Inside This Issue

• A Message from the Executive Director
• Champions of Conservation Program
• New LNRP Board Members
• Painting Sale
• We All Live on the Water
• Drinking Water
• Invasive Species

A Message from the Executive Director

LNRP will offer grants for projects that focus on water quality!

Dear Friends of the Lakeshore Natural Resource Partnership –

I’m very excited to announce plans for a 2009 Community Grant Program.  LNRP has held grant rounds in 2003, 2005, and 2007 giving away almost $90,000 to fund 38 projects in the Lakeshore Basin.

This fall, LNRP will award grants to non-profit organizations working to preserve, promote and protect the water quality in the lakeshore basin, the watershed that includes Door, Kewaunee and Manitowoc counties and the eastern parts of Brown and Calumet counties. Grants will range in size from $500 to $5,000.

Funds are being made available by Dominion (NYSE: D), owner of the Kewaunee Power Station.  Dominion is offering $15,000.00 as a challenge grant to other businesses, foundations, and individuals where each dollar donated to the community grant fund will be matched with an overall target of $30,000.00 for the program.

Organizations eligible to compete for grants are grassroots groups with limited revenue located in the lakeshore basin. Applications are due by September 4, 2009 with funding decisions made in late October.

Grant proposals should focus on water quality issues in one of the following four areas of concern:

• Water Resources Protection: Projects that monitor or improve streams, rivers, lakes or wetlands. 
• Environmental Education and Outreach: Projects that establish or improve communication and education about water quality issues for the general public, youth and stewardship programs.
• Land-Use Protection and Restoration: Projects that focus on improving land development decisions to restore or protect water quality.
• Pollution Prevention and Clean Up: Projects that focus on reducing and preventing water, pollution from rural or urban sources.

LNRP has created Grant Advisory Teams in each of the four areas of focus above. These teams of volunteers assist organizations in developing their proposal and also make funding recommendations to the LNRP board of directors. Grant advisory team members are environmental professionals and dedicated citizens with substantial qualifications and a passion for the lakeshore basin environment.

Organizations interested in applying for a grant or learning more about LNRP should visit our website at www.lnrp.org where grant guidelines, instructions, and sample applications are available. Also on the website are project highlights from previous grant rounds. Additional information will be available in our Summer 2009 Newsletter.

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Champion of Conservation Environmental Award Program

The Spring 2009 Champion of Conservation Environmental Award Program is co-sponsored by the Lakeshore Natural Resource Partnership and Dominion.

Nominations were reviewed by our Selection Committees with awards given in four categories: Water Resources Protection, Environmental Education and Outreach, Land-use Protection and Restoration, and Pollution Prevention and Clean Up.  The awards were open to any group, program, organization, business, or individual located and working in the Lakeshore Basin.

JOIN US

Thursday, June 4th at the Bay Beach Wildlife Sanctuary at 1600 East Shore Drive in Green Bay, Wisconsin

5:30 pm Open Appetizer Buffet and Wine Bar
6:15 Award Ceremony
7:00 Buddy Haffaker: Sustaining a Conservation Ethic

As the Executive Director of the Aldo Leopold Foundation, Buddy Huffaker serves as a leading voice for the power of combining the emerging interests of the green building movement with the longer standing conservation and environmental movements.  Building upon his own academic background in landscape architecture, Huffaker was deeply involved in every aspect of the design and construction of the Aldo Leopold Legacy Center, currently the U.S. Green Building Council’s highest ranked LEED NC (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, New Construction category) building in the world.  Further demonstrating his leadership is his participation in the White House Conference on Cooperative Conservation and his election to represent the Northeast Region at the US Forest Service’s Centennial Congress.  In addition, he has contributed to two books; The Farm as a Natural Habitat (Island Press) and Aldo Leopold and the Ecological Conscience (Oxford University Press) and addressed audiences across North America on why and how society must develop an ecological conscience. 

The Aldo Leopold Foundation, a nonprofit organization founded by the children of Aldo Leopold, keeps his legacy alive by promoting the "Land Ethic" he so eloquently defined. The Foundation engages in ecological restoration, environmental education, land preservation, and scientific research on the 1,400 acre Leopold Memorial Reserve in central Wisconsin and surrounding landscapes.

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New LNRP Board Members!

LNRP is pleased to introduce you to Rock Anderson and Kelley O’Connor as the newest additions to our Board of Directors.

Rock grew up in Chilton, WI, a river rat, fishing, exploring and waterfowl hunting on the Manitowoc River.  After high school, he attended the University of Wisconsin Stevens Point, where he received a Bachelor’s Degree in Wildlife Management. His first job out of college was a Conservation Technician for the Calumet Co. Soil and Water Conservation District. In 1978 he became the first County Conservationist for Calumet County. In the 1980’s he managed some of the first watershed protection projects in the state, The Winnebago East Shore and the South Branch of the Manitowoc.  In 1993, Rock accepted a position as Environmental Engineering Specialist with the WI Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection.  In NE Wisconsin, Rock worked with other engineers in 14 different counties, assisting in the design of large water quality projects on large farms and in situations where the local government entity felt additional expertise was necessary. One of them was the development of miles of additional sturgeon spawning habitat in the Wolf River basin.  Rock retired from state service in 2008 and as a confirmed “small town” guy, still lives with his wife Sherrill in Chilton. He now works part time as a design specialist for a private engineering consultant.

Kelley grew up on small dairy farm near Pulaski, Wisconsin on what she calls a typical Irish Catholic family farm.  Her parents had 7 children plus hired teenage farmhands since her father also worked full-time for the Brown County Library for 30 years driving the Bookmobile.  She says she appreciates the fact that her father not only taught her about hard work and farming, but always kept her and her siblings well supplied with books to read! Kelley has spent most of her professional life with state agencies in environmental management positions.  For the last three years, she has been the Lakeshore Basin Watershed Supervisor at the Department of Natural Resources and is responsible for all watershed activities in Door, Kewaunee, and Manitowoc Counties.  Kelley received her bachelor’s degree in Natural Resources Management and Soils from UW-Stevens Point and then continued her education getting her master’s in Environmental Science and Policy from UW-Green Bay.  Before becoming the Watershed Supervisor, Kelley had three other positions at the DNR and previously worked as a DOT/DNR Liaison.  She started her professional career with Brown County Soil and Water as their first County Conservationist.

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Lakeshore Waterways Art Sale

The Lakeshore Natural Resource Partnership and the Water’s Edge Artists are excited to launch an on-line art auction.  We will be hosting a “Conservation Gallery” on our website beginning in June 2009 with paintings that appear in the Lakeshore Waterways calendar.  We will also have links to the Water’s Edge Artists individual websites so that you can learn more about the artists and their participation in this collaboration designed to cultivate a stewardship ethic for our waterways.

Check out our website in June to find the details on the auction and learn how you could purchase one of the outstanding paintings of our local waterways.  The proceeds from the sale go to helping LNRP protect and restore the rivers, streams, lakes and wetlands in the Lakeshore Basin.

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We All Live on the Water

The We All Live on the Water seminar series brings timely discussion of water-related issues to residents of the basin, featuring speakers of acknowledged expertise and encouraging a public dialogue to elicit and enlighten all points of view.  LNRP also recognizes that the seminars further cultivate our partnerships with local groups and other organizations.

The first year of seminars and the launch of our quarterly newsletter were funded by a DNR River Planning Grant.  Seminars were developed in collaboration with local partner organizations that have created steering committees.  These steering committees have continued to work together on a variety of projects including conferences, calendars, other seminars, and food fairs. 

In 2008, LNRP also launched the Champion of Conservation Environmental Award Program.  The award banquet showcases nationally recognized speakers as a further development of the We All Live on the Water campaign.

On Thursday, December 4, 2008, LNRP welcomed Peter Annin to the Wisconsin Maritime Museum in Manitowoc, Wisconsin.  Peter is author of the timely “Great Lakes Water Wars.”  His story of the long-standing tensions revolving around the waters of the Great Lakes are a great complement to understanding the value of the Great Lakes Compact.  One of our members was so impressed with Peter’s talk that she bought and read Peter’s book and then wanted to write a story for our newsletter.  If you’d like to contribute a story, please contact Jim Kettler at jim@lnrp.org.

Speaker Influences LNRP Member’s View of Water
Colleen Dunn – Cleveland, Wisconsin

Reading Peter Annin’s book “The Great Lakes Water Wars” (GLWW) has given me a thirst for more information about the history of the great lakes, what’s happening currently and what I can do to help maintain this wonderful resource - no pun intended!

While reading GLWW I realized just how little I knew about Lake Michigan and its past, current and future role in events that can affect me.  As a Great Lakes basin resident you talk in passing with folks in the summer about Lake Michigan’s receding water level, but until reading GLWW did I realize the true impact of that water reduction and events that have brought things to this point.  Mr. Annin has laid out the picture of the Great Lakes basin and the underlying water issues in an easy to follow format, making me a little embarrassed that those facts didn’t just roll off my tongue before reading his book.

Mr. Annin’s reference to the Aral Sea diversion and the consequences had me sit up and take notice; and was much more effective that just a plea to be a good steward of the Great Lakes basin.  I wasn’t surprised to find that a good amount of the controversy regarding passing the Great Lakes Compact and initial water regulating had political issues lurking below the surface, but I guess that means more people than just biologists and ecologists now know the issues affecting the Great Lakes.

As I was reading about all the communities in need or want for Great Lakes water, I kept thinking why aren’t they trying to reduce consumption as well as diversion. I agree with the Great Lakes Compact that any diversion within/without the Great Lakes basin should have “No Net Loss” or return all treated water back to the basin.

I was happy to see that another key provision of the compact was that each state adopt a “water conservation plan’.  This starting me thinking (or I should say perusing the internet) of ways I could help conserve water, and in a little way do something for this precious water resource we have.   

I thank Mr. Annin for such a well-written book and LNRP, primarily Mr. Kettler for bringing such topics and speakers to the forefront and involving our community so that we become aware of the issues surrounding the GL and become good stewards of the GL.

We all have to conserve water and care about the Great Lakes BECAUSE IT’S THE RIGHT THING TO DO !

Below are some free or very inexpensive ways to conserve water starting with the bigger water consumers of an average household. Remember every drop saved helps, and not having to retreat the water saves energy and money, reaping a double benefit.

Start by verifying that your home doesn’t have any leaky faucets etc by reading the water meter and then after a 2hr period (without water consumption) rechecking the water meter to be sure it reads exactly the same, if not check for bad faucet washers or toilet tank issues for starters.

BATHROOM - Don’t use the toilet as a wastebasket; dispose of insects, tissues etc in the trash rather than the toilet. Place a filled 2 liter bottle of water in the toilet tank so that it uses less water to flush. A little less palatable idea is to flush the toilet less often or only when necessary.

FAUCETS - Most obvious, don’t let the water run while brushing your teeth or needlessly.  When waiting for water at the kitchen sink to get warm to wash my hands, I fill sports bottles up and put them in the fridge so you have refreshing cold water later on without running water at that point to get it cold.  When washing fruits/veggies in the kitchen sink collect the water in a dishpan and water plants/shrubs.  Don’t use the kitchen sink disposal as they use a lot of water to operate properly, start a compost pile or dispose of waste in the garbage can.

SHOWER/TUB - Collect water in a watering container while your running the water waiting for it to get hot.  Take a shower instead of a bath as a shower (low flow) uses 12 gals of water per shower, a bath uses 30-45 gals depending how full you fill the tub.

WASHING MACHINE - only do a load when it is totally full or set the water level appropriate for the size of our load.

OUTSIDE - Wash your car on the lawn so you can simultaneously water your grass. Collect rainwater in barrels to water your garden and flowers at a later time. Even a bucket or two of rainwater adds up.

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Drinking Water

League of Conservation Voters define priorities for 2009-2010

In the last LNRP newsletter, we shared an issue brief on protecting Wisconsin’s groundwater.  This is one of four of the Conservation Priorities selected by the League of Conservation Voters through listening sessions held throughout the State.

Other priorities include stopping global warming, restoring conservation integrity by moving the appointment of the Department of Natural Resources Secretary to the Natural Resources Board, and protecting Wisconsin’s drinking water.  In this issue, we’re sharing the issue brief on protecting our drinking water.

Protect Wisconsin’s Drinking Water
(adapted from Wisconsin League of Conservation Voters Priority Briefs)

Karst Topography

In large parts of Wisconsin, especially in the so-called ‘karst” areas, the land above our freshwater is quite porous.  When manure or industrial sludge is spread on that land, it can get into cracks and holes in the ground that act as direct tunnels to our drinking water.  Drinking ‘brown water’ has already sickened Wisconsin citizens, causing stomach cramps, nausea, diarrhea, and chills.  In some communities in northeastern Wisconsin, unsafe levels of this pollution have been found in over 50% of the wells tested.

Families whose wells have been contaminated have incurred medical bills and lost wages while spending time securing safe water for their families and dealing with the illnesses.  Adding insult to injury, those families then had to pay for the cost of drilling a new, deeper well with no guarantee that the well would not be contaminated by manure once again.

Wisconsin’s regulations governing the land application of waste are among the weakest in the Midwest.  While some industries use our land as a dumping ground, others are even importing industrial waste from other states.  For the health of our citizens and the long-term sustainability of our industries, Wisconsin needs regulations that adequately protect all of our land and the groundwater beneath it from careless waste disposal practices.

Solution
To prevent the contamination of groundwater and drinking water in at-risk regions around the state, legislators must enact legislation that will: 

1. Create a “Carbonate Bedrock Management Area” for Kewaunee, Door, Calumet, Manitowoc and Brown counties, in which the application of wastes to land is restricted or prohibited based on the risk of contamination to groundwater.
2. Create criteria for developing Management Areas for other karst regions where conditions call for it.
3. Enable counties or the Department of Natural Resources to map and classify all lands statewide upon which waste is applied based on the risk of groundwater contamination.
4. Strengthen the existing regulations covering the land application of industrial and municipal wastes around the state.

Results
Creating a special management area and strengthening environmental standards for waste spreading will: 

• Provide the framework for landscape-specific pollution standards that protect groundwater supplies that could eventually be used in other areas of the state.
• Prevent dangerous public health problems and added expenses that result from contaminated wells.
• Help ensure that Wisconsin is no longer a dumping ground for other states’ industrial and municipal waste.  

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Invasive Species

Door County’s Invasive Species Challenges ~ Maintaining Our Native Landscapes and Safeguarding Biodiversity
By Bob Bultman

The Door Peninsula is a rich landscape.  Varied in physical texture and lake tempered microclimates, the Peninsula is home to some of the highest levels of biodiversity in the mid-continent.  This wealth of biological capital owes its existence to the Niagara Escarpment, an internationally important feature that defines our Lakeshore Basin.  The Escarpment forms a Great Arc that can be traced from southeast Wisconsin north to the Garden Peninsula and the eastern Upper Peninsula of Michigan, island hopping into Lake Huron, down the Bruce Peninsula, through southern Ontario and across Niagara Falls into western New York State.  The United Nations as well as State and Provincial natural resource agencies have recognized the globally significant habitat value of the ecosystems associated with the Niagara Escarpment.  Ontario’s Bruce Peninsula was recognized as a World Biosphere Reserve in 1990 and in its recently released Wisconsin Wildlife Action Plan, the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (WDNR) lists much of the Door Peninsula as globally significant habitat.

The Door Peninsula is Wisconsin’s most exposed and prominent segment of the Niagara Escarpment and the County of Door is home to more rare, threatened and endangered plants and animals than any other county in Wisconsin.  In addition, Door County supports a greater concentration of such fragile species than any other county in the state.  This is a big stewardship responsibility, especially for a county so driven by development and land parceling.  Aggressive by nature, invasive species love such disturbance.  How does a county safeguard fragile species and native landscapes for future generations?  Enter the Door County Invasive Species Team (DCIST).

A decade ago, members of the Door County Soil & Water Conservation Department, Door County Land Trust, The Nature Conservancy, WDNR and motivated citizens began discussing biodiversity and the threat posed by invasive species.  It was clear that safeguarding native landscapes for all future generations goes well beyond simply setting natural lands aside.  Since invasive species do not recognize property lines or jurisdictional borders, such an effort needed to involve all segments of society, not just land conservation groups. Occasional public meetings and DCIST outreach activities began in 2000, but were somewhat limited.  As with most fledgling organizations, growing the Team was just one more thing on someone’s already full plate.

Receiving state grant dollars provided the Team with a coordinator in 2006 who could focus on DCIST needs and programs.  Outreach increased and public meetings became more regular as did hands-on educational demonstration control workparty opportunities.  The Ridges Sanctuary subsequently joined the organizations overseeing the effort. Three years later, DCIST continues evolving to face the many challenges posed by invasives.  By outreaching to neighborhood associations, property owners groups, park friends groups, municipalities, service organizations, school ecology clubs, fishing tournaments, etc., DCIST hopes to not only teach the skills needed to combat, control and prevent the spread of invasive species but also to instill a deeper stewardship ethic about our native landscapes in all of the county’s citizens and visitors.

From the depth of our lakes to the tops of our trees, every ecosystem in every native landscape is susceptible to the radical changes invasive species present.  Human activities are at the root of these various changes and therefore, within our control.  The cultural shift that DCIST is trying to instill in citizens and visitors to Door County is broad, but fundamental.  Hopefully, the successes experienced and lessons learned in Door County can inspire and assist stewardship efforts in other areas in the Lakeshore Basin and beyond.  I encourage you to assess the activities that you undertake in your work and play.  What are you doing to sustain and assist the native landscapes of the Lakeshore Basin?

Links:

Door County Invasive Species Team: http://map.co.door.wi.us/swcd/invasive/default.htm

WDNR Wisconsin Wildlife Action Plan: http://dnr.wi.gov/org/land/er/wwap/plan/

Niagara Escarpment Resource Network: http://www.escarpmentnetwork.org

Manitowoc County ~ What We Are Finding About Invasive Species in the County
By: Tom Ward

The Manitowoc County Lakes Association (MCLA) received an AIS grant last spring to address the growing concerns with aquatic invasive species in Manitowoc County. President Al Meyer of MCLA stated; “invasive species threatening our county waters and natural ecosystems have been identified as a major concern by: our local sportsman clubs, lake organizations, gardeners and public input to the County’s Land & Water Resource Plan”. Property owners on Pigeon and English Lake this past summers have had to chemically treat invasive plants on their lakes and would like to protect their investments from future threats.

The goal of the AIS project is to:

• Develop a Citizen based program to prioritize invasive species threats
• Provide early detection and identification of invasive species
• Provide man power or resources to control the spread of invasive species.

We are finding from Public input; It was identified that 11 of our 20 public access lakes in Manitowoc County have infestations of invasive species. (The County has over 100 lakes, many without public access.) Four lakes have Zebra Mussels, ten lakes have Eurasian Water Milfoil, two lakes have Curly-leaf pondweed, and two lakes have the Banded Mystery Snail. Most of our rivers and streams including the Branch River have the Rusty Crayfish, which consumes the in-stream vegetation important for aquatic life.  Most invasive species compete directly with native species that provide food and cover for our aquatic ecosystems. Invasives tend be extremely aggressive or productive with few if any predators or natural controls.

Other concerns were Phragmites, Japanese Knotweed, Teasel, Garlic Mustard, Honey Suckle and Buckthorn not all of which are aquatic invasives but pose a threat to our upland habitats. The primary vector of Phragmites, (an 8 to 10 foot tall grass species with a large feathery seed head),  was construction equipment carrying in seed contaminated soil during the construction of I-43, while working at the bay of Green Bay during the project years. Other vectors for the spread of invasive species are road right-of -ways, parks and railroads. Local governments involved in right of way maintenance will be contacted to discuss ways to control invasives on these areas.

Volunteers are helping; Over 30 monitors have signed up with the project to become trained on identification of AIS. Six monitors recently received training provided by Woodland Dunes to monitor AIS for English, Wilke, Cedar and Weyers lakes. Early detection will allow for immediate action to either, pull, treat or contain species before they spread. The MCLA goal is to have a monitor for all 20 public access lakes.

A Clean Boats Inspection Program is also being conducted and promoted by MCLA and the project. The inspection program involves volunteers working at boat landing to demonstrate with boaters the proper method to Inspect, Clean and Drain their equipment before and after leaving a water body. The project discovered that County lakes with limited public access remain free from AIS, and lakes used with motorized boats had the earliest infestation dates. This suggests that boaters are the main source of AIS not birds or animals.

Future threats to County surface waters identified by the project can be linked to transmittal from Lake Michigan where many species enter the ecosystem from the discharge of untreated Shipping Vessel Ballast waters. They are: the Spiny water flea that has moved into inland waters in Iron County, which is a zooplankton that if swallowed by young fish pierces the fishes’ digestive tract with a sharp spine; Quagga mussels unlike zebra mussel are able to live in soft sediments like Wilke and Silver Lakes, filter good algae and leave the toxic blue green algae and eat zooplankton critical to young fish; VHS, Viral Hemorrhagic Septicemia a virus found in Lake Michigan and Winnebago, kills more than 25 species of fish. All of these mentioned threats can be transmitted by water from water body to water body by not draining or disinfecting; live wells, minnow buckets, motors, watercraft components, fishing nets, anchor ropes, or coolers.

What can we Do; By being knowledgeable and aware how invasive species spread; early detection; treatment; prevention and containment we have an opportunity to control the further spread of AIS into critical habitats. In lakes or water bodies that have AIS we can prevent the spread of additional species to that water body.

If you wish to volunteer for any of these activities or would like to report locations of infestations you can contact Tom Ward at: tomward@tm.net or call 920-588-0047.

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