A. Clean Boats Clean Water (CBCW) Element

Training, recruitment of personnel and procuring essential equipment and supplies are always key to any successful volunteer endeavor. Stated Ad Hoc goals and accomplishments were: Recruit and train volunteers to monitor the ten boat landings on area lakes on the five major holiday weekends and the Barnes Centennial weekend in 2005. In the Spring of 2005 three training sessions and workshops were conducted and attended by committee members and/or interested citizens:
    AIS Workshop at Lakewoods Resort (9 participants)
    Aquatic plant identification (30 attendees)
    Clean Boats Clean Waters Program (37 attendees from the immediate area).
(See Appendix 7 for workshop participants)

All sessionss were presented by WDNR staff and others. Subsequent CBCW workshops were conducted by the trained survey team at the Barnes Eau Claire Lakes Property Owner Association (69 attendees), Potawatomi Property Owners Association (25 attendees), Tomahawk/Sandbar Property owners group (50 attendees) and Beauregard Lake Association (32 attendees) meetings. A total of 252 individuals attended these seven sessions. A number of individuals from each meeting joined the CBCW effort.

Gather survey information for the "Clean Boats/Clean Waters" program to document types of boats and their usage on the lakes. The text, Volunteer Monitoring Guidelines for Aquatic Invasive Species, 2005, was especially informative and helpful in that it contained step-by-step easy to understand and follow procedures, and it contained available resource contacts.

Lake landing leaders were selected from the list of volunteers who attended the workshops. These people were active in other lake leadership activities, i.e. secchi reading, lake monitoring and/or stewardship. Lake landing leaders were given the prerogative of volunteer procurement strategies. Some of the strategies were:
    " Personal contact by visiting with neighbors
    " Telephone/e-mail contacts
    " Help solicitation at lake/community meetings
    " Distribution of materials door-to-door
    " Contacts made at boat landings

Each lake landing leader was given a Boat Landing Volunteer Two Hour Grid to record volunteer's names in order to facilitate scheduling. In some cases the coordinator was asked to help with recruitment. By far, the most successful method for recruitment was personal contact or a phone call. New volunteer trainees were requested to report to boat landings early to be mentored by their predecessor. This method worked very well and provided positive social interaction. In some cases, upon request, the coordinator trained individuals.

The coordinator maintained a supply of brochures, record sheets and boat stickers for lake landing leaders in his vehicle and at the town hall. On selected weekends the coordinator relayed between landings to insure supplies were readily available.

For the most part, boat landing volunteer protocol, as outlined in Volunteer Monitoring Guidelines for Aquatic Invasive Species, 2005 Edition, was utilized, including:     Introduction of one's self
    Provide EWM information
    Boat/trailer inspection
    Provide boat trailer decal
    Thank boaters and all involved for cooperating

Volunteers kept track of their volunteer time on the DNR supplied Donated Professional Services Worksheet (Appendix 7) and boat landing records on Watercraft Inspection Daily Work Diary (Appendix 7). Donated volunteer time data for landings, workshops, EWM clean-up, meetings and boat usage were documented and forwarded to the DNR and is in the enclosed CD. Over 2200 hours of volunteer time were donated by 238 local citizens. The watercraft inspection sheets were also forwarded, compiled as requested, with more than 900 boats being inspected and people contacted at 15 designated landings. A summary of the results of the boat landing is illustrated in Table 3 (below). The data from the project has been forwarded to the CBCW project data base.

Table 3

According to a report by Laura Felda-Marquardt (WDNR CBCW Coordinator) dated October 25, 2005, the statewide CBCW program made considerable progress in contacting the boating public to express the importance of CBCW goals. The Barnes project contributed a significant portion of the overall totals of the 2005 effort.

Statewide and Barnes Totals (From WDNR CBCW Annual report  Laura Felda-Marquardt. Revised numbers found Barnes hours to be more than indicated)
    Volunteer Hours  -  State 4,579;  Barnes 508 (11%)
    Boats Contacted - State 9,055;  Barnes 1187 (13%)
    People Contacted - State 19792;  Barnes 3636 (18%)

• Continue the CBCW program in some modified fashion. The landings definitely need to be monitored on fishing opener, Memorial Day, Fourth of July and Labor Day weekends.
• Consider hiring trained individuals for the busy landings on the mentioned busy weekends. This possibly could be accomplished as part of a grant.
• Consider hiring trained youth to monitor the more secure landings.
• Conduct additional CBCW sessions as a refresher and to train new volunteers.
• Consider some form of recognition/reward for volunteers.
• Stress the importance of regular data input by the landing monitors or their boat-landing leader. Do not wait until the summer's project is complete to enter data.
• Continue to stress the importance of the CBCW project to the community.
• Emphasize the desirability of a plan to use a philosophy of many volunteers contributing a few hours.' The opposite of few volunteers contributing many hours' leads to burnout and failure.