Bass Lake

News & Notes

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On Friday Oct. 1st, 3 otters were spotted in the north bay while we were fishing in the early evening. They swam in the bay for a while then made their way into the back marsh area. it also appears they are using the swimming raft off the south point for a dining room table because it is littered with crab pieces and droppings.
10/06/2021

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BASS LAKE QUARTERLY NEWS LETTER September 2021


Where did the summer go? It’s that time of the year that it cools down and all the toys are taken out of the lake. This is the first in a series of quarterly newsletter that will be sent out to members of the Bass Lake Association members and a news vehicle to keep members informed of any developments or items of interest on the lake.

It looks like we have a keeper with the duck hunt on Labor Day weekend. 20 to 25 kids participated. 40 ducks were distributed with only 2 not found. Sweet Memories donated $20 worth of prizes and the Association purchased another $80. The labels were taped to the bottom of the ducks for prizes. It was set up for 12 years and younger. We look forward to next year.

We are pleased to announce 11 new members to the association which brings the total to 51 paid members. We have 84 property owners. We are hopeful that more new owners will join the association.

At our fall meeting we had Derek Thorn, AIS coordinator for Forest, Langlade and Oconto Waterways. One of the questions brought up was the new lily type pad on the lake called, European Frog-Bit, it is an aquatic type herb. There was a concern that it was an invasive plant. He came out the next week and inspected the plant and said it isn’t an invasive species.

A couple of property owners brought up that they have Oak Welt and is killing the Oak Trees. The leaves turn brown early and then the tree starts to die. You may want to keep a look out on your property.

The board is looking at having a buffet meal for members of 2022 in the Spring. Also looking at having our Association meeting at the boat landing in the Spring as we have done that in the past. People can come by boat or car. We will check with the Forestry Dept. to see if possible.

It seems that our clean boats, clean waters program we believe is helping with keeping the lake clean. We hope that we can have more volunteers next year to help at the boat landing. It is only 2 hours each Saturday and Sunday.

Check the Bass Lake web site, for our monitoring of the lake levels. It shows history and current, which we have seen this year a lower lake level. We appreciate how the lake owners have respected the lake. Only one incident this year where we had a renter use a Wake boat which caused large waves.


The property owners that are on North and South side of the lake, you may have received a letter from WPS. It looks like they are going to complete the underground power lines this fall.

We would also like to offer the Bass Lake Web site and the quarterly newsletter to anyone that may be selling a large item such as cottage, boat, atv, utv, boat lift, etc. Let us know and we will post the details. Also, you have any information you would like us to pass along to the members, let me know and I will post in the newsletter. My email is kuhlenbauck@gmail.com. Or you can also send to Wayne Wyngaard

Have a great fall.

Keith Uhlenbrauck
Bass Lake Association.
09/21/2021

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The first lucky duck hunt was held on Saturday and was a huge success. There were over 20 participates and 38 of the 40 ducks were found. The sun came out shortly before the hunt began so the ducks were pretty visible on the lake. The ducks were everywhere in the lake, in the middle and along the shorelines it only took about an hour for everyone to find them. Gift certificates to Sweet Memories in Lakewood were the prizes, some of which they donated. Based on the responses we received this may become a yearly event.

09/06/2021

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At the Fall meeting Derek Thron the FLOW AIS Coordinator for Bass Lake gave his introduction and there was discussion about some new aquatic plants that have been seen on the lake. Derek came to the lake on Wednesday August 18th and inspected the plants in question. He identified all of the plants as native species and they don't pose a problem for the lake. He did note that sometimes environmental elements are just right for some species to grow more rapidly in a particular year.

The Labor Day Duck hunt for kids is being held on Saturday of Labor Day weekend at 4:30. We've got some eager participants. If you see Yellow ducks floating around please just leave them float. If they're there Sunday morning please remove from the lake and if you want to return them to the Wyngaard residence.

The minutes of the meeting will be published as soon as they're prepared.
08/21/2021

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The Spring meeting was held on Saturday May 29th at the Town Hall here’s a recap.

The Fall meeting may move to Saturday August 14 at 9:00am. Place yet to be determined.

This rather long but there is a lot of important information.

The minutes are on the web site for full details but here are the highlights.

There were 2 new members present, Bob & Julie Van Eperen at 17237 Timber lane and Lori & Daniel Legrave at 16374 Pine Ridge Rd. welcome new members.

Probably the largest item on the agenda was the explanation that non members will no longer be receiving all of the Association email, they will be invited to the meetings and if there is an emergency they will be notified. The Board felt that this increases the value of being a member. The survey results were given with no discussion.

In the survey there was a question if people would be willing to put in a buffer zone to help prevent runoff, several members indicated they are interested so we’ll be reaching out to them with information about the available grants.

Ideas were solicited for activities or projects that the Association could do with a few suggestions of building a loon nesting platform, building wood duck house for member and fish stocking. The fish stocking has been looked into however the DNR is planning to stock 1400 7-9” walleyes in the fall so we thought we should wait on stocking.

A motion was made to donate $100 to the Mountain and Townsend ambulances, which pasted.

The Oconto Lakes and Waterway Association is holding a raffle with the winner being draw at there meeting at the Riverview town hall on Saturday August 28, 2021 at 9:00 am. The Association is critical in representing us at the county and state levels for water quality, legislation, grants and education. The raffle is called “LUCKY 13”, 1st prize is $1,000, 2nd $300, 3rd $200, 4th – 8th $100, 9th – 13th $50. Tickets are available at local businesses, at their fall meeting or you can contact me at wwyngaard32@gmail.com.

The July 4th boat parade will be held a little different this year due to the day of the week it falls on, it will be Saturday July 3rd at 4:30. It was felt that the 6:00 start interfered with dinner so hopefully more people can participate. During the parade the boats become a target of many water balloons, PLEASE make an effort to clean up balloon pieces after the parade, they are very bad for the wildlife in the lake.Fireworks for the 4th of July are also a tradition please clean up all fireworks the day of or after launching, both the balloons and fireworks tend to end up in the north bay.

I became aware of the lake district that manages the upper and lower flowages along with the 5 lakes in the chain connected to it. Their financials are on web site, looking at the expenditures they spent $51,015.88 on Aquatic Plant Control. They have a Clean Boat/Clean Waters program, in 2019 they had 604 volunteer hours monitoring 3 boat landings which is an amazing NUMBER of volunteers. We NEED VOLUNTEERS TO MONITOR OUR LANDING. The total number of hours that we need to monitor the landing is 56, it is amazing that we can’t find enough people to cover that. PLEASE contact Russ and Sandy at rdrycz@gmail.com or 920.609.4920, they will be calling members to ask you to volunteer please consider it.

Hope to see you at the Lake,
06/25/2021

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The final Bass Lake Management Plan prepared by the DNR, County, Townships, UW Stevens Point and citizens has been loaded into the links section of the web site. it was delayed almost a year due to Covid. The plan contains detailed information and lays out a plan for future management.
10/27/2020

In an effort to help reduce our lake shore erosion we’ve put together a list of different grants that are available to help with the cost, planning and implementation of shoreline retention.

1. Oconto County cost share program.
2. State of Wisconsin DNR Lake management program

Both of these programs start with a meeting with Ken Dolata from Oconto county, he can be reached at (920) 834-7152, ken.dolata@co.oconto.wi.us. Dale Wery has been in contact with them regarding these programs and they are planning a visit to Bass Lake in December. They would like to meet with all property owners on that day to do site visits and start the grant process which starts with obtaining a permit. Ken will also be able to provide a list of approved landscapers. The deadline is February for applying for these grants.
The Association is starting a list of interested owners if you’d like to be included in the grant process or get some ideas about can be done please let me know and I’ll start a list.

3. DNR Surface Water Grant

The DNR has a surface water grant program which has deadline of Feb. 1. This program has 5 simple inexpensive best practices, with grants of up to $1,000 per practice installed. I don’t know much about this program but there is an attachment that describes it. There are 2 links on the web site for this program, DNR Surface Water description, Surface Water Application process


Please let us know if you’re interested in any of these programs and we’ll assist in any way possible.

11/15/2019

Board Members

Our current list of board members, their phone numbers & email addresses.

Links