The ILMA 28th Annual Conference

April 4th - 6th 2013
Parke Hotel & Conference Center
Bloomington, IL
Call the Parke Hotel directly at (309) 662-4300 to reserve your room.  If done before March 10^th, be sure to mention the ILMA Conference to receive our group rate of $70 per night. 

General Conference Information:
Dick Hilton, wildick@comcast.net,
800-338-6976 access code 01

Come join ILMA at our 28th annual lake conference in Bloomington this April. Whether you are a lake manager, recreational lake user, researcher, public water supplier, in a lake home owner association, or interested in lakes/watersheds in any capacity, this is a conference you don’t want to miss. We have two full days packed with information, but still provide plenty of time and activities for networking with fellow attendees and representatives from throughout the industry. Additional options are provided for half-day workshops on day three.

Thursday morning will kick-off with a keynote talk from Don Roseboom and Timothy Straub from the US Geologic Survey (USGS) on stream restoration projects in the Midwest. The keynote will be followed with concurrent sessions held Thursday afternoon and all day Friday. Each session will contain three guest speakers providing presentations on a variety of topics which can influence public safety, ecological and recreational quality of a lake, and general lake and watershed management strategies. Breaks will be provided between each session to encourage further one-on-one discussions with speakers or other guests.

The following is a brief summation of the conference session topics:

Habitat Restoration: Managing a lake and its watershed by developing projects which provide for improvements for specific aquatic species can serve to create cascading benefits. This session will contains discussions on projects which include establishing fish passages to maintain migration movements to spawning areas, creating habitat structures within a watershed, and constructing habitat structures within a lake to improve survivorship of young of the year fish.

Public Outreach, Actions, and Research for Lake Management: Volunteers and not-for-profit organizations play a critical role in lake management. They can do everything from collecting water quality data to engaging lake users and the general public. This session will highlight three different perspectives on the importance of public outreach. The speakers include a representative from a state agency (Illinois Environmental Protection Agency), a university student, and a group of high school students.

Lake and Reservoir Safety and Management: Lakes need to be maintained for ecological, recreational, and public safety. This session covers dam issues (safety, permitting, and removal), initiating a rapid response program for invasive species removal, and holistic approaches to institute best management practices for water quality.

Managing Nutrients and Sediment: Nutrient and sediment management within a lake is a process of controlling both internal cycling and external imports. This session will cover exploration of cost-benefit analysis for identifying and targeting sources, implementation of projects throughout a watershed, and a detailed analysis of sediment transport to aid in the understanding of this variable.

Lake Mash-up: This session does not have an overall topic to cover, but rather provides three separate interesting lake issues: the reintroduction of the alligator gar for use in fisheries management to control overabundant species; the topic of measurable quantities of personal care products (including pharmaceuticals) found within our public water supply bodies as a source of concern for public safety and aquatic life impacts; and installation techniques for shoreline stabilization in area which can be fairly inaccessible.

Managing Watersheds and Managing Grants: Effectively managing a lake requires the understanding of the watershed dynamics affecting it. This session will discuss developing partnerships with a multitude of potential stakeholders and groups within a watershed to implement projects focused on improving water quality, provide an example of implementing a watershed project and how to manage the data to gage the effectiveness of projects, and an often overlooked item of managing the actually granting process after a grant is awarded.

Upcoming or Evolving Regulations: State and federal regulations are always changing and even minor alterations to policy language can have major implications for lake owners and managers. This session will cover the TMDL program, aquatic invasive species transport legislation, and changes to the NPDES permitting process now affecting septic systems.

Managing for Drought: The Midwest drought of 2012 was a reminder to lake managers in Illinois, especially to public water supply bodies, that lakes are constantly under pressure. This session will discuss not just what we can expect the ‘new normal’ to be with respect for weather patterns, but include policy and management decisions which can impact drought mitigation.

Algal Issues, in Illinois and Beyond: Hazardous algal blooms (HABs) have been increasing in frequency and severity throughout the Midwest over the past decade. This session will cover the current understanding of the trends for lakes in Illinois, and what the public should be aware of related to the potential health risks for human and animal health; presenters will include representatives from the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency.

What to Know about Sedimentation Removal: Dredging is on the minds of all lake owners, but it is often one of the most contentious and/or expensive activities to undertake. This session will discuss understanding the cost benefit analysis before selecting where to dredge, how suspended sediment from dredging can affect water quality, and options for low impact removal.