We are a lake organization working to protect Pipe Lake and North Pipe Lake and their watersheds in northeast Polk County, Wisconsin.
Enjoying Our Lakes Now and into the Future
What’s New?
A Lake District Commissioner’s Meeting will be held on Wednesday, November 13
A Lake District Commissioner’s Meeting will be held Wednesday, November 13, at 5:30 pm via ZOOM. The purpose of the meeting is to consider and approve the resolutions authorizing persons to sign nd submit the District’s DNR applications that must be submitted by November 15, 2024. All lake property owners are welcome to participate. The notice of meeting is HERE.
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/
Meeting ID: 820 9965 1153
The Annual Commissioners’ Meeting was held in person on Saturday, August 31
All Pipe Lakes residents were invited to attend the Commissioners’ Meeting that was held in person on Saturday, August 31, at Christ Lutheran Church.
Notice of Meeting is HERE, the Meeting Agenda is HERE, the 2025 Budget is HERE
The Landing Monitor and Lake Monitor Report are HERE, and the Landing Monitoring and Shoreline Surveys are HERE. Minutes from the previous meeting are HERE.
INVASIVE AQUATIC PLANTS
THE GOOD NEWS: No sign of Eurasian Milfoil or Curly-leaf Pondweed found in PIpe Lakes in 2024
BUT be on the look out for Milfoil since it is already found in 9 nearby lakes in Polk and Barron counties.
From the 2023 Report on Aquatic Species Survey of Pipe Lakes:
With Eurasian water-milfoil growing in nine other nearby Barron and Polk County Lakes (Sand, Beaver Dam, Kidney, Duck, Horseshoe, Echo, Lower Vermillion, Shallow, and Pike), we encourage the PLPRD to consider continuing landing inspections regularly into the foreseeable future. Early detection of EWM provides the best chance to economically contain the plant once an infestation has occurred. As always, if lake residents or boaters discover a plant they even suspect may be Curly-leaf pondweed or Eurasian water-milfoil, we encourage them to immediately contact us (Matthew Berg, ERS, LLC Research Biologist) at 715-338-7502 saintcroixdfly@gmail.com. Ideally, a fresh specimen, JPG photograph, and GPS coordinates of where the specimen was obtained would aid in the identification and location of any suspect plant(s). However, even a text picture of the plant in question held in hand is often enough to confirm identification. Likewise, we are happy to identify ANY plant a lake resident finds that they may want identified.”
Photos and descriptions of aquatic plants can be found in the 2024 Landing Monitoring and Shoreline Survey attached HERE.
Dick Hollar
A huge “THANKS” to Dick Hollar for his years of dedicated service to the Pipe and North Pipe Lakes Protection and Rehabilitation District! The District wishes to recognize Dick for his decades-long service to improving the quality of our lakes. He has served as leader of the Pipe Lakes Association and was a founder of the Pipe and North Pipe Lakes District. Dick served as the Chair of the District Commission and through the decades, he has been a superb water quality activist and an invaluable contributor to Pipe and North Pipe Lakes. See the resolution HERE.
*The District Commission would like to thank Dan Hollar for volunteering hundreds of hours to build our very extensive database of documents found through the “Lake Management” tab.
Upcoming 2024 Pipe Lake Meeting Dates:
October 12, 2024 – Commissioner’s Meeting to be held by Zoom at 9 am
Johnstown Township Meetings and Notices
Information including notices of Town Board Meetings can be found at: https://townofjohnstownpowi.com/
Our Enjoyment is Possible Through Excellence in Our:
Protection Programs
Our protection programs are divided into four areas of concentration – Shoreland, Outer watershed, Invasive species prevention, and Lake and stream monitoring.
Participation
Participation may vary from simple casual interactions, which help build a strong community, to taking on a leadership role. Visit the contact page to learn about opportunities, big and small, to participate.
Activities
We build community through a variety of individual and group activities at Pipe Lakes – each of us choosing our preferences while respecting those of others.
Past Meeting Information:
Annual Meeting – August 31, 2024
The Pipe and North Pipe Lakes Protection and Rehabilitation District held an Annual Meeting on Saturday, August 31, 2024. Minutes from this meeting are HERE.
The 2024 Boat Parade was a success!
The parade was a success, congratulations to all who participated! The top three winners were:
Schultz Family – Toy Story, 1st Place Overall
Stevens Family – 2024 USA Olympics, 2nd Place Overall
McCarthy Family – Barbie, 3rd Place Overall
To see pictures of all participants, please go to our FaceBook Group page.
Learn About the Healthy Lakes Program
A topic that is discussed at the Pipe & North Pipe Lake Rehabilitation and Protection District Commission meetings is the Healthy Lakes & Rivers program through the Wisconsin DNR. Healthy Lakes & Rivers is a Wisconsin DNR grant-funded program to encourage 5 best practices by shoreland property owners to improve habitat and water quality.
The commission encourages any Pipe Lakes property owner interested in this program to investigate what is required to participate. It is a very worthwhile project that can improve shoreline and water quality. If you are interested in the Healthy Lakes program, please contact Commissioner Tom McIntee at (715) 252-4890 or Thomas@mcinteefamily.com.
*For more information go to: https://healthylakeswi.com/
Pipe & North Pipe Lake Water Quality Studies
Pipe Lake and North Pipe Lake are two large multi-year DNR grants that concluded on December 31, 2021. One is a Geochemistry Study of both lakes (Click Here) and the other study was about the internal load study of North Pipe Lake. (Click here). Reports for both projects have been submitted.
Based on these two reports and a number of others that preceded them the District Commission is attempting to identify appropriate next steps to ensure we preserve, protect and improve the water quality levels in both lakes
We have asked Steve McComas of Blue Water Science to review our data and reports to date and to offer his thoughts. (Click Here)
For more articles and information about our lakes go to the Lake Management tab on this website.
