Critical Seasonal Wetlands

Above are photos I took of the seasonal wetlands around the tennis/basketball court off West Royal. The second photo is of a string of salamander eggs. These wetlands only appear in the spring months of wet years when the water table is high. Because Canadian Lakes is in the middle of a massive deposit of quick draining Coloma Sand, wetlands are a rarity in the developement. These wetlands provide critical spawning habitat for amphibans such as frogs (Spring Peepers, Leopard, Green , Eastern Gray Tree, Pickerel, Chorus, Wood, Bull and Mink), toads (Fowler and American), and salamanders (Eastern Tiger, Spotted, Red-backed, and Blue-spotted). If the amphibians are lucky and rainfall contiunes into early summer, they may be able to lay eggs that will hatch and grow into adults before the wetlands dry up. It is amazing how quickly theses little wetlands dry up as the water table drops due to evaporation and irrigation/vegetation withdrawls. Take a walk down to your local wetland. Listen and watch. See how many different species you can observe.

Rush Lake Seining a Success Thanks to Hardy Volunteers

Last spring we stocked Rush Lake with 1,440 adult Golden Shiners. Prior to this stocking, the lake had no fish population. The Goldies spawned at least 3 times during the 2006 season and once already this year. Our plan was to use Rush Lake as a minnow production pond to stock other systems. The lack of other fish and the lack of net tangling structure made it the perfect candidate. Younger Goldies are planktivores, meaning they eat plankton and Rush Lake supports a solid plankton population. The adult Goldies are much more predacious. They will eat smaller fish including their own offspring. We wanted to give the original 1,440 fish a chance to be fruitful and multiply so no minnows were removed in 2006. After a full year, cannibalism is likely beginning to occur as the population reaches the saturation point. It was time to net out some fish to stock some of the other lakes.
On Saturday, May 5, 2007, we met some of the Rush Lake residents in an effort to corral some of the minnows. Despite the wind, working as a team, we were able to maneuver the massive 60’x 8’ seine net to success. Adult Golden shiners are lightening quick and many of the adults we corralled swam through openings between the lake bottom and the net. We conducted two runs, one at the east end and one at the west end. Both produced good numbers of adults and a slew of juveniles. Though exact counts very not possible, I would estimate around 500 adults and up to 1000 juveniles were captured for stocking. The captured minnows were split between Kitt Lake and Lake Laura. Kitt, having no bass and only a few sunfish, received one third of the total. Because Lake Laura has bass, pike, crappies, perch and other predators, it received more minnows to supply the critical mass required to establish a breeding population. Stocking success will be evaluated later in the season and in future years.
We set aside 4 large adult pairs and put them into Lily Pond. The fish population of Lily Pond is still seeking balance. Adding young shiners would just be adding fish food as the bass currently in the pond are seriously lacking food. The bass have been cannibalizing, as there is no other forage available. We recommend transplanting the handful of adult largemouth in Lily Pond. These fish should go into Rush Lake. More adult Golden Shiners can then be placed into Lily pond to create a forage bass for the younger bass that will remain in Lily Pond. If the adult bass are not removed, they will likely consume any shiners added to the pond. That is why four pairs of shiners were planted on an experimental basis to test this hypothesis. Remember, when a new water body is created in nature (glaciers, river oxbows, beaver dams…), it takes nature hundreds if not thousands of years to develop a diverse aquatic ecosystem that is able to support a self-sustaining fishery. Rush Lake doesn’t have enough cover to allow the Goldies to escape predation yet so we want to be cautious about adding bass, sunfish and crappies. As the aquatic vascular plants develop in the lake, they will provide cover for the minnows. This is an example of the delicate balance ecosystems are constantly adjusting to achieve.