Northern WI lake levels?

I drove from Superior back to Hudson today and it looks like all the lakes are going to be even lower this year.

What is causing this?
lack of rain the last few years?
more people using more water?

Good time for a guy to get into the dock extension business

Inland water levels are replenished by snow melt…rain does little more than help…unless there is an extrordinary amount of rain…as rain is soaked into the dry ground. The upper midwest water tables are low indeed.
However, lakes with several propery owners pumping water out to use on gardens and lawns can definitely lower lake levels also. This water soaks into the ground and does not reenter the lake.
Basically we have not gotten the amount of snow needed the past several years to maintain normal water levels.

I hear the turtle flbeau flowage is 4 ft down. That is going to be hell on lower units on opener

Some flowages in our area, northern Wi. are really low yet.The Rainbow is down 12′ and the Willow is down around 10′. The lakes have been going down for about 6 or 7 years now.

Wouldn’t more users make the water levels higher. Just like when you stick your finger in a full glass of water and it runs over?

We have 130ft dock on Devils, Burnett co. still need to add more, we have a lot of beach. water is extremely low .

yes this is a bad thing going on, however it depends on how you look at it. If you fish for walleyes or bass, now would be the time to really see what these shallow areas look like without water there. mark these spots on your maps for future reference.
we used to wait for the winter draw down on the Big Chip and then go and get all the crank baits people lost in the tangles. we would mark little dips and rock piles that were too shallow to go in by boat when water was present.

Just a thought for ya.

Also, as for the Big Chip, I know their water levels are affected by when they open the dam on Moose lake. since many of these are hydro-electric dams, maybe using less energy would also help on the flowages. just a thought!

I heard from an old timer this weekend that thought these things cycled roughly 100 years. He mentioned seeing them go back up from years of low levels in his life time. He remembered seeing the trees growing where stumps are now located. I think they will all go up agian everntually.

good info guys. Thanks

Hopefully we get some rain up north this spring to help a little. I always fish Upper Turtle Lake everytime I go see my grandparents and it has gotten harder and harder to launch a boat the last 3 years…

Through the course of the night, we picked up .25″ and it was still raining on my way to work this a.m. at 8:30. Enough to bring down the fire hazard for a short period of time. Hope we can pick up another .25″ or more yet today!!!

Still not helping the lakes, but that fire thing… that’s a whole lot worse!!! In the fierce winds last week, downed power lines started a fire that got one house. That’s just not fair…

Mark