East Greenway Events
Join ParkWatch for Trail Event – June 6 is
National Trails Day. ParkWatch will sponsor an
open trail event at the East Greenway. Arrive any
time from 9 am to 1 pm. Activities for children
will include a scavenger hunt on the trail and a free
nature craft.
Eradicate Invasives – Pull garlic mustard on
Saturday, April 25 and May 30 from 9 to 11 am.
Meet on the west side of the south Pick ’N Save
parking lot on Pioneer Road. Bring gloves, a small
digging tool, and a kneeling pad.

Caring for Our Lakes
BANNING PHOSPHORUS

Nutrients like phosphorus—a common ingredient in lawn fertilizer—are degrading 90% of Wisconsin’s inland lakes. Plants don’t absorb more phosphorus than they can use, and excess phosphorus from lawns can wash directly into our lakes and streams, causing smelly algae blooms, fish kills, and declining water quality.

Lakes and rivers can be extremely sensitive to small amounts of phosphorus runoff. It takes 20 parts per million (ppm) of soil phosphorus to grow healthy turf; 25 parts per billion (a quantity 1000 times smaller) can promote excessive algae growth in lakes. Preventing even small amounts of phosphorus from getting into the water can make a big difference.

The League of Conservation Voters has made a ban on phosphorus for lawn fertilizer a conservation priority for this legislative session. Park Watch of Fond du Lac has requested the County Board Committee on UW, Agriculture and Recreation to introduce a resolution to the County Board supporting AB 3 and SB 5 which would ban phosphorus in lawn fertilizer except for new lawns. This ban would not affect agricultural uses of phosphorus.

If cleaning up our lakes is important to you, please attend the County Board Committee Meeting on March 4, 2009, 6 p.m. the UW Extension office on the UW Campus. Legislative issues are always subject to change, if you plan to attend, please send an email to ldegolie@tds.net (or call 921.4191) so that I can alert you to a change in the agenda.

Follow this link to information about phosphorus in lakes published by the Wisconsin Association of Lakes: http://www.wisconsinlakes.org/press1-12-09.html



ParkWatch News
ParkWatch of Fond du Lac has received the approval
of the UW Agriculture and Recreation Committee
for two grants totally more than $3,800 to restore
shoreline along DeNeveu Creek in Lallier Park and to
start the restoration of a Maple-Basswood Woods in a
former landfill, now a part of the E. Greenway along
the east bank of the East Branch of the Fond du Lac
River.
The Lallier Park project is an opportunity to restore
natural habitat with native plants and enhance the
beauty of Lallier Park. Plantings could include native
grasses like little bluestem, prairie dropseed, butterfly
weed, wild indigo, purple coneflower, bottle gentian,
rough blazingstar, foxglove beardtongue, early goldenrod,
spiderwort, culver’s root and many more.