Great Lakes Aquatic Habitat News
The Newsletter of the Great Lakes
Aquatic Habitat Network and Fund
Volume 10, Number 3 • May-July 2002
Great Lakes Aquatic Habitat NewsThe Newsletter of the Great Lakes
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Charlie Luthin
Wisconsin Wetlands Association
The Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts, and Letters has undertaken a statewide program with a focus on water—called “The Waters of Wisconsin” initiative. This program entails a thorough investigation into the status, conservation, and sustainability of the state’s water resources—both groundwater and surface waters that include our drinking water, lakes, streams, rivers, and wetlands. The Academy has engaged a team of scientists and water specialists from throughout the state, together with prominent advisors from diverse sectors of the community, to gather information, undertake research, and prepare status reports on our water resources. The Academy has held several public forums around the state to introduce the Waters of Wisconsin initiative. The program will culminate in a statewide forum on the state’s water resources to be held October 21-22, 2002 in Madison. The October forum will also mark the 30th anniversary of the federal Clean Water Act. Following the forum, a special volume of the Academy’s Transactions will be devoted to water in 2003. For more information on the water initiative and forum, visit the Academy’s website: www.wisconsinacademy.org.
by Juniper Garver-Hume,
Clean Water Coalition/River Alliance of Wisconsin
The Wisconsin Natural Resources Board unanimously adopted a resolution on May 23rd directing the staff of the Department of Natural Resources to develop a science-based standard to require vegetative buffer strips for agricultural land along high quality and impaired waters throughout the state. The new standard will be developed after additional scientific research is conducted to determine the most effective width and configuration of buffers for Wisconsin. This is hailed by the conservation community as a major victory toward controlling non-point pollution runoff into the state’s waterways.
The new standard will require buffers on agricultural land along all high quality and impaired waters in Wisconsin when cost share dollars are available. The standard will be based on the results of scientific research to be conducted by the Wisconsin Agricultural Stewardship Initiative, with input from the University of Wisconsin College of Agricultural and Life Sciences. The report is to be concluded by the end of 2005. If the research is not completed by that time, the new standard will mirror the current buffer guidelines for Wisconsin that have been developed by the Natural Resource Conservation Service.
By passing the resolution to require a buffer standard, the Natural Resources Board has successfully found a solution to one of the final sticking points holding up passage of the polluted runoff rules that have been in the making for nearly four years. Vegetative buffer strips have been a key practice in the rules—for both agriculture and urban standards—until they were removed from the agricultural standards late last year.
The new buffer standard will be implemented by a future date that will be chosen so as not to affect the eligibility of Wisconsin landowners who participate in the Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program (CREP). Vegetative buffers have been stalled largely because the state worried that a mandatory standard would render landowners ineligible for CREP, which provides generous federal funding for conservation practices. However, the Farm Services Agency recently stated that a mandatory buffer requirement, with a future compliance date, will not conflict with CREP. The latest Federal Farm Bill extended CREP until 2008.
Ashley Furniture Industries in Trempealeau, Wisconsin feels it is above the law—that it should be granted permission to fill a 14-acre floodplain wetland in order to build a parking lot and warehouse. Unfortunately for the resource, key legislators feel the same way (perhaps thanks to generous campaign contributions by Ashley executives?), and are pushing an exemption from state wetland laws through the budget bill—again. Three years ago legislators gave Ashley their desired exemption in the state budget, but five environmental organizations sued and won the case, arguing that the exemption for Ashley was unconstitutional. Although Governor Scott McCallum helped secure protection for isolated wetlands with a new law in 2001 and has been using this success as a re-election campaign focus, there is concern that the Governor will sign the bill to include the Ashley exemption.
| 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 |