Great Lakes Aquatic Habitat News
The Newsletter of the Great Lakes
Aquatic Habitat Network and Fund
Volume 10, Number 2 • March-April 2002
Great Lakes Aquatic Habitat NewsThe Newsletter of the Great Lakes
|
|
Charlie Luthin
Wisconsin Wetlands Association
The Wisconsin Wetlands Association recently held its Seventh Annual Wetland Science Forum in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, with the theme of wetland restoration and “navigating the wetland regulatory maze”. The two-day event was co-sponsored by the Wisconsin Chapter of the Soil and Water Conservation Society (SWCS). Included were the annual meeting of the SWCS, the science of wetland restoration, and the formal WWA science forum. Over 200 scientists, field practitioners, students, and other interested citizens participated in the event. Kevin Connors, the county conservationist for the Dane County Land Conservation Department and the coordinator for the SWCS meeting, said of our collaboration, “Holding a joint meeting instead of two separate meetings brought new faces to the event and produced fruitful dialogue on important conservation issues. The success of this collaboration far exceeded our expectations, and we believe that this relationship will develop into more such partnerships for natural resource conservation. “
An extensive, volunteer-based survey for purple loosestrife (Lythrum salicaria) will be coordinated by Wisconsin Wetlands Association in fifteen coastal counties this summer. The distribution and extent of infestation of this invasive plant species have not been surveyed for 15 years. With a grant from the Wisconsin Coastal Management Program, WWA has been locating coordinators in each of the Great Lakes counties to help coordinate and publicize the surveys. Lake associations and Audubon chapters, 4-H groups and scout troops, garden clubs and civic organizations, are all being contacted for this massive volunteer effort. Evening workshops for interested survey participants will be held in each county in July, prior to the field surveys planned for August. Participants will be assigned portions of their county to survey, and will be asked to fill out specially-designed data sheets. The data will be entered into a statewide GIS database maintained by the Great Lakes Indian Fish and Wildlife Commission (GLIFWC), where it can be accessed by anyone via their website (www.glifwc-maps.org).
Once infestations are identified, WWA will host a series of fall workshops in targeted areas to train volunteer “cooperators”, including teachers, in bio-control techniques under the state’s purple loosestrife bio-control program. Cooperators will be provided materials and a starter population of Galerucella beetles, the European insect that eats purple loosestrife leaves and flower buds, and is host-specific to the plant. The workshops will also provide teachers with an introduction to our Teacher’s Guidebook to Purple Loosestrife Biological Control, a set of 15 activities that WWA developed with a group of teachers last summer, and due to be published by the DNR this year.
For more information about the forthcoming purple loosestrife project in Wisconsin, contact the Wisconsin Wetlands Association: (608) 250-9971, or at info@wiscwetlands.org.
The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR) and a team of wetland restoration professionals from various agencies and the private sector have developed a set of administrative rules, NR 353, that will greatly expedite the permitting process for sound wetland restoration projects. Prior to the rules, restoration projects that included ditch filling, small berm construction, and soil removal needed many months or even more than a year to process. Under the new rules, a permit will be granted in 30 days if the application is complete. Furthermore, wetland “enhancements” that were constructed prior to 1991 will be grandfathered under the new rules, and no permit will be required to maintain existing dikes and ditches for these projects once a management plan is developed and provided to the DNR. The rules are in the final stage of development and should be approved by the Natural Resources Board this summer.
Three workshops for landowners with restorable wetland acres will have been held in northern Wisconsin by the time you receive this newsletter. Organized by the Wisconsin Wetlands Association in collaboration with state and federal agencies, the workshops attracted a diversity of property owners seeking programs and funding for their restoration needs. The half-day workshops featured speakers from various agencies who describe their specific landowner assistance programs. Landowners have the opportunity to spend time with the technical staff of each agency to discuss their specific properties. Funding for the workshops has come from the University of Wisconsin Extension, Multi-Agency Land and Water Education Grant program. Additional workshops are planned for the fall.
In a strongly partisan move, the Wisconsin State Assembly proposed a revised state budget that significantly undermines the state’s water programs and other important conservation initiatives. Although all state agencies are required to take a 5% across-the-board cut to make up a significant budget deficit, the Water Division of the Department of Natural Resources would swallow 70% of the agency’s cuts. This would significantly impact the programs for private well testing, wetland regulation, and animal waste, as well as other important water quality activities throughout the state. Furthermore, the Assembly has reduced the so-called “Stewardship Fund, ” the conservation fund for land acquisition, from $60 million per year to $35 million per year and also reduced funding for the new “Smart Growth” urban planning program under their revised budget. It is hoped that the State Senate, in the coming weeks, will rectify these draconian cuts to important conservation programs proposed by the Assembly.
| Charlie Luthin Wisconsin Wetlands Association Serving as Hub for Wisconsin 222 S. Hamilton Street-Suite 1 Madison, WI 53703 (608)-250-9971 (608)-256-4562 (fax) E-mail: Charlie@wiscwetlands.org Website: www.wiscwetlands.org |