It takes a team of about six people five hours to sprinkle the entire campus with the ubiquitous sand-salt mixture UW-Madison uses to control seasonal ice.
Despite a recent flurry of slipping and sliding on Bascom Hill, winter ice cover this year has required only an average workload for Grounds Supervisor Gary Simonson and the UW environmental services department.
\This past weekend we were lucky and we got by with just doing it once and we were done with it,"" Simonson said.
University Health Services Spokesperson Meg Hamel also said it was an uneventful year for ice-related injuries.
""We have not seen that many injuries that appear to be related to the ice-that's good news,"" Hamel pointed out, saying most injury-prevention strategies are ""common sense.""
""Wear really good shoes [and] pay attention to what you're doing,"" Hamel suggested. If injured, call UHS and do not walk, Hamel insisted.
On the other hand, biking on ice can be ""pretty dangerous,"" according to Hamel. This year UW Transportation Services hosted two free winter biking clinics.
Campus ice control has a noticeable effect on the ecology of Lake Mendota, which has seen a gradual rise in salt concentration over the past few decades, according to David Armstrong, professor of civil and environmental engineering. Still, salinization rates have been improving.
""The increase in concentration may not be as steep as it has been in the past. ... Organisms can grow in very salty water, so if there are changes in the communities they're pretty subtle,"" Armstrong said.
Of more concern, said zoology professor emeritus John Magnuson, is the fact that ice appears on Lake Mendota later every year. This year, the lake was covered in ice Jan. 7.
""There were only eight years in the last 150 that Lake Mendota froze up any later than it did this year,"" Magnuson said. ""The ice cover now is on average about three months a year, and 150 years ago, the ice cover on average was four months a year. We've lost about one fourth of the ice season for people who ice fish and skate.""
The loss is more than recreational for area businesses. Gene Dellinger of D & S Bait, Tackle & Archery, 1411 Northport Dr., predicts that the ice fishing season shrinks by two weeks every year.
""Percentage-wise, our winter business, because of the fact that it's between Christmas and New Year's, what we're missing could be 15 percent,"" Dellinger lamented.
Magnuson recommended enjoying the ice while it is still thick enough.
""This year we've had so little snow that the ice is very, very clear. ... When you're skating on the lake, you can ... see the rocks on the bottom and it's like a window into the lake,"" he said.
