Wisconsin Watch Media Partners Center (https://partners.wisconsinwatch.org/tag/lake-mendota/)
Daphnia, tiny crustaceans in Lake Mendota that graze on algae, and their good works are in danger. Each year their population is now crashing in the late summer as they are decimated by a voracious new predator called the spiny waterflea.
All lakes are not created equal. And in the Madison area’s Yahara chain, Lake Kegonsa is the redheaded steplake.
Efforts to clean up lakes Mendota, Monona, Kegonsa and Waubesa are employing conservation practices that originated in Dane County back in the 1970s — just on steroids.
“Developers are often demonized, but I have probably planted more trees than 99 percent of citizens and the city of Madison,” said Wall, the 2009 recipient of the Governor’s Award for Excellence in Energy Efficiency and a one-time Republican U.S. Senate candidate who lost to Ron Johnson. “There is nothing worse than a town filled with concrete.”
The Yahara watershed is crawling with scientists who keep trying new ways to clean up the lakes.
The Yahara lakes — Mendota, Monona, Wingra, Waubesa and Kegonsa — are no clearer than they were 30 years ago, despite intensive efforts to improve them.
Historical ice cover on Madison’s lakes gives us a close look at climate change. Close as in five minutes from our office.