From Plan into Practice: Solutions for our Changing Lakes

Join us for an all-day lakes workshop on Saturday, February 24 in at Richard T. Anderson Education Center, Waukesha County Technical College, Pewaukee!

Many of Southern Wisconsin’s lakes have been actively managed for decades. This workshop will focus on ways we can improve our lakes by fully implementing our existing plans for lake protection and restoration.

Numerous case studies on successful lake management efforts from across the state will be highlighted. Breakout sessions will offer topic choices including the management of shallow lakes and water levels, managing Eurasian watermilfoil, phasing out phosphorus in lawn fertilizers and working with the agricultural community. And, we’ll also cover fundraising for lake groups, working with consultants, and motivating people to make positive changes in our lake communities.

A panel of elected officials from the county and state levels and successful local lake leaders will talk about how citizens and lake groups can work effectively with government decision-makers to get the job done on our lakes.

Registration deadline is February 16th.

Conservation Lobby Day is a free event where citizens learn how to communicate effectively with legislators and media, learn more about this year’s Conservation Priorities, and meet with elected representatives to talk about this year’s Conservation Priorities. This year’s Conservation Priorities are important to lakes.

We encourage you to sign up for Lobby Day yourself, and consider making a few phone calls, sending e-mails to local lake enthusiasts, coordinating carpools to Madison or—if you are unable to attend—sending a personal letter to your legislator to let them know how these priorities are important to your lake.

Conservation priorities related to lake Strengthening the Great Lakes Compact

Groundwater provides drinking and household water for 75% of Wisconsin’s residents, provides 97% of the water used by Wisconsin municipalities for city services such as sewage treatment, fire fighting, and street cleaning, is needed by farmers to water livestock and irrigate crops, and is used by a wide variety industries for many processes. Groundwater is also a source of water for many of Wisconsin’s lakes. Dropping water tables can cause lake levels to fall, and a lake’s ecosystem, water quality, and recreational uses to decline.

Some communities faced with declining aquifers are eyeing the Great Lakes to compensate for overtaxed local supplies. Diverting water away from the Great Lakes does nothing to improve the sustainability of local water demands or replenish damaged groundwater resources; it diminishes the Great Lakes and ignores the groundwater supply problems created at home.

Pressures on groundwater supplies outside of the Great Lakes Basin—the Central Sands counties, Dane, Waukesha, and Jefferson Counties—are building and so are the conflicts. As part of passing the Compact, Wisconsin needs to include provisions for a statewide water conservation system that rectifies the existing gaps in state laws and regulations. Taking some visionary steps now can help safeguard Wisconsin’s water wealth, prevent future local water conflicts, and address communities already experiencing water supply problems.

The DNR Secretary is a critical position that should not be susceptible to political pressure. State level environmental policy decisions should be based on the merits of the proposals themselves, not political motives. Improving Wisconsin natural resources management means entrusting decisions to professional natural resource managers rather than the whims of elected officials. Restoring the Natural Resource Board’s authority to select the DNR Secretary will help remove partisan politics from natural resource decision-making.

Since 1989, the innovative Knowles-Nelson stewardship fund has helped protect almost 450,000 acres of critical natural areas, wildlife habitat, and water quality across Wisconsin. Stewardship Fund matching grants have helped local governments and nonprofit partners—including local lake groups and land trusts—protect the places they love. Right now, the future of the Stewardship Fund is uncertain—it will expire in 2010 unless the Legislature and Governor vote for it to continue.

A new report issued by the Ground water Advisory Committee (GAC) offers recommendations to the state legislature on how to manage Wisconsin’s groundwater resources.

Recommendations for Groundwater Management Areas The 2003 Groundwater Protection Act created two Groundwater Management Areas (GMAs) in Waukesha and Brown Counties. Groundwater levels have dropped 150 feet or more over the last century in these GMAs because groundwater has been pumped out more quickly than it’s been replaced naturally. In these areas, municipal wells are being drilled so deep to tap into dropping groundwater tables that some hazardous materials such as radium and arsenic are being released from bedrock to mix with citizen’s drinking water.

The GAC report to lawmakers outlined recommendations for managing groundwater in the GMAs. For the time being, GMAs are limited to those areas identified in legislation. The report calls for governments within GMAs to create comprehensive groundwater management plans that set objectives for groundwater quantity and quality. The GAC recommends 15 components that should be a part of developing and/or the final plan, including

• a water conservation component,
• a public participation component,
• recognition of the need to promote local planning and regulation to protect groundwater recharge areas and areas most susceptible to groundwater contamination.

Groundwater Attention Areas identified Two additional areas—Dane County and the Little Plover River Watershed in the Central Sands region of the state—are also experiencing declining groundwater levels. In Dane County groundwater levels have been drawn down by more than 30 feet in two areas. The Little Plover River Watershed feeds the Little Plover River, a trout stream that had segments run dry in 2005 and 2006.

The committee recommended lawmakers create a new classification called Groundwater Attention Areas, in which local governments would be encouraged to proactively plan and follow groundwater management strategies to prevent groundwater problems from worsening.

Two groups worried that Minnesota’s lakes are being loved to death called on Minnesota’s Department of Natural Resources to put new teeth behind shoreline development rules by making voluntary shoreline guidelines mandatory under state law.

In 2005, the Minnesota DNR, brought interested parties together to develop the new shoreland rules for five counties in north-central Minnesota. The DNR stopped short of putting the rules into state regulations, saying instead it would let counties set development regulations locally. But, since the “voluntary alternative shoreland standards’’ were developed in December 2005, no county has adopted the full set of guidelines.

Lake advocacy groups say county government officials often are reluctant to enact or enforce waterfront development regulations. Without the statewide force of law, most counties have been willing to grant variances to allow more intensive shoreline development. In a recent DNR survey, 14 counties allowed between 60 percent and 100 percent of the variances requested by landowners to build along waterways.

With so little undeveloped land remaining along lakes, and developed lots seeing expanded building, advocates say the state must act now. State guidelines haven’t been updated since 1989.

Between 1954 and 1967, a state survey found a 90 percent increase in the number of structures on lakes. Between 1967 and 1982, the number of lake homes and cabins grew another 74 percent. Since then, the number of structures continues to increase, although the state hasn’t conducted a waterfront building census for a quarter century. Many formerly seasonal cabins are being converted to year-round homes, pushing development closer to the water and eating up more near-shore habitat.

State demographers predict that virtually all growth outside the Twin Cities in the next 50 years will be in the state’s lakes and forest regions, in the country and often on waterfront. Several studies show that rampant development on lakes has led to leaking septic systems and lawns that fertilize lakes with phosphorus, erosion from building sites as cabins are expanded into homes, and critical loss of shoreline habitat for waterfowl and other birds, amphibians and animals.

People you know are making positive contributions to our lakes in many ways. Here’s your chance to recognize their efforts!

Public officials and employees are dedicated and committed to helping others learn more about their lake and making sound lake management decisions. Their knowledge and expertise is a valuable asset in protecting and preserving clean, safe, healthy lakes for everyone. Do you know a public employee who has been making a big difference for lakes in your area?

If so, please show your appreciation by nominating a deserving lake leader for a Wisconsin Stewardship Award in the Public Official and Employee category. Lake Stewardship Award categories to recognize outstanding contributions of time and effort to the future of our lakes include: Citizen, Organized Group, Educator, Youth, Public Official or Employee, and Business. Nominations are due March 16th, 2007.