RLIA Aims to Please

Were you one of the many who passed by as a homeowner was “watering the lake” recently?  The watering, in fact, started the day after RLIA’s annual meeting, at which the proliferation of motor-clogging weeds was the most popular topic for discussion.  The low level of Rock Lake was cited as the main culprit in the plot against your motors.  Is your RLIA on the ball, or what?  The very next day a board member got out her garden hose and sprayed water across Highway B to the lake.  Are you impressed with RLIA’s dedication to pleasing its members? 

If only it were that easy to increase the lake level!  Everyone is aware of the drought that has caused all waterways to be at a low level.  There is no intake for Rock Lake that can be controlled, since the water in the lake comes from small streams, run-off, and springs.  Only the water going out is controlled and the dam is not now letting water out, of course.  With water level this low, Eurasian waterfoil (Ewm), the aquatic plant that deserves to be called a weed, is closer to the surface, its dense growth causing more problems usual.  And there are no easy solutions for controlling Ewm.  It’s a complicated problem that can be exacerbated by some treatments.  A writer to a Madison paper noted that after weed harvesters went through, his shoreline was bombarded with pieces of cut-up weeds.  His solution was to throw them back into the lake.  Ai-yah!!  (the all-purpose expletive popular in Hong Kong—in this case used to express despair and disbelief)  Every little cut piece of Ewm has the potential to root in the lake.  Think of that every time your motor goes through a patch of it.

OK, here’s the real story of the lake watering: new seeds and plants had been planted along the shoreline, too small an area to sacrifice a hose by sprinkling with the hose placed on the road under the killer wheels of big trucks.   It’s still true, though, that RLIA does want to respond to its members’ concerns.  Use snail mail, the website, or personal contact to get in touch with us.

Making Waves

Sept. 9, 2003

Johanna Chworowsky