1. Permits from the US Fish and Wildlife Service, and the Illinois Department of Natural Resources allowing the Wonder Lake Sportsman’s Club to continue their efforts to discourage Double-Crested Cormorants from nesting on Wonder Lake Islands have been renewed. Left unchecked, the “droppings” from nesting / roosting Cormorants can accumulate to the point of killing off underlying vegetation as well as the tree itself. 

2. A permit application has been submitted to the Illinois Department of Natural Resources which would allow the Wonder Lake Sportsman’s Club to conduct electrofishing on Wonder Lake. This would be an on-going project in an effort to reduce the size of the large Common Carp population. Carp are considered to be one of the most damaging invasive fish species. Originally introduced to the Midwest waters in the 1800’s as a food fish, Carp can now be found in 48 States. They are highly tolerant of poor water quality and prefer to spawn in shallow areas in groups consisting of one female and several males. A single female can produce up to 100,000-500,000 eggs which hatch in 5-8 days. The spawning ritual involves thrashing in shallow water which contributes to turbidity problems. Carp are omnivorous and feed over soft bottom substrate where they suck up silt and filter out crustaceans, insect larvae and other desirable food items. Carp are very active when feeding and can be observed around shallow areas where they uproot plants which increase turbidity and nutrient concentrations. 

3. Efforts continue to try to develop a market for the dried sediment generated by the dredging project. During 2024, test gardens were established to compare the fertility of the Wonder Lake sediment to other commercially available products, with very favorable results. This spring, it is planned to harvest a small quantity of the dried sediment to make it available for a few landscaper supply firms to obtain some of the sediment for their own testing purposes, as well as for the MPOA to potentially conduct additional test gardens this coming summer. 

4. The Illinois Lake Management Association 40th annual conference will be held March 17–19th, 2025, at the Hilton Northbrook/Chicago. Registration information can be found at: https://www.ilma-lakes.org/conference-registration