High Water Levels Destroying Protected Wetlands

Madison-area shoreline property owners are about to start a process with the DNR that the RKLD has already begun.

Our lake systems are too different to draw parallel lines, other than to say, yes, dams have and do change the ecosystem. And yes, home construction, road construction and municipal waste treatment facilities change the ecosystem.

But it is simply not an option to remove dams that have existed for 150+ years, where urban development has established itself; no one will agree to remove the Beltline, or other roads, no one will agree to remove their plumbing and return to pumps and outhouses - all in an effort to return to a pre-settlement era.

The wetlands are valuable - and they need to be armored.

In a few weeks, we will continue our research of Lake Koshkonong's wetlands and display the effects that the RKLD grants have had in rip-rapping those privately-owned wetlands.

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From Channel3000 - Madison

..."They're only floating because the dam or series of dams at Tenney Park back the water up into the Yahara River."

...Hefty said at least 7 feet of marsh shoreline disappears every year. He said a least a full square mile of it has gone since the first dam was put on Lake Mendota in the mid-1800s.

...Some experts would like to see the lake level lowered on Lake Mendota, which in turn would lower the level in Cherokee Marsh, WISC-TV reported.

"Anything we can do to lower the summertime levels will enhance the growth of the plants," said Hefty. "And it will also reduce the loss when we have flood events because if you start at a lower elevation you have more storage so it won't rise up as high."

...A request to raise the level of Lake Koshkonong in the 1980s is still being hashed out in court because of opposing sides, WISC-TV reported.