Lily Lake Summerhaven Association  Lilly Lake, Wisconsin

Rev. 06-Sep-2024

Welcome Message from the President

Mike Adam, President, Lily Lake Summerhaven Association, a voluntary organization of Lilly Lake residents whose purposes include community building, Neighborhood Watch, and communication and presentation of issues affecting the community to the proper authorities.

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http://lilylake.org/llcalen.html#event

https://www.facebook.com/LilyLakeSummerhaven/

MEMBERSHIP in the Summerhaven Association costs $10/year (we're grateful for anything above that which you care to donate). The funds pay for our insurance, web site, and costs associated with our activities.

Please send your contact information and your dues check made payable to the Lily Lake Summerhaven Association to our Treasurer:
Marc Skurski, 3515 100th Street, Pleasant Prairie, WI 53158
If you wish, you can use the membership form.

To get your current email address on our email blast list, email Marilyn at mjmagnuski@gmail.com.
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The Association is most grateful to NCast Corporation for the donation of server space and technical support for this Web site.
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• Beach water test results:
  
  July 1, 2024 11 E.coli/100 mL
  July 9, 2024 11 E.coli/100 mL
  Aug 13, 2024 770 E.coli/100 mL - CAUTION -- Retest tomorrow
  Aug 13, 2024 980 E.coli/100 mL - CAUTION -- Retest late today
  Aug 20, 2024 2419 E.coli/100 mL - beach is CLOSED
  Aug 21, 2024 461 E.coli/100 mL - CAUTION
  Aug 26, 2024  11 E.coli/100 mL - OPEN
  
  
• The Onterra Report for the past year at Lilly Lake is now available.
  
  
• Bob Riley is generously donating proceeds from his book What A Ride to Just Live. Here is the order form.
  
• Thanks to Kathleen Mullins, the Summerhaven Association is now on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/LilyLakeSummerhaven/.
  
• Jason Young (jason.ees@gmail.com) has set up a Neighborhood Watch blog at www.lilylakewatch.wordpress.com. Check it out!
  NOTE: The Summerhaven Association presents this information as a public service to our membership. The Board and the Association are not sponsoring this blog and do not control any of the information that appears on it.
• Lily Lake residents serving in the armed forces:
  - Nicholas Davis, son of Maria Davis, is in the Marines.
• From Jim Gillespie:
  I want to send along a link to Prairie Nursery which is up in Westfield, just north of Madison. These folks are experts in helping to find the right kind of plantings that aid in soil conservation, drainage and erosion control. There are some beautiful offerings that achieve those goals and also attract pollinators, butterflies and mosquito eating dragonflies!  Some of the taller versions will do all of those things plus create a greater sense of privacy in some areas and also help block the sight and sound of roadsides. The link is https://www.prairienursery.com/store/native-plants.
  
• See the agenda for the next Town Board meeting.

Board Members

President	Mike Adam 262-325-6450
First Vice President	Jim Vogel 708-488-1780 j.vogel@comcast.net
Second Vice President	Eileen Mullins 262-537-2752 mmull72133@aol.com
Secretary	Marlene Byrne Marlenefbyrne@gmail.com
Treasurer	Marc Skurski 262-960-0846 mskurski001@wi.rr.com NOTE: If you're sending a dues check to Marc, please send it to: Marc Skurski 3515 100th Street Pleasant Prairie, WI 53158

Block Captains

The area around Lilly Lake is broken into 12 blocks of about 20 to 25 households each. Each block has a Block Captain, who is the central contact point for information to and from the Board and for collection of dues. To see a diagram of the blocks, click here.

If you cannot reach your Block Captain and you want to discuss something urgent, please call one of the Board members.

DAN HIRCHERT (USDA WILDLIFE SERVICES): GUIDELINES FOR CANADA GOOSE DAMAGE MANAGEMENT IN WISCONSIN
Dan Hirchert from USDA Wildlife Services presented a slide show about management of goose problems. The USDA gets involved with geese because they, like deer, can damage crops.

Two populations of geese: migrants and residents (Giants)
Migrants pass through our area only for short time when they migrate from Hudson Bay to southern Illinois and back again. They do not breed here.

Residents (Giants) migrate very little (only when everything here freezes). They are very productive, averaging 5 eggs per nest. They live 20 years, are adaptable, don't have many native predators, and weigh up to 15 lbs.

Damage: crops, airplanes, park areas, landscapes, water bodies, attacks on people
Resident geese can produce major crop damage, and they threaten safety near airports. E.g., in 1995, an AWACS plane flew into a flock of geese; the resulting crash killed all 24 military personnel on board.

In urban areas, they can cause property damage, decimate vegetation, contaminate water bodies, and increase erosion. They can make such a mess that people stop using parks. They are also aggressive and will charge children who are holding food or adults who surprise them while they are nesting. During their molting period (late June) when they are unable to fly, they can cause traffic accidents because they walk everywhere, including in roadways. They may create predator-proof nests in high places such as roofs. If they succeed in raising a brood somewhere, they return to the same place, and their young learn to return to the same place.

Abatement: scare away and reduce populations, educate the public
You can manage goose concentrations with various techniques: propane cannons, pyrotechnics, flagging, fencing, and increased hunting. Most of these techniques are not usable in urban areas.

Hunting laws allow high bag limits (usually 5/day) before the migrants arrive. Hunting has helped manage the exploding resident goose population. Sixty to seventy years ago, it was thought that resident geese were extinct. In 1970, the DNR estimated there were 1600 resident geese in the state. Now there are probably 155,000. The breeding population is increasing.

Education is important. People should not feed the geese. Local ordinances can help enforce that idea. If you notice birds starting to congregate, try to disperse them because they act as decoys and attract more birds.

Non-lethal abatement methods include scare devices (like blow-up figures that inflate on a timer), trained dogs, pyrotechnics, repellents, and habitat alteration. If you discourage them in one place, they will go to another nearby area.

They like a smooth transition from water to grass. So anything you can do to break up that transition, like putting a band of rocks along the shoreline, can help discourage them. Fences (plain and electric), string grids, and big plants next to the shore are other methods. For small ponds, stringing fishing line at 20-ft intervals interferes with their ability to land in the water.

Because they are so adaptable, you may have to change your disruption techniques from time to time.

Predators: skunks, raccoons, foxes, coyotes
Skunks, raccoons, foxes, and coyotes normally don't take on an adult goose, but they disrupt nests and will kill juvenile birds for food. One area that had resident foxes stopped having any trouble with geese because the foxes took out all the young birds.

Protected by treaty
Geese are protected by the Migratory Bird Treaty Act. You need a federal permit to take eggs or birds.

Population management: reduce breeding, increase mortality
It is our local decision what we'd like to do about the geese. Then we apply for the permit.

Spraying 100% corn oil on the eggs suffocates the baby geese. However, you need a permit to do this, and you need to check for new eggs that the adults might produce. By adding dye to the spray and rechecking the nest, you can see any new unsprayed eggs. If you break the eggs during the adults' fertile period, they'll just produce replacement eggs. They sit on the nests for 28 days. They're fertile for roughly 25 days of that time.

Addling (shaking) the eggs is another option, but you have to shake for a long time, and you need a permit.

Nests are hard to find. Geese love islands (for their protection) and floating bogs. They can nest under bushes and trees. And you may be attacked as you approach the nest.

2-year process to remove geese: test for contaminants, then take birds away
Removing geese takes 2 years. The first year, the USDA collects 7 birds and tests them for PCBs, mercury, lead, and pesticides. The 25 contaminant tests take a long time. The collection takes place near the end of June when the geese are molting and can't fly.

If the birds test clean (so far, only one community has tested high for PCBs), the following year the USDA harvests the agreed-upon number of birds. It is wise to leave a few birds for goose lovers to enjoy so that the community does not become divided between goose lovers and goose haters.

The birds are handled, caged, and euthanized humanely. They are sent to a licensed poultry processor, who turns the meat into gooseburger for food pantries. Smaller birds are donated to animal sanctuaries for food. So far, 1600 geese have been pantried or given to Native Americans for food, and 1800 geese have been used for animal feed.

Effectiveness: manage the big adults to allow other options to work
If you reduce the number of big adults, other less drastic options may suffice to manage the geese in subsequent years. One community hasn't contacted the USDA in 5 years after their first removal. When you have a smaller population of geese, you attract fewer migrants because there are fewer decoys.

Summary of actions
1. Reduce food and habitat.
2. Time your actions: act when the geese are nesting and flightless. That's a roughly 3-week period in June.
3. Solicit neighborhood involvement.
4. Work with law enforcement.
5. Reduce geese to tolerable levels, but don't eliminate all geese.
6. Be proactive. Don't wait until the situation is out of control. If you have a few geese now, you'll have more later.

Costs: $2000 and $2000
Dan has found a lower-cost lab. So tests for contaminants now run $2000 instead of $4000. Next year, it will cost roughly $2000 to remove some birds. There is some grant money that may help defray the cost.

Disturb the nests right now
The geese are already nesting and probably sitting on eggs. This is the time to disturb the nests.

Dan Hirchert can be reached at 1-800-433-0663. He will collect the 7 geese to test for contaminants and apply for a grant. He'll also let Ron Vollmer know when he comes so that Ardie can take pictures for the web site.