Tomahawk Lake Association, Inc. Wisconsin

“The fisherman placed the truck into reverse and began to back the trailer down the ramp, just as he had done a hundred times before. Only last night he had pulled his 18 foot Lund “fisherman” out at Green Bay, and began the long journey northward in search of Oneida County walleyes. But now, as the boat and trailer slipped backward into the cool waters of the pristine northern lake, a hitch hiker, riding along between the trailer bunk and the bottom of the boat, slipped into the lake as well. In that quiet moment, in the early morning solitude, the natural history of the lake had changed forever. In the short amount of time that it took the fisherman to launch his fishing boat, just as he had done a hundred times before, he had inadvertently destroyed the ecological innocence of the lake. In the future, many would ask “how many other lakes had he ruined?”  

No one can say with certainty just when Eurasian Water Milfoil entered Tomahawk Lake, or where exactly it was introduced, but we do know exactly how it was done. It rode in on a pleasure boat, and was “planted” in our beautiful lake by an unsuspecting boater who had no idea that he had just introduced  a “cancer” into the waters of “the Jewel of the North”. In the years since that boater backed down that ramp, this lake association has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars, and countless thousands of volunteer hours trying to take that instant back.  Sadly of coarse, it can’t be taken back.

In the year 2009, there are easily a dozen more plant and animal non-native invasive species that are slowly but surely traveling to Tomahawk Lake boat ramps from various great lakes locations. Many of them are within 50 miles of my and your docks, and if left undetected will be here within the next few years. I’m hoping that each of you are asking the question “what can I do to stop them? The truth is that there is only one point in their journey to Tomahawk Lake where their invasion can be stopped and their onslaught eliminated.  That first and last line of defense is in the last 100 feet before a boat trailer backs into our waters.

Most of us have heard about the “Clean Boats, Clean Waters” program on our lake. The Tomahawk Lake Association continually places it foursquare in the faces of our membership. We use our newsletters, our picnic, now our website, and word of mouth to make it known that we are in desperate need of volunteers to share the load of inspecting boats at our boat ramps. And yet, we are basically uncovered at our launches for all but a few week ends during the summer. We, and we alone have the power to stop these invasive monsters in their tracks if we will just make a commitment to do it, and expend the effort.

Being a “Clean Boats, Clean Waters” volunteer is not a heavy burden. We are looking for people who will man a ramp for as little as 4 hours a summer. We will provide for your training (just a few hours), and place you with an experienced partner at the ramp of your choice. Even if you only have a week or two of vacation time here at the lake, you can be a great asset to our crew.

In a few short months, I will be sixty years of age, and I will have, in one way or another lived on the shores of Tomahawk Lake for 45 of those sixty years. On the day I turn sixty, I will have four grown children, and one grand child. These days I worry about the lake that I will leave my children, but I really worry about the lake that they will leave my grand children. In the next forty five years, will my kids be able to hold the line on the invasive species that are looming just over the horizon? Will my precious grandson and his brothers and sisters see the same beautiful clear lake that I see when I look out over the scene from my cottages deck?  If it’s to be so, each and every one of us, today, is going to have to accept the call to serve in some way. If we don’t accept that call, than we will all have to accept the fact that we let our kids and grand kids down!

In case anyone has missed it, I am issuing a challenge to every member of the Tomahawk Lake Association to step up and volunteer! Right now we need your help with our “Clean Boats, Clean Waters” program.  Please, Please, Please! Call Rich and Pat Shaffer at  (715) 277-2928, or me, Ned Greedy at (715) 358-7896. Your grandchildren will thank you for it!

Ned