6 minute read
Keeping Watch On Wisconsin's Waters
Zach Wood
Zach Wood is a public information officer in the DNR’s Office of Communications.
DNR Initiative And Land Trust Efforts Prioritize Protection For High-Quality Watersheds
With nearly 17,000 lakes, about 86,000 miles of streams and 5.3 million acres of wetlands, Wisconsin has an abundance of water, one of the world’s most important resources. However, it’s not the quantity of our waters but the quality that truly matters.
Although water quality efforts have historically centered on cleaning up problem areas, growing evidence shows there is more to gain by protecting the outstanding waters we have.
“Like many things in life, it’s easier, cheaper and more effective to maintain what you already have than to try and get it back after it’s gone,” said Lauren Haydon, DNR watershed protection coordinator. “We have some truly wonderful waters in this state, and we still have an opportunity to protect them for the future. We’re very lucky in that regard.”
That’s precisely why the DNR’s Water Quality Program launched the Healthy Watersheds, High-Quality Waters initiative in 2022. This effort identifies healthy waterbodies and watersheds around the state and prioritizes their protection.
The initiative also takes a “watershed approach,” meaning it doesn’t just focus on the high-quality waters themselves but on the watersheds that flow into them.
“In basic terms, a watershed is the total area that ultimately drains to a stream, lake or wetland,” Haydon said. “Runoff pollution on a landlocked property can negatively impact a wetland, river or lake miles away if a small creek runs through it when it rains or if it’s uphill from a waterbody.
“To meaningfully protect a body of water, our efforts must extend far beyond its shoreline or bank.”
Partnerships Matter
Although the Healthy Watersheds, High-Quality Waters program is a DNR initiative, much of the crucial watershed protection work happens in collaboration with local partners. Key to this work are land trusts, community-based nonprofit organizations that work to permanently protect essential lands by balancing future conservation and land uses.
Land trusts typically protect land in one of two ways, said Mike Carlson, executive director of Gathering Waters, a Wisconsin alliance of more than 40 land trusts.
The first is by purchasing properties or accepting donated lands and then managing them as nature preserves or conservation lands that often are open to the public for outdoor recreation. Alternatively, land trusts can use a legal tool known as a conservation easement.
“One of the best examples of this strategy in action is the recent Pelican River Forest, acquired by The Conservation Fund in 2021,” Carlson said.
“Through the sale of a conservation easement, this unique project will permanently protect 70,000 acres in northern Wisconsin, including 68 miles of streams in the headwaters of the Wolf and Wisconsin rivers, all while maintaining logging rights for industry, and hunting, fishing and other recreational rights for the public.”
The DNR identified all the land in this easement as a high priority, Carlson added.
“So this easement is not just protecting a lot of land, it’s protecting some of the most important waters and watersheds in the whole state.”
Easements Are Essential
The other way land trusts can protect our watersheds is by working with private landowners to secure conservation easements on their land. This maintains private ownership while adding permanent restrictions to the property deed, often limiting development and subdivision rights even if the property were to be sold, thereby protecting those lands and the waters they touch in perpetuity.
Although these arrangements are smaller in scale than projects like the Pelican River Forest, their collective impacts add up quickly in high-priority areas like Wisconsin’s Northwoods, noted Ted Anchor, Northwoods Land Trust executive director.
Today, Northwoods Land Trust permanently protects over 15,000 acres of land with more than 83 miles of shoreline across seven counties in northern Wisconsin, much of that within 99 private conservation easements that are managed by the organization.
“The majority of land in Wisconsin is private, so private land conservation is essential if we’re going to protect our waters and natural resources,” Anchor said. “Land trusts provide an excellent option for landowners to do that while maintaining their ability to enjoy their property.
“By partnering with a land trust … the families we work with play a major role in protecting our lands, waters and ecosystems, and they create an incredible legacy in the process.”
Land And A Vision
Before any land or water can be protected, there must be a landowner passionate about conservation.
Take, for example, Jim and Kate Weinert, who recently donated 222 forested acres to Landmark Conservancy. Located in the Spider Lake watershed and identified by the DNR as a protection priority area, the donated property offers connectivity with the Sawyer County Forest and Lake Helane State Natural Area.
The Weinerts’ donation came after their longtime friends and neighbors on Spider Lake, Margaret and Michael O’Sullivan, established conservancy protection for their own lake property, and the Weinerts followed that lead.
“To be able to protect this land and the surrounding waters is something we’re so proud to be doing,” said Jim Weinert. “We’re hopeful more people will do the same while these amazing resources can still be protected.”
For those considering a land donation or conservation easement, the first step is to contact your local land trust.
“That’s how most of these get started,” Anchor said. “Landowners, individuals or whole families, that want to help protect the natural resources they love reach out, and we start a conversation.”
From there, land trusts can tailor management to suit the needs of each property and fit owners’ wishes — from what activities will be allowed to where any future building, if any, can happen.
“Each of these properties is as unique as the folks that own them,” Anchor said. “But they’re all the same in that they play a major role in protecting Wisconsin’s waters and watersheds for future generations.”
For details on the DNR’s Healthy Watersheds, High-Quality Waters initiative, visit the DNR's Healthy Watersheds webpage.
