Great Lakes Aquatic Habitat News
The Newsletter of the Great Lakes
Aquatic Habitat Network and Fund
Volume 9, Number 3 • May-June 2001
Great Lakes Aquatic Habitat NewsThe Newsletter of the Great Lakes
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by Charlie Luthin, Wisconsin Wetlands Association
DNR Split Proposal Dead on Arrival
There have been various efforts to split the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources into two agencies over the past several years. This spring, Representative John Gard (R) tried to accomplish a split of the DNR by incorporating his proposal into the biennial budget. By doing this through the budget, the effort does not receive the same amount of attention and public scrutiny as if it were introduced as a separate bill. However, the environmental and conservation community rallied to defeat this unsound and costly proposal, and it seems that, for now, the concept of a split agency is dead. In light of Michigan’s unfavorable experience with a split in their DNR several years ago, it appears to be a positive outcome for the state.
Representatives Gard and Scott Gunderson (R) believe the hunting/angling community can be better served by an agency devoted specifically to natural resource management. They suggest that air and water quality regulations should be the work of a separate agency. However, with mercury pollution being a serious threat to our state’s fisheries, how can air and water quality be separated from a program in fish management? The animosity toward the regulatory side of the DNR is deep in certain circles. In what seems like a retaliatory response by several Representatives, the DNR budget may be severely cut this year in several critical areas of operation.
First Workshop On Wetland Restoration For Landowners Completed
Wisconsin Wetlands Association (WWA) held its first workshop on wetland restoration for 27 landowners during the weekend of May 4-5, 2001 at Riveredge Nature Center and in restorable sites near the Lake Michigan coast. The workshop was an intensive but enjoyable hands-on training program in techniques of “original” restoration, following the guidelines established in WWA’s Wetland Restoration Handbook for Wisconsin Landowners. (The Handbook has recently received the “Wisconsin Distinguished Document Award for 2000 from the Wisconsin Library Association.) WWA is trying to encourage private citizens and state and federal agencies to undertake restoration to approximate original conditions by removing upland sediments that have eroded into wetland sites, restoring original hydrology with ditch filling and tile-line breakage, and encouraging native plant recovery.
Handbook author, Alice Thompson, a wetland ecologist and educator, was the principal instructor. She was joined by restorationist Jeff Nania, program director for Wisconsin Waterfowl Association. Colleagues from the DNR and US Fish and Wildlife Service collaborated on the organization of the workshop and accompanied the participants to the field sites. The participants helped to assess a site for its restoration potential by discovering all of the impacts to the area and then discussing how to reverse the impacts.
WWA is planning additional restoration workshops for landowners and land managers in the coming months.