Aquatic Invasive Species (AIS)

Clean Boats, Clean Waters:

AIS STATE GRANT AWARDED! We will again be using UW Oshkosh Interns to monitor our boat landings this summer. The BFLA was able to get another AIS State grant to employ college interns as CBCW boat landing monitors for the summer of 2025. We also sincerely hope all of you will continue to volunteer as you have in the past and we eagerly welcome new boat landing monitors, since the hours spent at the boat landing are what keeps our lakes clean, beautiful and AIS free!

BOAT LANDING MONITORS NEEDED Thank you to our 2024 monitors who put in 155 hours at the boat landings! CBCW AIS boat landing monitoring is the most effective thing we can do to protect our lakes. We are now recruiting AIS monitors for summer 2025. Volunteering involves asking boaters a few questions, looking for weeds on boats and trailers, and filling out a simple form. We urge everyone to consider volunteering at the boat landings this summer - any amount of time you can donate is welcome. With more AIS growing in lakes surrounding Butternut and Franklin and beyond – monitoring our boat landings is critical!!

Your CBCW lake representatives are Mary Doden on Franklin Lake and Elise Riepenhoff on Butternut Lake. Please contact them to volunteer!!

BOAT LANDING MONITOR TRAINING The CBCW organization has requested that volunteers get retrained every 2 years. If you did not attend a training session last year, they would like you to be trained this year. There is an on-demand online option with FLOW (Forest, Langlade, Marinette, & Oconto Waterways) AIS. You can complete your CBCW certification or recertification at your own convenience. The training has two parts: 1) A one-hour YouTube training video, 2) 15 quiz questions after the video to complete your certification. The quiz portion of the training is open book and all questions need to be answered correctly in order to pass. You can take the quiz as many times as you would like. You will be able to see the results of your quiz right after the submission of you answers. Your information will be sent to Derek Thorn, Forest Co. AIS Coordinator, via email each time the test is taken. Derek will follow up with you within a couple of days. Online Training Link: https://forms.gle/9TU2vyjQBrXLZ5tf7

Click on the link below to read the Aquatic Invasive Species Education Handbook from the UW Extension Environmental Resources Center:

http://www.uwex.edu/erc/AquaInvHandbook.html

Species Information - Individual Species (Click on the Listings etc. for info) 

• Eurasian watermilfoil 

  • Listing of Wisconsin Waters and state map

• Curly-leaf pondweed 

  • Listing of Wisconsin Waters and state map

• Hydrilla (species page)

  • Jellyfish (Freshwater) Listing of Wisconsin Waters with Freshwater jellyfish (sorted by county)

• Mystery Snails 

  • • Chinese Listing of Wisconsin Waters with Chinese Mystery Snails (sorted by county)

  • Banded Listing of Wisconsin Waters with Banded Msytery Snails (sorted by county)

  • Phragmites (Giant Reed Grass) 

• Purple loosestrife

  • Map of regional distribution of Purple Loosestrife

• Rainbow Smelt

  • Listing of Wisconsin Waters with Rainbow Smelt (sorted by county)

  • Map of state-wide distribution

• Round goby (species page)

• Rusty crayfish 

  • Listing of Wisconsin Waters and state map

• Spiny waterflea 

  • Listing of Wisconsin Waters and state map

  • Viral Hemorrhagic Septicemia (VHS) 

    • Map showing state-wide VHS distribution and monitoring

• Zebra mussel 

  • Listing of Wisconsin Waters and state map

    • Smart Prevention zebra mussel lake suitability map 

• Wisconsin aquatic plants (Native & non-native)