Volunteers needed to monitor health of Rock County streams

Volunteers needed to monitor health of Rock County streams

Anna Marie Lux
May 28, 2014

Jennifer Du Puis/jdupuis@gazette
Chuck Heidt, a Water Action Volunteer, measures the cloudiness of Turtle Creek in Beloit after a heavy rainfall Wednesday. Heidt has been a part of WAV for 12 years.

IF YOU GO


What: Free volunteer training to become a stream monitor


When: 9 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., Saturday, May 31.


Where: Turtle Creek Parkway, 6528 S. Smith Road, Clinton.


Details: Pre-registration is required. Call Nancy Sheehan, Rock River Coalition stream monitoring coordinator, at 608-515-9434 or email nancy@rockrivercoalition.org.


For information on Rock River Coalition, visit rockrivercoalition.org.


For information on stream monitoring, visit http://watermonitoring.uwex.edu/wav/monitoring.




ROCK COUNTY--Chuck Heidt doesn't mind getting his feet wet, especially if it ensures good fishing for smallmouth bass.

He samples water from Turtle Creek in Beloit monthly from April through October.

Chuck is not with the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources. Nor is he a biologist. He is a volunteer who has monitored the creek for 12 years.

“I fish throughout the state,” Chuck said. “That's part of my interest in water quality.”

Chuck measures important elements of stream health including temperature, water clarity and dissolved oxygen.

Sound interesting?

Three agencies are hosting a workshop Saturday at Turtle Creek Parkway, Clinton, for people who want to learn how to monitor streams.

Volunteers will become part of an important statewide network.

“There has been a large budget cut with the DNR for the whole Rock River Basin,” said Nancy Sheehan of the nonprofit Rock River Coalition. “We only have two stream biologists to monitor more than 2,000 miles of tributaries. This is why we really need citizens to get involved.”

The coalition's mission is to educate and to provide opportunities for people to improve the river basin.

Sheehan coordinates volunteer stream monitoring. She shows people how to use equipment provided by the coalition. She also teaches them how to determine water quality by identifying insects in a stream.

The coalition and Rock County Land Conservation and Rock County Parks departments organize the workshop, which is open to anyone who cares about clean water.

“The work is important,” said Anne Miller of the land conservation department. “Streams need people to care about what happens in watersheds and to keep them healthy.”

The river basin has five active teams of citizen monitors, she said.

More are needed to provide accurate and long-term information.

Volunteers can choose a stream based on personal interest or proximity to their homes. They also can have them assigned. Monitors are needed on Fisher Creek in Rockport Park, Otter Creek on Vickerman Road and the west branch of Raccoon Creek in Beckman Mill County Park, Sheehan said.

“We have sites that have been previously monitored by volunteers,” she explained. “When trying to determine trends in water quality, it's nice to have 10 years of data.”

Volunteers enter information into an online database. Anyone with web access can view the data by county, stream or site name.

The DNR is notified if a stream shows a decline in water quality.

“If oxygen ratings are low, for example, I contact stream biologists,” Sheehan said.

She encourages people to get involved.

“By returning to one site, you become an expert about that stream,” Sheehan said. “You also fall in love with a place and become a true advocate for it.”

- See more at: http://www.gazettextra.com/article/20140528/ARTICLES/140529725/1059#sthash.mFJxBWuc.dpuf

Sprinkles to buckets: Farm fields welcomed rain

Tuesday's hit or miss storms delivered 1.65 inches of rain at the Janesville Wastewater Treatment Plant while the National Weather Service reported readings of only 0.05 inches in Milton and 0.5 inches at Beloit College.

Arch Morton Jr. was starting to get a little worried when recent rains kept missing his farm fields southeast of Janesville. Then Mother Nature dropped 3.5 inches of rain on his farm Tuesday.

By Gina Duwe

JANESVILLE--Arch Morton Jr. was starting to get a little worried when recent rains kept missing his farm fields southeast of Janesville.

Then Mother Nature dropped 3.5 inches of rain on his farm Tuesday.

“It's really good timing to get a good rain right now,” he said.

He finished planting soybeans Friday.

“It's really going to help those come up—not only to get going but to come up,” said Morton, who farms corn, soybeans, alfalfa and winter wheat in the towns of La Prairie and Harmony. “The ground was starting to get dry.”

Tuesday's hit or miss storms delivered 1.65 inches of rain at the Janesville Wastewater Treatment Plant while the National Weather Service reported readings of only 0.05 inches in Milton and 0.5 inches at Beloit College.

Morton's neighbor got 4 inches while a neighbor two miles away only got 2 inches, he said.

“It's very common in summer thunderstorms that some people get a lot of rain if they're right under the cell but places even a mile or two away don't get nearly that much,” said Bob McMahon, meteorologist at the National Weather Service in Sullivan.

Parts of Dane and Rock counties saw more than a couple inches of rain while the Dane County Regional Airport's 1.46 inches set a record for the day, McMahon said. Walworth County reports ranged from 0.23 inches in Delavan to .03 inches in Elkhorn and Lake Geneva.

Precipitation in the Madison area was only slightly below normal before the storms, McMahon said. The 11.75 inches for the year is 0.43 inches above normal, he said.

“With the cold weather and the frost being in the ground, farmers want to work the fields,” he said. “If you have crops in, rain is good. If you haven't gotten them in and the fields are wet, you can't work them, and that's not good.”

The showers left some standing water in Morton's fields, and it was still too wet for him to check out Wednesday, he said.

Pleasant, sunny weather over the next few days will help dry any standing water in fields, McMahon said. The forecast calls for a high of 77 today and the low 80s Friday and Saturday, with no rain until Saturday night or Sunday.

The timing of Tuesday's showers was key, Morton said. Before the rain, the extended forecast didn't look promising, he said.

“For most everybody, they'll say it was a really good rain,” he said.

Farmers are better off getting an inch of rain, then more a few days later, he said.

“But you can't always get it exactly when you want it,” he said.

Grab a Bucket

Lake Level - 778.68

We need to drain 2 3/4 inches per day to get below the 778.00 Trigger by the weekend.

Any Predictions?

Memorial Day - Remember the Reason

Thank you Vets!

Thank A Vet This Weekend

Memorial Day, an American holiday observed on the last Monday of May, honors men and women who died while serving in the U.S. military. Originally known as Decoration Day, it originated in the years following the Civil War and became an official federal holiday in 1971. Many Americans observe Memorial Day by visiting cemeteries or memorials, holding family gatherings and participating in parades. Unofficially, at least, it marks the beginning of summer.

Happy Memorial Day Weekend!

maybe next weekend below SNW trigger of 778.00

High water forces Aqua Jays to cancel May 25-26 water ski shows

JANESVILLE—High water on the Rock River means no Rock Aqua Jays water ski shows Sunday and Monday.

The club's first show of the 2014 season was scheduled for 7 p.m. Sunday. A 1 p.m. Memorial Day show also was planned.

Both are canceled.

President Tim Cullen said it is not practical or safe for the skiers to be on the water.

Show Director Aaron Schoelzel will evaluate the situation Monday and decide if the show schedule will resume Wednesday.

Biweekly shows are at 7 p.m. through Aug. 6. Shows start at 6:30 p.m. starting Aug. 13.

Shipwrecked Cove Opens This Weekend (Not sure I like this name for Newville)

Lake Has Crested (Again)

Yesterday = 779.63
Today = 779.57

However We are STILL 3+ feet OVER DNR Summer MAX Lake Level Mandate.

Expect Memorial Day Weekend to be SNW on the Rock River.

Lake Koshkonong will be Full Speed.

Despite heavy rain to the north, only minor flooding expected along Rock River

Despite heavy rain to the north, only minor flooding expected along Rock River

By Neil Johnson
May 13, 2014
JANESVILLE—Widespread, gully-washing rains on Monday dumped between 2 and 6 inches of rain into the Rock River basin, but weather forecasters expect only minor river flooding in Rock County.

On Tuesday, river gauges on the Rock River at Afton and Lake Koshkonong showed water levels within 6 inches of reaching minor flood stage. Forecasters expect the river to peak Friday at 9.1 feet at Afton and 10.3 feet at Lake Koshkonong.

That means low-lying farm fields along the river likely will get swamped with floodwaters.

More rain is expected later this week, but unless the area sees continued heavy rainfall, forecasters say it's unlikely flooding this spring could approach anything close to floods of 2008 and 2013.

According to National Weather Service data, Rock County had 2.3 inches of rain Tuesday. Areas along the Rock River farther north, such as Watertown, saw nearly 6 inches of rain.

All that water is moving downhill toward Rock County, but Rudy Schaar, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service's Sullivan office, said the Rock River can mostly handle it.

“We were lucky. The river has been on the high side, but it was mostly within its banks before the Tuesday rain event started,” Schaar said.

He said rains expected later this week are factored into the predicted crest later this week.

“If we get the next round (of rain) that's predicted on Thursday, if we get some thunderstorms that cause a few more gully washers in the basin, it could get more significant, but right now, it's nothing major,” he said.

Rock County residents have been getting accustomed to the annual threat of floods.

In April and May 2013, Rock County had 13 inches of rain, most of which happened in a span of about two weeks in early April. That caused major flooding in Rock County, where floodwaters on the Rock River reached 11.5 feet at Lake Koshkonong and Afton.

So far this spring, Rock County has only seen about half that amount of rainfall.

In 2008, when the Rock River surged to a record high 13.5 feet at Afton, 21 inches of rain fell between April and June. That came after a winter during which the area recorded 84 inches of snowfall.

“That year, the snow melted rapidly. Then, there was a very wet spring and early summer. Basically, the whole area started out as very saturated, and river levels were high to start with. There was no place for the water to go," Schaar said.

This past winter, Rock County had 60 inches of snow, but Schaar said the snow melted much more slowly.

Rock County Chief Deputy Barb Tillman said the sheriff's office plans to have patrols monitoring river levels every day this week.  

“You look at past history of flooding, but you have to go out and look in the field to get firsthand knowledge,” she said.

Weather patterns may be different every spring, Tillman said, but what doesn't change is the fact that water runs downhill.

“We're kind of watching Jefferson County to see how (heavier rains there) could impact Rock County,” she said.

Tillman said the sheriff's office emergency management department has planned to meet with officials in the town of Milton, town of Fulton and Afton on Wednesday to form a plan in case any areas along the river need sandbagging.

“As it stands, we're in good shape. We've got a supply of sandbags on hand, and we're working with the town chairs to make sure we can meet all their needs,” Tillman said.

Water Level Dropping Slowly

Lake Level 779.02

A drop of 4 1/2 inches since May 1st.

New ordinance means changes for Rock River boaters - Jun 2013