Friday Concurrent Session 6
60 minutes
April 3, 2020 ~ 10:45-11:45 am
Agenda subject to change.
Basics of Managing Watersheds for River and Lake Health
Streams, rivers and lakes are influenced by land use and practices in their watershed. Water managers and researchers have developed sophisticated ways to better understand and map what is happening in a watershed. These tools allow partners to come together and develop specific strategies for modifying how land is used to reduce the amount of pollution coming into a waterbody. The latest and greatest approaches to the watershed challenge focus on developing real relationships with landowners and fostering trust to allow for creative solutions. For example, farmer-led watershed councils are collaborating with state and local governments to experiment with cropping methods that build soil health and reduce runoff and erosion. This presentation will give an overview of the watershed concept, discuss the more common tools for understanding a water body’s watershed, and describe some of the new ways that governments and land owners are working together to better restore and protect Wisconsin’s waterways.
Presenter: Scott Provost, Senior Water Resource Management Specialist, Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources
Wisconsin DNR Surface Water Grants: Program Orientation for 2020 and Beyond
The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources surface water grant program has a new look for 2020. Program funds will still continue to support a wide range of projects on lakes, rivers and wetlands, but some of the policies and procedures have changed. During this talk, program staff will provide a quick orientation to the updated program. We will highlight available funding opportunities, outline the steps you can take to develop a project and apply for a grant, and provide helpful tips on grant management and administration.
Presenters:
Alison Mikulyuk, Lakes and Rivers Team Leader, Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources
Alex Delvoye, Surface Water Grants Program Assistant, Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources
Wild Rice: A Lake Plant with Many Roles to Play
Wild rice plays both cultural and ecological roles in Wisconsin and the Midwest. John Haack, Retired Natural Resource Educator from UW-Extension, will discuss the history of harvesting wild rice by indigenous people as far back as 1000 B.C. and explain the historic Anishinabe (Ojibwe) migration to the “land where food grows on water.” In addition to feeding people, the plant is important to many species of wildlife. Wild rice can be an indicator of good water quality too, though we are still learning about all the variables that potentially impact its health.
Presenter: John Haack, Wild Rice Harvester & Processor, UW Madison Divison of Extension Emeritus
*One 20 minute presentation & one 40 minute presentation
Prioritizing Wisconsin Lakes for Conservation and Restoration
This presentation will provide results of research about how to prioritize Wisconsin lakes for conservation and restoration activities, based on biophysical responses (e.g. reduced phosphorous loading) and cost-benefit performance (e.g. ability to create efficiencies and value premiums). This project involves building a series of databases, models, and other decision support tools to aid Wisconsin lake and watershed groups, land trusts, counties, and other stakeholders in identifying priority targets for conservation and restoration efforts and selecting optimal management strategies.
Presenter: Robin Rothfeder, Assistant Professor of Natural Resource Planning & Land Use Specialist, University of Wisconsin - Stevens Point & Division of Extension
Conservation Planning for Your Lake: Midwest Glacial Lakes Conservation Planner Tool
The Midwest Glacial Lakes Partnership Conservation Planner provides lake data to inform communication, management, and research to benefit fish habitat and lake ecosystems. Specifically, the Conservation Planner provides data on likely suitability for fishes, land cover along the shoreline and in the lake’s watershed, and conservation recommendations to supplement existing information for each lake. Its recommended uses include provision of data to inform single-lake management, establishment of a framework for conservation strategies in each lake, identification of patterns in fish habitat due to climate and land use change, and as a supplement during potential prioritization of limited resources among lakes. This presentation will provide information on the data used within the Conservation Planner and how to use the tool for conservation on lakes in Wisconsin.
Presenter: Joe Nohner, Coordinator, Midwest Glacial Lakes Partnership
Link to video recording (this talk was recorded as part of the CLMN Webinar Series in Spring 2020)
Seeing the Invisible Present and Place: from Years to Centuries with Lake Ice from Wisconsin to the Northern Hemisphere
The decline in ice cover on lakes has been an early warning for the onset of today's climate change. Records of ice-on and ice-off dates and the duration of ice cover were commonly kept by citizens over the last 50 to 150 years often prior to the establishment of weather stations. These records allow us to visualize lake ice in the context of change that occurred over decades to centuries. One Shinto Shrine record began in the 1400s in Japan. Ice records allow us to see what has been happening not only to our lake, or Wisconsin lakes, but to lakes around the Northern Hemisphere. Declines already have affected human uses of winter lake ice. Several lakes in Wisconsin experience winters without complete ice cover; such winters are forecast to become more common in Wisconsin's future. Declines in ice has increased winter drownings, and has decreased days for winter fishing, festivals, skating, iceboating, skiing, walking, and viewing, as well as transportation on winter ice roads. Climate change has been eroding a part of our "sense of place" for those of us who include lake ice in our lives.
Presenter: John Magnuson, Professor in the Department of Integrated Biology and Emeritus Director in the Center of Limnology, University of Wisconsin - Madison
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