2023
Aug 15
Action on the river. Cindy and Di pulled a new patch on the river closer to Lake of the Falls. Steve spent 4 hours alone, 4 large bags, at very large patch on the river. The CLP at Weber Creek has rebounded.
Aug 7,8
Crews with Iron County and the Turtle River Volunteers worked on the river. The river was heavily infested and needs more work.
Aug 4
Nine people worked on the lake. Two areas had minimal CLP. Weber Creek had a lot, about 3 bushels.
July 4
Steve organized the Turtle River Volunteers for a Pike Lake effort on Independence Day morning. A lot of CLP, especially from the Weber Creek patch. 12 total volunteers.
June 14
Pike Lake. Zach and his crew, and Turtle River Volunteers from across the watershed converged on Pike Lake and addressed all known patches in the lake and upriver to the rapids.
June 12-13
Zach led river trips upstream of the Arrowhead bridge, and downstream to the rapids. At some spots there was some regrowth, but in general patches were small. This may be due to the early season, but also our efforts are paying off.
June 6
Steve pulled CLP in front of the “suicide stairs” on Pike Lake. (South shore between Mendro’s and Tip Top. This patch has grown substantially.
June 4
More CLP was pulled from Weber Creek
June 3
Steve paddled upriver and pulled CLP. Found and pulled a new patch in front of Ruggers.
May 31-June 11
Great Pondweed Pull at Rice Lake.
May 29
Steve, Jeff and Sarah pulled CLP at Weber Creek
May 25
Steve Anderson marked 3 patches at Weber Creek with bobbers.
2022
Oct 2
Steve Anderson: 8 people with four boats and one canoe tackled the CLP at Weber Creek. These 8 people are part of the new response team. (If you want to be part of the CLP response team, let me know).
Sarah and Jeff Bradley, Dan Gossen, Charlie Schuler and me from Pike Lake. Pat and Dave Anderson from Lake of the Falls and Karen Lauer from Third Black Lake were there. We pulled a tremendous amount of CLP. This is a critical spot because it’s so close to the outlet and because the west wind blows turions across the lake. It was the most successful event of the entire summer. I’m very gratified at the great response from volunteers. Pictures are on the Pike Lake Pikers Facebook group.
Sept 24
Today two members of our weed pulling team (both from Lake of the Falls) tackled what we thought was a relatively small outbreak of CLP near the river outlet by Ruggers.
It was not small.
The river is in trouble. And these new “patches” are a concern.
Aug 31
Cindy Moriarity: I paddled upriver from LOTF to Pike yesterday and unfortunately discovered two areas where clp was growing downstream of Pike Lake. I’m attaching a map with the locations. I pulled as many plants as I could find, but the little spring-fed pond at the eastern end is full of all kinds of plants and is very mucky, so I probably missed some there. The western spot was clear and easy to reach, and I think I may have gotten everything that was there, including roots. I tore a strip off of my gray bandanna and tied it to a tree to mark the spot. Di and I plan to go up there next week and check it again.
Bad news, I know, but I also saw a couple of otters, a noisy green heron, and there were a dozen little bluegills at the western location who were very curious about what I was doing in their river! So it was a nice day for a paddle.
Cindy
Aug 30
Today Dan Gossan and Steve Anderson worked on the river from the rapids down. At the turn of the river by highway 51 there was a huge infestation. This was a spot we’ve missed and the amount of CLP in that spot shows what happens when CLP is left to grow.
Aug 25
Turtle River trip to complete Turtle River to Pike Lake. Steve Anderson, Dan Gossen, Cindy Moriarity (LOTF), Diane Schuett (LOTF).
Aug 20
Steve Anderson pulled regrowth CLP near Ruggers, and on the south side of Pike Lake.
Aug 15
River trip downstream from Arrowhead bridge. Steve Anderson, Duane Silkworth, Dan Gossen from Pike Lake, and Cindi Moriarity, Diane Schuett, Dave and Pat Anderson from LOTF. Found and pulled plenty of regrowth. Did not cover the whole stretch.
August 9
Zach Wilson led a trip upstream from the Arrowhead bridge. 8 people found a lot of CLP.
August
Steve Anderson regularly patrolled and pulled CLP in Pike Lake. Weber creek has gotten a great many hours of attention this summer and has been the worst spot.
July 25
Steve Anderson. Pulled CLP across from the river landing in a canoe with a rake. Pulled everything I could find, (and looked pretty carefully.) But, I found a new patch along Rugger’s shoreline about 75 yards from the lake. It was in 3’-4’ of water. Sizable plants, about 20. I pulled all of that and paddled back and forth over the area many times to see if any was missed. Rugger gave me an orange plastic sack which I used to mark the spot.
July 23
Steve Anderson and Duane Silkworth pulled CLP with snorkel and mask at all known Pike Lake hotspots. A moderate number of mostly plants were pulled, but all spots had less CLP than at other times. No spot has been totally cleared yet, but we think significant progress is being made.
July 21
Steve Anderson and Cindy Moriarty pulled weeds near Weber Creek as a follow-up to July 14, for about 2 hours.
July 14
Cindy Moriarity from LOTF Surveyed Turtle river between Lake of the Falls and Pike Lake, did not find anything troublesome. Pulled CLP in Pike Lake at Weber Creek inlet for a couple of hours.
July
Steve Anderson patrolled often for CLP by Kayak, and pulled CLP by rake and snorkel with Kathy Anderson.
July 7
Iron County ICLWCD pulled CLP and surveyed Turtle River and South Bay of Rice Lake.
June 29
Iron County ICLWCD pulled CLP and surveyed Pike Lake.
June 28
Steve Anderson and Duane Silkworth emptied and removed the CLP catch nets at Arrowhead Resort. Minimal CLP found. Last year, the nets caught huge amounts of CLP. Last year, the channel upstream of the south bay was heavily raked. This year, little CLP was found in that channel and it was not raked.
June 20-24
With a $2500 donation from The Turtle-Flambeau Flowage and Trude Lake Property Owner’s Association (TFFTL-POA), personnel from the Discovery Center were hired to pull CLP in the south outlet bay of Rice Lake, part of the the Pike Lake/Turtle River grant area.
June 10
Duane Silkworth emptied CLP catch nets. Very little CLP found.
June 8
Zach Wilson and Iron County Crew performed Survey on Pike Lake. Steve and Kathy Anderson, Dave and Pat Anderson from LOTF, Cindy Moriarity from LOTF, and Duane Silkworth pulled CLP by rake and hand in Pike Lake.
June 6,7
Zach Wilson led Iron County and volunteer crew on river between Arrowhead Bridge and Pike Lake, and between Arrowhead Bridge and Rice Lake.
May 31-June10
Rice Lake Great CLP Pull. https://www.ricelakeassociation.org/
Over the two week period, over 1000 bags of CLP were gathered. This was an estimated 35,000 lbs.
May
Duane Silkworth, Steve Anderson, Charlie Schuler, Charlie’s son-in-law, grandson Rowan and friend assembled and installed CLP catch nets across Rice Lake/Turtle River outlet at Arrowhead Resort. We have 5 25 foot seines, but installed only 3. This year we added 5′ pool noodles as floats and 5′ rebar as weights.
2021
August 28
Steve and Kathy Anderson pulled CLP at two Pike Lake hotspots.
August 25 Iron County crew on Turtle River
Upstream from the river landing, all of the locations where pulled earlier looked good.
August 24 Iron County crew on Turtle River
Found lots of small CLP Plants at the net location, the rapids at the outlet from Rice Lake. Highlighting the importance of keeping the catch nets in place.
August 19
Greg Greene and Steve Anderson went out early and worked around the Mendro pier. We were probably in the water a little over an hour. We found a few plants in shallow water, but found most of it in 5’-6’ water off the corner of the pier.
We then spent a short amount of time in the area marked off with floating jugs. We found small plants growing up from rhizomes which were missed the last time. We briefly looked over the outlet, and only found and pulled one small plant. Most of what’s being pulled now are small plants. They’re growing up from rhizomes along the bottom.
There is no question that we’ve pulled lots of plants from pike lake this summer. It’s been a process of pulling, rechecking, going back and pulling what was missed, checking again. Each time we go back, there is less to pull. I think these areas would have been thickly populated with CLP without the work done since June 1. There is no doubt that there are plants we’ve missed, but we’ve definitely had an impact.
August 19
Earlier in the week, Charlie Schuler and Steve Anderson went to the hotspot at the outlet and pulled a good amount of CLP. Some of it mixed in with other plants, most of it along the drop off.
August 19
Christina Kunda took her daughter out and showed her how to identify CLP and they found and pulled a small amount between the Gronen and Willis piers. This area is in really good shape right now.
August 1
Paul Krebsbach and Steve Anderson pulled significant amounts of CLP from relatively deep water along the shoreline between the Mendro and Klatt piers. This area has CLP which is in fairly deep water. This is the largest site.
July 29
Duane and Bob Kary cleaned out the nets again and removed them. This summer, the nets successfully captured a lot of CLP which was flowing down from Rice Lake after their work.
July 25 Diving for CLP
Steve Anderson posted a video on Facebook of diving for CLP. BTW. Diving is not required 
You can also pull with a rake. In this case it was a good way to get the root.
July 23
(Mary Gronen) We pulled 4 CLP plants that we could see this weekend.
July 21 CLP Pull on Pike Lake
Zach Wilson and Steve Anderson led a CLP pull on Pike Lake with the Iron County Interns, volunteers from Lake of the Falls.
July 18 CLP Orientation
Steve Anderson met with the Kundas, showed how to identify and pull CLP.
Christina and I took a tour of the CLP hot spots and stopped at the spot between Gronen’s and Willis’s piers where we found 7 or 8 CLP plants which we pulled. We also saw, unfortunately, a nasty outbreak at the outlet hot spot.
July 16
7/16 Zach and his crew emptied the nets at Arrowhead.
July 13 CLP Pull on Turtle River
Zach Wilson led a major CLP pull on the Turtle River between Arrowhead bridge and Pike Lake. More CLP was found than was expected:-( But we did a very thorough job of removing it. None is being found around the boat landing at Ruggers, fortunately.
July 10, 11 CLP Pull
Steve Anderson pulled close to 100 CLP plants in the hotspot between Paul’s Point and the TipTop. Many were 2″-3″ linked by rhizomes. Other were 12-15″.
Steve met with the Gronens at their pier, showed how to identify and pull them.
July 6 Iron County on Turtle River
Iron County LTEs rechecked about a mile of the river and found that some of the CLP had grown back. A return trip is planned for later this week.
July 2 Catch Nets
Duane Silkworth and Steve Anderson cleaned out the nets which are stretched across the river by Rice Lake. The nets continue to trap CLP pulled/dislodged in Rice lake.
July 1 CLP Pull
Duane Silkworth and Steve Anderson checked the CLP sites. We spent several hours at two of them. Duane, using a snorkel and mask, pulled lots of small plants which seem to have regrown after being pulled by rakes. At the site near the outlet we found several plants and pulled them up by rake.
June 15 Post-treatment Survey
White Water Associates performed a post-treatment survey of the Pike Lake and the Turtle River project area. Two Pike Lake sites were clear, a few additional plants were found at the third. White Water found two new patches of around 25 plants near the Weber Creek outlet and the shore of the nearby island.
June 14 Catch Nets
Duane Silkworth, Steve Anderson, Charles Schuler and his grandson Rowan emptied 5 half-bags of CLP and other plants from the nets.
June 12 Catch Nets
Duane Silkworth visited the catch nets through Arrowhead Resort, and emptied 3 over-full bags of CLP.
June 11 Major Pulling Effort Completes on Rice Lake
As of noon today (June 9) approximately 1,600-50 pound bags of the plant have been removed. That is about 40 tons or 118 cubic yards.
June 9 Catch Nets
Duane Silkworth visited the south bay and outlet of Rice Lake by canoe, installed 3 more nets. emptied the catch nets of 1 and a half bags of CLP, and collected another bag of CLP of floating plants and fragments dislodged by the Rice Lake major pull.
June 6, Iron County at Pike Lake
Zach Wilson and his staff of 4 LTEs surveyed the Pike Lake sites, and pulled additional plants, with Steve Anderson.
June 5 Pulling Session on Pike Lake
Steve and Kathy Anderson, Duane and Cyndy Silkworth pulled a substantial amount of CLP at all 3 Pike Lake sites.
June 3 Pulling Session on outlet bay of Rice Lake
Zach Wilson, 4 Iron County LTEs, Duane Silkworth, Diane Okrongly pulled CLP from the south bay of Rice Lake.
June 2 Pulling Session on Turtle River upstream of Arrowhead Bridge to Rice Lake outlet
Zach Wilson, 4 Iron County LTEs, Diane Okrongly from TFF, pulled CLP from the river and south bay of Rice Lake and emptied the catch nets.
June 1 Pulling Session on Turtle River Downstream of Arrowhead Bridge to Pike Lake
Zach Wilson, 4 Iron County LTEs, Steve Anderson, Duane Silkworth, x from TFF, Cindy Moriarty and Deb Shuett from LOTF, surveyed the river, visited all known current and previous sites. Pulled about 4 bags of CLP.
June 1 Major CLP pulling effort begins on Rice Lake
Rice Lake has deployed paid and volunteer weed pullers on Rice lake. a dozen people, 8 hrs x 9days.
May 29 Installed catch seines at outlet of Rice Lake
Duane Silkworth and Bob Kary installed 40 feet of 1/4″ seine nets upstream of the Rice Lake outlet, to catch CLP fragments and turions before they reach the river, especially as the major pull occurs on Rice Lake. While installing the nets, we observed and captured numerous CLP fragments drifting into the river, likely cut loose by Rice Lake boat traffic. These nets span about half the channel width. Plan to monitor, empty fragments caught, and to add more net.
May 24-27 Pre-Treatment Survey
(Zach Wilson) The Whitewater survey team has finished their survey of the Turtle River and Pike Lake. Pike lake still has CLP in the same locations as 2020 but again it did not show up near Ruggers. The river also looks better thanks to our hand pulling efforts. Web Map
2020
2020 Year 1 Report
August 2020
Zach Wilson and Steve Anderson visited all 3 pike lake sites, and pulled a substantial amount of new CLP, especially from site Pike Lake 1.
July 14 2020
Duane Silkworth and nephew Andy Kirk visited site Pike Lake CLP-2, and pulled several new plants by snorkeling and rakes. This is rocky bottom, with rhizomes embedded in crevices and under rocks, and is difficult to pull cleanly.
July 7 Pulling session from Arrowhead Bridge to Pike Lake
Sam Kresbach, Cindy Moriarity, Duane Silkworth
June 26 Post-treatment Survey
On June 26, White Water Associates conducted a post-treatment survey for Pike Lake and the river, and provided recommendations for continued return visits.
June 4-6 Rice Lake Association and ICLRA
A couple dozen Volunteers organized by ICLRA and Rice lake pulled and surveyed CLP on Rice lake, over 3 days. A large dump trailer full of CLP was collected and discarded, primarily from a single site.
Three Pike Lake volunteers, Andy Lorsung, Duane and Cyndy Silkworth pulled some CLP from the outlet bay during the first day of this session 6/6.
June 2020 Treatment
June 30 Pulling on Pike Lake, sited CLP-2 to 4
Steve Anderson, Duane Silkworth
June 12 Pulling session from arrowhead bridge upstream to Rice Lake
Zach Wilson, Sam Krebsbach, Duane Silkworth, Diane and Jeff Okrongly, Cyndy Moriarity.
June 9,10 Pulling Session from Arrowhead Bridge downstream to Pike Lake
Zach Wilson, Sam Krebsbach, Cindy and Mike Moriarity, Steve and Kathy Anderson, . . .
June 8, Pulling Session on Pike Lake
Zach Wilson, Sam Krebsbch, Steve Anderson, Dan Gossen, …
June 2020 Coarse Woody Habitat Survey
5/28-6/8, By Iron County Land and Water Conservation Dept (Heather Palmquist, Zach Wilson, Sam Krebsbach)
June 2020 Pre-Treatment Survey
CLP in Pike Lake and the Turtle River, June 2020
Whitewater Associates performed a pre-treatment survey of CLP locations on Pike Lake and the Turtle River in early June 2020.
A table in PDF format of all CLP documented along with notes and other information as well as some summary comments.
- Four map photos of the CLP finds with labels corresponding to the table.
- pike_lake1.jpg – Pike Lake area (wide)
- pike_lake2.jpg – Area east of Pike Lake (zoomed in, some overlap with 1)
- pike_lake3.jpg – Turtle River midsection (wide)
- pike_lake4.jpg – Area east of Turtle River midsection (zoomed in, some overlap with 3)
2019
In September of 2019, Zach Wilson the Iron County AIS Coordinator and Bob Kary, the president of Rice Lake Association, hosted a presentation at Ruggers Landing to alert Pike Lake people of the threat of Curly Leaf Pondweed in Rice Lake, the Turtle River, and Pike Lake.
CLP in the Turtle River and Rice Lake, 2019