Several Northwoods residents have been honored by the DNR for years of service monitoring area lakes. Dale Jalinski was honored for 30 years of monitoring Bear Lake in Oneida County; Bob Kirshner for the same at Crystal Lake in Forest County and Emden Lake in Oneida County; Tom Rulseh was honored for 30 years of monitoring McDonald Lake in Vilas County and Kay Scharpf for monitoring Franklin Lake in Forest County. The DNR's Carroll Schaal describes the work of the citizen monitors...
".....they go out every summer, we like to get them out every two weeks. All of them drop what is called a Secchi disk, a black and white disc into the water. They drop it down until they can't see it anymore and record that depth and that's the water clarity on the lakes. We use it to help gauge the health of lakes...."
The information the volunteers have collected is part of Wisconsin's Citizen Lakes Monitoring Network. The four were among more than a dozen volunteers recognized this spring for their efforts to help protect and restore Wisconsin lakes and streams. The awards were presented during the Wisconsin Lakes Convention and the Water Action Volunteers stream monitoring annual symposium in Stevens Point.
