John Meyer, a former executive from the Twin Cities, had moved to the Spooner area, where he shared his leadership skills by advocating for the first Lake Leaders Conference. He recognized the need for a countywide organization to coordinate water protection and advocacy efforts. The goal was to bring together individuals from lakes that didn’t have local organizations and even unnamed lakes to collaborate with existing lake associations and lake districts in Washburn County. At that time, no other county in Wisconsin had that form of county lake organization.
John attended the Wisconsin Lake Leaders Institute, and when the graduates were asked what they were going to do next, he stated that he was going to contact Beverly Stencel, at UW-Extension, to ask for her assistance in starting a county lake organization. Beverly was enthusiastic about the idea and used her expertise with focus groups and surveys to identify people who wanted to preserve Washburn County water resources and be part of an organization with that goal. Out of Beverly’s work came the people who ultimately became the founding directors of WCLRA.
John served as initial WCLRA president until it could be formally established as a not-for-profit corporation in 1999. Chip Wood was then elected as its first Board president.
Initial key instigators
Founding Board members included these dedicated individuals, including Fred Blake and Ed Fischer who are still active on the
Board:
Fred Blake, Vice President
Bob Denison, Director
Ed Fischer, Director
Karen Kaufmann, Treasurer
John Meyer, Past President
Eileen-Marie Moore, Secretary
Michael Norris, Director
Chip Wood, President
Important work continues
Many of the same major issues we face today were also present in the first years of WCLRA. Examples include shoreline development, representation of our members at Zoning meetings/enforcement, working with senators and representatives on water issues, and boating safety. Addressing Aquatic Invasive Species (AIS) was already a challenge, and using Galerucella beetles to control purple loosestrife
was an innovative approach. Washburn was one of the first counties to make it illegal to transport invasive species, which is now a state law.
WCLRA worked with local partners and our legislators for the passage of a state law designating undeveloped segments of the Totogatic River as a State Wild River. Today, with 262 acres and over 2.5 miles of frontage on the Totogatic River preserved as forever undeveloped and open to the public, this accomplishment fosters significant pride for WCLRA locally and for the whole State.
Heroes of the St. Croix Award presented to WCLRA Board
