Fingers Crossed for Annual Frozen Lake Festival

It’s official–last week Lake Monona and Lake Mendota finally froze. The January 15th date rates 3rd for latest freeze date in the 170 years of record keeping. To celebrate the frozen lakes, host Douglas Haynes talks with limnologist Tyler Butts and Clean Lakes Alliance communications director Adam Sodersten about the late date, the process of monitoring the ice, and the upcoming Frozen Assets Festival on February 3rd and 4th.

The 12th annual family-friendly festival on frozen Lake Mendota and at The Edgewater includes a 5k run and walk, figure skating, dance, speed skating, science, and show kites. Adam says the ice needs to reach at least 8 inches before the festival organizers will consider having events on the ice. “Everything’s on the table at this point, and we just have to wait on on nature to take its course over the next two weeks,” he says.

Adam Sodersten is Marketing & Communications Director at Clean Lakes Alliance, a nonprofit organization devoted to improving the water quality of the lakes, streams, and wetlands of the Yahara River Watershed.

Tyler Butts is a postdoctoral researcher at the Center for Limnology. Tyler a limnologist and ecosystem scientist who uses food webs to better understand how things like invasive species and human lake management decisions impact aquatic ecosystems.

Cover photo and SoundCloud image by WORT’s Chali Pittman

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