A volunteer during Snapshot Day 2025 finding aquatic invasive species in their local lake. 

July is Lakes Appreciation Month! Though WAV focuses on streams and rivers, we couldn’t pass on acknowledging lakes in a state that has more than 15,000 inland freshwater lakes and approximately 800 miles of Great Lakes shoreline. In fact, some lakes in Wisconsin are considered impoundments, meaning they were created by damming off a river or stream. Impoundments are also referred to as "flowages" in Wisconsin.

Much like rivers and streams, lakes need to be monitored for water clarity, temperature, aquatic invasive species, and more to help determine their health. This can be done by citizen scientists, like WAV volunteers. Some WAV volunteers do currently monitor rivers and streams that feed directly into lakes, thus helping with overall water monitoring efforts (it's all connected!). In turn, looking at lake health can also tell us quite a bit about river and stream health (check out this article "When is a lake a river?"). In June 2025, Wisconsin joined over 20 states in officially recognizing July as Lakes Appreciation Month.

If you are interested in learning how to monitor a lake near you, check out the work of our friends at Citizen Lake Monitoring Network - Extension Lakes | UWSP.

As always, check out WAV’s trainings to learn how to monitor one of the 84,000 miles of rivers and streams in Wisconsin, some of which feed into lakes! Remember to join us for Snapshot Day 2025 to help find aquatic invasive species in our shared waters, including lakes!

Read on to learn more about WAV volunteer monitoring efforts, interesting finds, upcoming trainings, and how the biotic index can help when in the field. 

Follow us on social media to learn more fun water facts. 

Join the statewide search for aquatic invasive species on August 9th!

Snapshot Day is a statewide, one-day event connecting volunteers, water lovers, and local conservation groups in a search for aquatic invasive species (AIS). You can help protect Wisconsin’s rivers, lakes, and wetlands from these invasive plants and animals that may negatively impact habitat, wildlife, recreation and health. 

Join us on August 1st for a virtual volunteer training session where you will learn more about the history of Snapshot Day, the aquatic invasive species you’ll be searching for on Snapshot Day, the tools you’ll be using, and more!

We hope you'll join us!

(Right to left) Team Leader John Tucker and members Tanya and Adam Zins, and Rodger Suprise. Tanya is the leading Hach Kit dissolved oxygen tester and has participated in training other River Keepers. Photo courtesy of Bob Jozwowski.

This month’s Wav Volunteer Spotlight is the Central Wisconsin Trout Unlimited (CWTU) River Keepers! CWTU River Keepers have been actively involved in stream monitoring since 2004, with an emphasis on protecting and restoring trout streams in central Wisconsin. Currently, they are monitoring 35 stream sites with 30 teams and 95 volunteers in the Central Sands Region of the DNR.  

Pine River
River Keeper John Tucker and his team, Tanya and Adam Zins, and Rodger Suprise, monitor the Pine River at Aniwa Road in Wild Rose, WI. This section of the river has been monitored since 2010 and has been a very popular trout fishing site. John himself has been a WAV volunteer for 15 years!

Bird Creek
Further up the road, CWTU River Keepers Carl Landwehr, Jane Landwehr, and team leader Mary Roth monitor Bird Creek in Wautoma, WI. They have been monitoring the creek for five years. 

Pine River. Photo courtesy of Bob Jozwowski.

Team Leader Mary Roth and Carl testing transparency. Photo courtesy of Bob Jozwowski.

 Jane Landwehr measuring flow rate. Photo courtesy of Bob Jozwowski.

Chaffee Creek
In May 2025, the River Keepers added a new monitoring site, Chaffee Creek. This creek is monitored by team leaders Amy and Ben Oostdik, with help of their two sons, Ren and Merrick. Like Pine River, Chaffee Creek is considered a trout stream, or a body of water that is suitable for trout. 

Lunch Creek
Our final CWTU spotlight goes to the team at Lunch Creek in Marquette County. This creek is monitored by Mandy and Adam Dorsch, who have been monitoring for several years.

Thank you to CWTU River Keepers for your help in protecting Wisconsin’s waters!

Ren Oostdik catches a frog while collecting macroinvertebrates. Photo courtesy of Amy Oostdik.

Ren (left) and brother Merrick (right) collecting macroinvertebrates along with their dog Wilson. Photo courtesy of Amy Oostdik.

Mandy Dorsch testing dissolved oxygen. Photo courtesy of Bob Jozwowski.

Adam Dorsch searching for stream macroinvertebrates. Photo courtesy of Bob Jozwowski.

Submit your own WAV Spotlight!
Whether it is a special experience during your monthly stream monitoring, your favorite place on a local stream, or a cool aquatic find, we'd love to share it with the WAV volunteer network! Groups are welcome to submit together.

Snail-case caddisfly larvae attached to a rock in Pokegama Creek in Barron County.
Photo credit: Ben Bradford. 

WAV volunteers collecting macroinvertebrates at a baseline stream training in Rice Lake, WI this May made an unusual find. These snail-shaped animals attached to rocks all over the stream are not actually snails. They are snail-case caddisfly larvae (family Helicopsychidae)! The presence of snail-case caddisflies is a good sign, as this species of caddisfly is fairly sensitive to pollution and disturbance and are indicators of a healthy stream for aquatic life.

Caddisfly larvae in this family use silk to construct their case along with sand. They add larger sand grains to the spiral as they grow and leave a small opening in their construction to allow water to flow through.

Case of a caddisfly in the family Limnephilidae. Photo from Friends of Acadia (Edwin Barkdoll).

This month, we are lucky to have a blog post written by Wisconsin DNR Stream Ecologist, Mike Miller.  In this article, Miller gives a brief history of the biotic index and how learning species family levels can aid in determining a stream's health. 

Head on over to our website to read the full article!

Water Action Volunteers Program (WAV)

Phone: (608) 331-0173

Email: wav@extension.wisc.edu

wateractionvolunteers.org

The Water Action Volunteers (WAV) stream monitoring program is an ongoing partnership between the University of Wisconsin–Madison Division of Extension, the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, and nearly 50 local partner groups and organizations.