A Beautiful Evening for Touring Little Muskego Lake

We’re all familiar with Wisconsin weather, and how there never seems to be a moderate day in the summer, or at least, not enough of them. It’s usually either one extreme or the next - 100 degrees and intolerable humidity, or rain all day and night.

So it was a very pleasant surprise Thursday evening when some 20 people, many of them local business people or serving the city in either an elected or appointed capacity, embarked on a roughly three-hour tour of Little Muskego Lake at the invitation of the Little Muskego Lake Protection and Rehabilitation District.

Along the tour, attendees got the chance to see two weed cutters in action, as well as members of the Waterbugs ski show team practicing. There were also stops at the Muskego Dam, Muskego Beach, Idle Isle, and at one of four weed conveyors positioned around the lake, among other sites.

This year, the district is trying out chemical applications to test their effectiveness at curbing weed growth. According to Larry Lefebvre, president of the district, the chemicals were applied two weeks ago in three test sites around the lake. Once applied, the areas cannot be cut for 10 days, he noted. 

So far this year, there have been 530 cutter loads of weeds removed from the lake. Last season, there were 1,400 truck loads. There’s about a 2:1 ratio between cutter loads and truck loads, according to Lefebvre and Tom Reck, the district’s secretary and weed program lead.

These weed cutters, which typically measure 9-11 feet wide and can easily go for as much as $100,000 each, can cut roughly one full load per hour, according to Lefebvre and Reck.