Eagle Lake Protection Program

From the ELIA Board of Directors

We are excited to begin the 2nd year of ELIA’s major, multi-year initiative to positively impact the quality of the lake: The Eagle Lake Protection Program. It is a 4-step process modeled after a typical healthcare treatment plan.

Eagle Lake is sick because of too much phosphorus. When you feel sick, you seek a healthcare provider for help. What steps do they take? They ﬁrst gather data on your condition and situation by ordering sophisticated lab work, diagnostic imaging, and other tests to get a complete picture of the problem. You might ask why the lake needs diagnostics when we already know the problem is too much phosphorus? Because we really don’t know speciﬁcally where the phosphorus is coming from. Is it from Eagle Creek inﬂow under Highway 75, or inﬂow from Oakcrest Creek south of Michael’s On The Lake? Is it from phosphorus already present in the lake, buried in the bottom sediment and gradually seeping into the water? Could there even be another source?

Armed with this information, we can proceed as your healthcare provider would, to make a speciﬁc diagnosis and research treatment plans based on current best practices and the experience of others. Treatment plans are then chosen, funded, and implemented. Data gathering continues to determine whether treatments are producing the desired results and adjustments might be made to further improve the lake’s health. ELIA’s board of directors adopted this vision statement for our new endeavor:

“The goal of the Eagle Lake Protection Program is to make fundamental changes to Eagle Lake and its watershed to enhance the enjoyment of the lake for current and future generations.”

The ﬁrst step in this process, the Eagle Lake Water Testing Program, continues this year. ELIA has renewed the contract with Dr. Marcel Dijkstra and the University of Wisconsin – Oshkosh Environmental Research and Innovation Center to assist us and provide technical expertise in the process.

We urge the entire lake community to join us in positively impacting the quality of Eagle Lake!

Project Vision Statement

The goal of the Eagle Lake Protection Program is to make fundamental changes to Eagle Lake and its watershed to enhance the enjoyment of the lake for current and future generations.

How Will We Fund This?

The early phase of the project is focused on gathering and analyzing water and sediment samples on a regular basis, most importantly when large rain events take place. Costs for this phase are more easily controlled, and will largely be covered by the ELIA, along with restricted donations from the community and support from our lake partners.

Restricted Donations

For year 2 of this multi-year effort, we budgeted $20,450 to cover the expanded Eagle Lake Water Testing Program. With our goal to raise $5,000 in private donations we will cover the remainder ourselves by tapping into our financial reserves.

Click here to see how we're doing!

We urge the entire lake community to join us in positively impacting the quality of Eagle Lake, and we thank you for considering this special donation.