SLOI and the WDNR Self-Help Lake Monitoring Volunteer Program
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What is     Self-Help Lake Monitoring, the core of the Wisconsin
Self-Help?  Lakes Partnership, creates a bond between over 900
            citizen volunteers statewide and the Wisconsin DNR.
            Our goals are to collect high quality (water) data, to
            educate and empower volunteers, and to share this
            data and knowledge. Volunteers measure water clarity,
            using the Secchi Disk method, as an indicator of
            water quality. This information is then used to
            determine the lake's trophic (nutritive) state. 
            Volunteers may also identify and map plants, watch for 
            the first appearance of Eurasian Water Milfoil near boat
            landings, or watch for zebra mussels on vulnerable lakes.


What is    The Satellite Lake Observatory Initiative (SLOI) is part of
SLOI?      the Upper Midwest Regional Earth Science Applications Center
           (RESAC), a consortium of universities, state and federal
           natural resource agencies, and industries in the Upper
           Midwest Region - Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan.

           The Upper Midwest RESAC strives to develop remote sensing,
           geospatial analysis methods, and biophysical process
           models for applications in agriculture, forestry, land
           cover and change, and water resources.

           The Satellite Lake Observatory Initiative attempts to
           develop remote sensing applications to lake monitoring in
           the Great Lakes States. It is a concerted effort between
           scientists of the three universities that participate in
           the Upper Midwest RESAC: the University of Minnesota, the
           University of Wisconsin-Madison, and Michigan State
           University.
            

Building   In order to use satellite data to map the trophic state 
a model:   of lakes regionally, it is first necessary to build models 
           that relate satellite observations to the lake Self-Help  
           characteristics from a few lakes. 
 
           The more data we obtain for the largest variety of lakes, 
           the better the models we can develop to predict trophic 
           state in unsampled lakes.
       
           And the problem isn't just sampling many lakes. Timing is 
           also of importance.  Sampling on any date won't work. We 
           need samples taken as close to the date of satellite overpass 
           as possible. Based on our experience, the lakes should be
           sampled within three days of a satellite overpass. This is 
           because water transparency and algal biomass can vary 
           dramatically within weeks. Even within days!


Volunteers:

           That's where a collaboration with a lake monitoring volunteer 
           program becomes indispensable - without volunteers, it would 
           be impossible to collect enough data on enough lakes and on 
           the right dates.

           If you are a volunteer and participate in this project, here 
           you will find information about when to sample your lake. 
           You can also see what other lakes are part of the volunteer 
           program.

           If you are not a volunteer but would be interested in learning 
           more about this Wisconsin DNR program, please contact 
           Maureen Janson (JansoM@mail01.dnr.state.wi.us).


              Here's how to find out when to sample your lake:
              ------------------------------------------------

           1st Go to link (2) below, CLICK on it, and look for the name
           of your lake in the table. Note that the table is ordered by
           county and,within each county, by lake name.

           2nd Write down the path and row of Landsat that corresponds to
           your lake. Some lakes may have two of these and, among them, 
           in some cases one of the will be qualified as 'edge'.  This 
           means that the lake is near the edge of a satellite path/row, 
           and it should be sampled preferably on the dates corresponding 
           to the 'non-edge' path and row. But remember, all data are 
           valuable!

           3rd Go to link (3) below, CLICK on it, and look at the dates 
           that the Landsat satellite will pass over the path and row 
           that your lake belongs to.

           ----------BELOW--------

                    1.  Map of lakes in the self-help monitoring program

                    2.  Table of self-help lakes and satellite path/row

                    3.  Dates of satellite overpass

Landsat 7 view of Northwest Wisconsin on Sep. 29,2000