Greater Fort Dodge Growth Alliance Newsletter

The Fort Dodge Civitan club had a picnic on June 26th at Lakeview Shelter, Brushy Creek Recreation Area. This was a covid-friendly style event where everyone enjoyed the 76 degree weather and light wind. Ninety residents from area group homes involved with Lifeworks (also including the Humboldt location), One Vision, and individuals that live on their own treated themselves to playing two games of Bingo. Each participant won two gifts. Bingo seems to be their favorite game!

A potluck was held afterwards with food brought by club members and each home. The club provided grilled hamburgers, cheeseburgers, and hot dogs for the main course! And there were plenty of desserts. About 17 members were involved in this project.

The clubs' efforts of providing the Bingo gifts and meat, etc are raised from their fundraising efforts throughout the year. The year round fundraiser is the Civitan International Candy Box project. This is the blue box with peppermints in it, of which one is located at the Growth Alliance and area restaurants in town. A percentage of those funds is kept here and rest is sent to International. Other fundraisers have been the recent Puffin Pastry fundraiser and selling bird feeders.

County Connect Webster

Badger Lake Restoration Project

Beginning in the Spring of 2021, multiple reports of dead fish at Badger Lake were made to the Webster County Conservation Department, prompting them to work with Ben Wallace, Fisheries Biologist, and the Iowa Department of Natural Resources Fisheries Bureau to survey the lake and work out the best options to improve water quality and the fishery.

It became clear, after reviewing survey data, that the majority of the lake’s game fish had been lost to the recent winterkill. Winterkill is a term used to describe the loss of fish in winter because oxygen was lacking in a waterbody. Submerged vegetation and algae create oxygen through the process of photosynthesis. During the winter, oxygen production is often reduced because ice and snow on the lake limit the amount of sunlight reaching vegetation. Typically, a lake can rebound from winterkill, but this particular year resulted in a loss of the majority of the predatory fish, resulting in an imbalance in the species composition of the lake.

The Webster County Conservation Department held a public meeting, in partnership with the DNR to inform the public about this issue and discuss potential solutions. Through this meeting, it was determined that the Conservation Department will begin a lake restoration project in August 2022, after the Dragon Boat Races. This project will lower the level of the lake by fifty percent, at which point a chemical called Rotanone will be applied, killing the remaining fish – mostly Common Carp and small Crappies – in the lake. This is necessary to re-establish

balance in the predator/prey structure of the lake. Restocking the fish population will then create a new balance.

Fish renovation is not the only change coming. Badger Lake will also see improved fishing access, construction of fishing jetties, vegetation management, shoreline protection, sediment removal, and water quality improvements.

The Badger Lake project has several goals:

Protect the lake for future generations Reduce siltation Reduce nutrients Stabilize shoreline and streambanks Improve fishery Improve access to fishing and boating Improve overall water quality perception All projects are scheduled to be completed by the Summer of 2023.

LAKE HISTORY

1963: Badger Lake Dam Completed

1965: Badger Lake filled and Kennedy

Park dedication

1988: Silt Pond Install

1991: Badger Lake Dredging Project

2007: Watershed Development

Grant Award

2008: Prachased 6.65 Acres Along

Badger Creek

2008-2009: Water Monitoring – Depth,

Flow, Testing of nitrates,

phosphorous, e.coli, sediment

2016: SRF Steambank Stabilization

Every 5-7 years: Silt Pond Maintenance