Friday
Concurrent Session 7
60 minutes
April 1, 2016 ~ 10:30-11:30 am
Agenda subject to change.
Wisconsin’s Rapid Response to the Introduction of Starry Stonewort and a Case Study Using Diver Assisted Suction Harvesting on Silver Lake, Washington County
This presentation will focus on the steps taken over the last year in response to an aquatic invader new to Wisconsin waters, starry stonewort (Nitellopsis obtusa). Following rapid response guidelines, we will outline the actions taken to delimit the population in Wisconsin, as well as within infested waters. We will highlight the roles of Wisconsin lake partners that stepped up to the challenge of managing a new and obscure invasive species. Many partners were integral in the management of starry stonewort within Silver Lake in Washington County. Silver Lake has effectively employed a newer management technique, Diver Assisted Suction Harvesting (DASH), with the partnership of Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, Washington County, Silver Lake Protection and Rehabilitation District, and Eco Waterway Services.
Presenters:
Tim Plude, Aquatic Invasive Species Specialist, Wisconsin DNR
Bradley Steckart, Aquatic Invasive Species Coordinator, Washington County Land and Water Conservation Division
Moving from Monitoring to Management
More than 1,000 volunteers collect valuable data about Michigan’s lakes and streams each year. One outcome of their efforts is hundreds of thousands of data points describing such features as water clarity, nutrient levels, habitat quality, and the organisms that make these aquatic ecosystems home. This data set is broad-scale (over 220 lakes and hundreds of stream sites were monitored in 2015) and long-term (lake monitoring began in 1974). But, what good would all this careful monitoring be if the data were never used? In this presentation, l will share some outstanding success stories that illustrate how we can move from monitoring to management – putting all that monitoring effort to good use! Examples will explore how individual volunteers, communities, natural resource agencies, and researchers are using volunteer monitoring data to protect, restore, and better understand our freshwater resources.
Presenter:
Jo Latimore, Citizen Lake Monitoring Program Manager, Michigan State University
CLMN Survey Results: The Future of CLMN
In the fall of 2014, a survey was sent out to all Citizen Lake Monitoring Network (CLMN) volunteers to seek their feedback on the Network. The results of this survey will be reviewed, as well as what has been done so far in response to the survey results. Additional changes are being considered for the Network, and your thoughts are valuable to help us change CLMN for the better. Please join us in discussing new ideas and future directions for CLMN.
Presenter:
Katie Hein, Water Resources Management Specialist, Wisconsin DNR
Paul Skawinski, Statewide Citizen Lake Monitoring Coordinator, UW-Extension Lakes
Diversion and Rock Infiltration
Rock infiltration is a Healthy Lakes practice that can be incorporated into an aesthetically-pleasing landscape design to capture runoff from hard surfaces. Learn how to use the new Healthy Lakes Decision Tool to choose an appropriate practice and place it on your property. Absorb detailed descriptions of rock infiltration practice design along with step-by-step installation instructions. See before and after photos which illustrate rock infiltration installed on Wisconsin lakefront property.
Presenter:
Cheryl Clemens, Harmony Environmental
Volunteer Monitoring to Evaluate Improvements in Quality of Agricultural Runoff from Installation of Conservation Practices
Agricultural runoff is a source of suspended sediment and nutrients that degrade water quality in the Pheasant Branch Conservancy and tributary to Lake Mendota. The Friends of Pheasant Branch, along with other partners, completed a two-part project in 2012 to remove nutrients and sediment entering the marsh and Lake Mendota. The farm also installed runoff control and conservation practices during 2009. The Friends evaluated the effectiveness of sedimentation ponds and conservation practices by monitoring the ephemeral stream water quality. Monitoring was funded by Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources river grants and Water Action Volunteer stream monitoring program. Learn more about the key findings of this monitoring collaboration.
Presenter:
Herb Garn, Board of Directors, Friends of Pheasant Branch
A Partnership that Strives for Clean Water and the Role of Citizen Monitors
The Rock River Coalition (RRC) manages a successful (and award winning) citizen-based stream monitoring program. This program trains, equips, and supports citizens throughout the basin to sample the water quality in local streams.
The Rock River and many of its tributaries have been designated as impaired waters for both sediment and phosphorus. In the Yahara River watershed, 120 stream miles are impaired. A partnership of municipalities, nonprofits, and government agencies (Yahara WINs) is working on an adaptive management project to reduce sediment and phosphorus pollution through rural and urban conservation practices.
Enhancing the citizen/decision-maker relationship is critical if adaptive management is to become the next generation of water quality compliance. The RRC monitoring program is playing a critical role in creating a robust database of water quality conditions.
This session will cover the RRC/Yahara WINs partnership, the basics of adaptive management, and the RRC citizen stream sampling program.
Presenter:
Patricia Cicero, Water Resource Management Specialist, Jefferson County Land and Water Conservation Department
Nancy Sheehan, Stream Monitoring Program Coordinator, Rock River Coalition
Three Years of Warm-Season Monthly Data on Nitrate, Phosphorus, E. Coli, and Coliform at Respective Sources/Mouths of the Kewaunee, Ahnapee, and E. Twin Rivers
The subject citizen-science study will include certified-analysis data obtained by Kewaunee CARES / Water Action Volunteer monitors, National Weather Service rainfall data, and graphical representations of key data correlations and comparisons. The presented results will enhance the publicly available record of research findings that can be used for inclusion and comparison with historic data on the three (and other similar) rivers. The relative extents of major, and occasionally minor, river impairment will be highlighted and compared with (sparse) available historic data. Finally, the presentation will address the role and importance of applied “citizen-science” studies of key water and air pollution problems that otherwise would not be monitored, quantified, understood, and reported for public consideration.
Presenter:
Gerald Pellett, Research Scientist and Kewaunee CARES Volunteer
Frogs and Toads
The Wisconsin Frog and Toad Survey (WFTS) is a citizen-based monitoring project geared towards tracking population trends of Wisconsin’s 12 frog and toad species. Citizen scientists throughout the state take to the roads three nights each year, during the spring and summer, to listen for and report all of the species they hear. Results are used by the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources to efficiently and effectively monitor long-term trends on a local, regional, and statewide level. In addition to the value it brings towards species conservation, volunteering for the WFTS is a fun way for individuals and families to experience frogs throughout the spring and summer months!
Presenter:
Andrew Badje, Conservation Biologist, Wisconsin DNR
Snapshot Wisconsin
Let's discover our wildlife together! Snapshot Wisconsin is a new, year-around, statewide effort to monitor Wisconsin's wildlife with a network of trail cameras. The goals of the project are to improve the spatial and temporal resolution of wildlife monitoring to help inform management decisions, and to engage citizens, including educators and their students, in that process. We expect to recruit thousands of volunteers to place and monitor > 3,000 trail cameras across Wisconsin, and these volunteers will be indispensable to project success. As Snapshot Wisconsin is just beginning, we will recruit the first volunteers this year. In addition to background on the project, we will talk about the results of our pilot study, how trail camera pictures are used currently, and our hope for how they will be used in the future.
Presenter:
Jennifer Stenglein, Natural Resource Research Scientist, Wisconsin DNR
Partnerships Working in Minnesota’s Dakota County Soil and Water Conservation District
The Dakota County Soil and Water Conservation District (SWCD) works in partnership with federal, state, and local governments to conserve and manage land and water resources across the county. With these partnerships, we work to engage farmers in nutrient management and soil loss reduction programs in the southern, more rural part of the county. In the northern, more urban part of the county, we promote backyard conservation practices by working with homeowners and cities to install rain gardens and plant native shorelines along the many waterbodies in the county. See how education plays a huge part in our work at the SWCD, as we are busy leading 'Landscaping for Clean Water' workshops and outreach events with local school groups.
Presenter:
Lindsey Albright, Water Resource Specialist, Dakota County Soil and Water Conservation District, MN
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