Cabin owners work to restore Bayfield County lake

By Joe Cadotte, FOX 21 News

BARNES, Wis. - Residents of Bony Lake in Bayfield County Wisconsin have been planting native plants on their shores for more than three years in the largest lake restoration in Wisconsin’s history.

Carol Lebreck of River Falls, Wisconsin has been coming to Bony Lake since she was a little girl. Lebreck said things have changed over the past sixty years. "My guess is we’ve lost three quarters, half or three quarters of our lily pad beds."

Lebreck and five other property owners are taking action by planting more than 400 trees on their shores, trees that were taken out by people building cabins and condominiums. "The notion of a lake wide restoration project is not just to do shoreline restoration but this in water, addition of the trees for habitat. The thinking about how we can restore our lily pads. How is it that we can protect our natural aquatic plants?"

Lebreck said when people mow their lawn and remove wood they think they’re cleaning up their shoreline when in fact they’re damaging the home of more than 20 species of fish that live in Bony Lake. "Underneath those big trees there’s a whole complex of other trees so that there’s room for the little fishes to get protection and the branches for fish to hang their eggs on. So it’s a whole ecosystem."

Department of Natural Resources Senior Fisheries Biologist Scott Toshner said most lakes near big cities are overdeveloped. "It’s all hard sourced structure: rip rap, big rocks on the shore or sea walls, and what that really does is it takes away from the ability for these fish to reproduce. So those links in their life stages are taken out."

Mary Krook of Barnes has lived on Bony Lake since 1998. Krook said it’s more peaceful since she restored her shores. "We don’t have to mow, we don’t have to trim. We just enjoy the wonderful native plants that are protecting the lake."

Six of 45 Bony Lakeshore properties have been restored. Lebreck said restoration on six more properties will begin in a couple weeks. Lebreck and Toshner say their goal is to have half of the Bony Lakeshores restored within two years.