when compared to other lakes in the state and ecoregion.