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| The path that heads to the lake at the corner of Stout & First Streets |
“A rain garden is a garden that is
built to absorb rainfall and storm water runoff. It is designed
to look like an attractive garden and support the local habitat.
Plants with deep fibrous roots tend to work best because they can
better clean and filter the water. The gardens are located
between a spot of high runoff and a protected area. As the
rainwater enters the garden it is cleaned, filtered and slowed to
prevent erosion as well as any contaminants from proceeding through.
These gardens become even more important as development continues and
eliminates lands natural ability to absorb water. They are easy
to create on your own land or area that you maintain near the Chetek
Chain of Lakes.” from the
Chetek Lakes Protection Association's website
A few weeks ago at the July city
council meeting the Stout Street public dock was on the agenda due to
some concern raised by a few neighbors of its overgrown appearance.
You've heard of the saying, “It's a jungle out there”? Well,
according to Dave and Kathy Ziarnik (who live right next door to the
public dock) “the jungle”, as they refer to it, is right across
the yard. To add insult to injury on occasion when boaters hook up to
the dock, they pee in the bushes in plain sight (and, according to
them, we're not just talking about the guys). They wondered if the
city might do something about this matter and clean up this “mess”.
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| Looking from the dock |
If you have lived in Chetek for awhile
you can recall when the only thing above the dock was a section of
grass kept regularly mowed by the city. But then in 2013 the students
and staff of what was then the Red Cedar Environmental Institute (now
defunct) adopted that site and in cooperation with the city and the
DNR created a rain garden. A rain garden is (to quote Google): “a
garden of native shrubs, perennials, and flowers planted in a small
depression, which is generally formed on a natural slope. It is
designed to temporarily hold and soak in rain water runoff
that flows from roofs, driveways, patios or lawns.” In the fall of
2013 they laid down permeable pavers and planted 1,500 native plants
to help slow down rainwater that heads right to the lake as well as
prevent foot traffic from eroding the ground. Five years later, the
flowers have taken root, the dogwoods are blooming and yes, some
weeds and other volunteers have sprung up but for all intents and
purposes our rain garden is flourishing.
A week after the City Council meeting,
members of the Parks Committee as well as Public Works Director Dan
Knapp and City Inspector Joe Atwood sat down with Dave Blumer from
LEAPS (Lake Education And Planning Services) for his assessment of
the “mess” at the corner of Stout and First Street. Dave put
together a very informative slide presentation about the general
health of the Chain, how storm water runoff affects its health and the
things we can do to prevent or slow the effects that runoff has on
our waters.
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| What goes in... |
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| ...eventually pours out |
The major take-away for me from Dave's
talk is perhaps the biggest “duh”-statement that you've read
recently: when it rains, it pours. What I mean by that is when
it rains whatever makes it to the storm drains – cigarette butts,
plastic bottles, doggy doo-doo, you name it – pours into the lake.
Add that to the mix of leaves and grass clippings that naturally find
their way to storm drains and you've essentially got yourself a
recipe for algae growth – the very thing we're trying to slow in
our perennial green lake system.
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| Beautiful lake shore home but no lake buffer |
My father-in-law, now deceased, lived
in the southern part of the state on a similar man-made body of water
like Lake Chetek with a river running through it. He was one of those
guys who would cut his grass right to the water's edge. Later he
added riprap (basically loose stone to armor shorelines against
erosion) but to his dying day he could not countenance anything
beyond grass at the shore and that had to be no longer than 2.5
inches high. But as the folks at the Chetek Lakes Protection
Association (CLPA) have been advocating for years, that may look neat
and orderly but it only contributes to the problem of how green our
lakes are. Thus the push for lakeowners and
According to Dave, it is his
professional assessment that our rain garden is doing what it was
designed to do: slow and filter runoff. The following morning, some
of us from that same committee met at the boat dock with Amanda
Kostner, a representative from the DNR, who after going through “the
jungle” concurred with Dave's opinion: it's a wonderful rain garden
that is helping filter the runoff that comes from the storm drain at
the top of the hill. She pointed out to us some box elders and maples
that had sprung up that could be removed but otherwise her counsel to
us was to leave it alone.
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| Porta potty now available for your...inconvenience |
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, I
suppose. What some would call a mess or a jungle, others call a
little patch of nature that is quite lovely to look at especially
with the flowers in bloom. The council did approve putting a porta
potty at the end of the dock and hopefully that will deter boaters
and fishermen from alleviating themselves in plain sight. I think
some signage as to what the purpose of this small section of growth
is would be helpful too.
Maintaining and improving the health of
the Chain should be a shared concern for all of us who live around
here – not just for those who live on the lake or benefit from
people who come to play here. I'm told that politicians and
governmental bureaucrats in Madison want to point to that pipe that
enters the Chetek River from the Waste Water Treatment Plant and tax
and regulate that in order to “fix” what's wrong with Tainter
Lake and Lake Menomin. But in my opinion there is no magic bullet
that will enhance and improve the overall health of the Chain of
Lakes. Rather, it will be the cumulative affect of little things like
rain gardens, lake buffers, the work of the ecoharvester (aka, “the
skimmer”) and other ventures that overtime will contribute to a
healthier lake system. And our little “jungle” at the corner of
First and Stout is part of the solution not part of the problem.
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| Cool machine but only one piece of a larger puzzle |
