This strategy and plan is designed to provide guidance on the county and its partner’s roles in maintaining healthy waterbodies throughout the county. Deliberate management and protection of the lake and rivers is necessary to maintain them in a healthy and desirable state. Impacts to the waterbodies may originate in their watershed or on the shorelands. Cumulatively, a number of activities on the landscape can contribute to objectionable impacts to these waterways; however, there are ways to reduce or even eliminate many of these impacts.

In spring 2017, as part of the Oconto Lakes Study and Planning Project, a survey was conducted by Dr. Aaron Thompson from UW-Stevens Point. Much of the survey information presented in this document originated from his report. The survey was sent to 870 property owners throughout the county to obtain their viewpoints about Oconto County lakes. A 45.8% response rate, totaling 400 responses, was received. Nearly equal representation was provided by landowners from agricultural, forestry, rural residential, and urban areas. A high percentage of respondents indicated that their primary residence is in Oconto County and that they have spent a majority of their lives in the county. A majority of the respondents did not live on or near water

The Oconto County Land Conservation department is sponsoring a multi-phased project to develop a County Wide Lake Study and Planning Project for all lakes in Oconto County with public access. ct Final deliverables of Phase 1, Grant 4 include the development of a Master Lake Management Plan, containing actions associated with common elements for lake related management in the county. In addition, this proposal includes water quality modeling (Goal 2), completion of mini- reports, and inclusion of the study results for the Group 2 lakes (Anderson, Bass, Boot, Grindle, John, and Ranch Lakes) in the All Lake Summary Report. In addition, several tasks associated with the nine Group 1 lakes are included in this request - woody habitat surveys (4 lakes) and development of bathymetric maps for two lakes (Goal 3). Specific project activities include: 1) Water quality using WisCALM comparisons 2) Shoreline and course Woody Habitat Assessment per DNR protocol.

The Oconto County Land Conservation department is sponsoring a multi-phased project to develop a County Wide Lake Study and Planning Project for all lakes in Oconto County with public access.