Northern Lakes Toolbox Workshops Return for Fall 2025!

Northern Lakes Toolbox Workshops 2025 Flyer. (Click image to enlarge.) Click here for a PDF copy of the flyer.

We are proud to announce the return of our Northern Lakes Toolbox Workshops in the fall of 2025, hosted by Wisconsin’s Green Fire. These workshops offer a new toolbox to help you protect and improve your lake without the cost of a consultant and lake management plan! We offer these small-group workshops at no cost to participants.

We developed these workshops specifically for leaders and members of lake associations and lake property owners in Vilas and Oneida Counties.

Dates and Location

Each workshop is a two-day event. Space is limited. Participants will receive additional details after signing up.

• Vilas County – September 10 & 12, 2025
• Oneida County – October 1 & 3, 2025

Both workshops will take place at the UW-Kemp Natural Resources Station in Woodruff. The address is 9161 Kemp Road, Woodruff, WI 54568.

What to Expect

The workshops are designed to help participants develop customized action plans tailored to their specific lake or lake association.

The workshops are led by Dr. Mike Meyer, Jim Kreitlow, and Patrick Goggin. Dr. Mike Meyer is WGF’s Senior Scientist, retired from a career in lake and wildlife research with WDNR. Jim Kreitlow is a retired WDNR Lake Biologist focused on Northern Wisconsin lakes. Patrick Goggin is retired from the UW Extension Lakes Program. Together, these three presenters have over 100 years of professional expertise on Wisconsin lakes!

During the workshop, participants will learn about:

1. Basic lake ecology and management,
2. How to use publicly available data about Wisconsin lakes, and
3. How to identify action strategies that make a difference.

Additionally, participants will learn how to:

• Assess conditions that affect your lake,
• Identify threats to water quality, habitat and properties,
• Present steps property owners can take for lake protection,
• Customize a “take action” plan for your lake.

Are you interested in participating?

We seek lake association members and lake property owners who can relay workshop outcomes to their associations. Afterward, we hope you will share what you learn at the workshops with others in your community!

>> To sign up, contact Mike Meyer at mmeyer@wigreenfire.org.

Participants should be comfortable using a laptop with Microsoft Office (bring your own laptop) and be able to follow the online data acquisition process and share digital files. The presenters will guide you through all the steps.

We welcome you to share this opportunity with your colleagues, friends, and neighbors in Vilas and Oneida Counties. Space permitting, we will welcome participants from neighboring counties as well.

• Do you have additional questions about the workshops? Please email Mike Meyer at mmeyer@wigreenfire.org.
• For general questions about WGF, please contact info@wigreenfire.org.

Wind Pudding Lake, Oneida County, photo by Joshua Mayer

Grant Funding Makes These Workshops Possible

Support for our Northern Lakes Toolbox Workshops comes from the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (WDNR) Surface Water Education Grant Program. Wisconsin’s Green Fire won two grants to conduct these Northern Lakes Toolbox workshops in 2025. One grant specifically supports education about lakes and lake management in Vilas County lakes while the other specifically applies to Oneida County. These workshops in 2025 provide an updated version of similar programs we ran in 2021 and 2023.

Would you like to support WGF’s work like this on protecting Wisconsin lakes, education, and science-based natural resources management?

Please consider donating and becoming a WGF supporter. Our growing community of voices for conservation fuels all our work at WGF. We welcome you to join in!

Contact us with any questions. Thank you!

Allequash Lake, Vilas County, photo by Joshua Mayer