BURNETT COUNTY
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 16, 2016 VOL. 55 NO. 9 www.burnettcountysentinel.com $1.00
OPENER: Good luck to hunters as the 9-day gun-deer season opens Saturday.
Zebra mussels found in Big McKenzie Lake BY TODD BECKMANN SENTINEL
DEBBIE O’CONNELL
A final salute The Yellow Lake Veterans Parade on Sunday was a culmination of Veterans Day weekend which started with observances in the three schools across the county. Here (from left)Rick Doering, Ron Johnson and Gary Parkins were flag bearers during the parade. The parade made a stop at the Yellow Lake Lutheran Church for a brief service conducted by Pastor Danny Wheeler — a retired Navy Chaplin. More Veterans Day photos on Page 2.
Two dead following crash GRANTSBURG—Two Grantsburg men are dead following a onecar rollover in the early morning hours of Saturday, Nov. 12. The Burnett County Sheriff’s Office responded just after 7 a.m. Saturday morning to a report of a motor vehicle crash on Wood Lake Road near South Williams Road in the Town of Wood River.
Preliminary investigation results indicate a 2007 Saturn Aura traveling on Wood Lake Road left the roadway and overturned, ejecting the passenger and partially ejecting the driver. Neither was wearing a safety belt at the time of the crash. The driver, Jorden Otis, 19, of Grantsburg; and his passenger, Joel
Rauchbauer, 19, of Frederic, both 2015 graduates of Grantsburg High School, were pronounced dead at the scene by the Burnett County Medical Exam- Joel Rauchbauer iner. The Grantsburg Fire Department and North Memorial Ambulance also responded to the incident. No further information will be Jorden Otis released at this time; investigation and crash reconstruction continues by the Burnett County Sheriff’s office. From press release
SIREN—With area lakes dotted with watercraft all summer, you knew it would only be a matter of time before one of Burnett County’s lakes tested positive for zebra mussels. That confirmation came from the Department of Natural Resources earlier this fall when they confirmed Big McKenzie Lake in eastern Burnett and western Washburn County had tested positive for the invasive species. “This is not good,” Burnett County County Conservationist Dave Ferris told members of the county’s natural resource committee on Thursday. “Especially because Big McKenzie is a drainage lake.” With water flowing north to Middle McKenzie Lake, then to Lower McKenzie Lake and finally the Namekagon River, there’s no telling how the species may spread. “The water chemistry in Middle McKenzie is slightly better than Big McKenzie,” Ferris observed. “There’s evidence better water chemistry may slow the spread — but we don’t know for sure.” To cloud the issue, water flows south out of Big McKenzie Lake into a cranberry marsh, into Lipsett Lake and eventually into the Yellow River. “Different bodies of water have different levels of susceptibility,” he pointed out. “We just don’t know what’ll happen next.” To that end, Ferris will be joining DNR officials at a Spooner meeting in December to figure out a game plan on how to deal with the infestation. “We don’t know how to fight it,” Ferris explained. “There are not a whole lot of solutions out there — just a whole pile of questions.” The primary question may be “Why are zebra mussels so toxic for a lake?” The main effect a zebra mussel invasion has on an ecosystem is a restructuring of the food web — moving production from the open waters of a lake down to the bottom. Zebra mussels are amazingly effective filter feeders and they essentially suck all of the phytoplankton and algae (or tiny plants) out of the water column. These tiny plants are important food for zooplankton (tiny crustaceans) that are, in turn, SEE MUSSELS, PAGE 6
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