Nutrient Management Planning on Wisconsin Farms
In Wisconsin, the Multi-Agency Land and Water Education Grant (MALWEG) Program was started to help integrate educational programming and local conservation efforts. Program support comes from the Natural Resources Conservation Service, the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection, the Farm Service Agency (FSA), and the University of Wisconsin-Extension. The Program provides competitive money for local projects to help farmers and other private landowners develop nutrient management plans and improve on-farm environmental performance.

The program provided funding for 11 projects ($142,008 in grant money) in the fall of 2006 for training to be completed from late 2006 through 2007. These projects are delivering nutrient management training to approximately 150 Wisconsin farmers. Final project reports will be compiled in early 2008. Prior history of agricultural producers participating in these trainings indicate that average farm size is 300 cropland acres, and that through the training process 95% of participating farmers follow through to develop their own nutrient management plan. Using preliminary 2007 student numbers, this project session has the potential to generate 142 nutrient management plans on 42,600 acres.

Discovery Farms Program
Discovery Farms are a network of real working Wisconsin farms in different geographic areas facing different environmental challenges.  They work with researchers at UW-Madison, UW-Platteville and UW-Stevens Point to evaluate nutrient management strategies and practices aimed at reducing nonpoint source pollution while protecting farm profitability. A primary objective is to establish baseline data that can be used to determine environmental impacts of various farm management practices in the varying landscape and climate areas of Wisconsin.

In the past year, Discovery Farms continued existing programs related to comprehensive nutrient management planning, baseline monitoring, core farm development, and training of local citizen sampling volunteers. Discovery Farms staff worked with other nutrient management specialists to develop three additional training programs based on the information coming off Discovery Farms.  These training programs included: 1) Managing manure and nutrients on tiled land; 2) Managing manure and nutrients on highly permeable soils; and 3) Adjusting diets to meet the NRCS 592 standard. In addition, programs related to education and producer training and efforts on the northwest shoreline of Lake Michigan were continued and expanded. The Discovery Farm Area on the northwest shoreline of Lake Michigan is working with local producers to develop sound baseline information on sediment movement and nitrogen and phosphorus losses.  The long-term goal is to determine the contribution of nutrients (phosphorus and nitrogen) and sediment from agricultural production.  This project is different from other Discovery Farms projects in that work is being conducted on three farms with different farming systems to gather information on nutrients and sediment losses in this region. 
For more information on these projects, please visit the Discovery Farms website.

New Livestock Initiative to Protect Water Resources

During the past year, staff worked directly with producers on nutrient management planning to promote farm conservation practices that improve watershed health. So far, 27 counties have completed direct farmer training, reaching over 587 producers farming nearly 169,000 acres. Indirect contacts include those made via website hits and publications distributed. It is estimated over 5,000 producers were reached in the past year with information on nutrient management and manure management. Some impacts of the direct farmer training include:

• more than 85% of participating producers have completed or received a nutrient management plan or have a plan in development; a majority of the participants had their manure spreaders calibrated;
• over 85% had their soil conservation plans reviewed and updated to assure their plans met accepted specifications; and nearly 50% of the Nutrient Management Plan writers were the farmers themselves, which indicates a strong motivation to continue to adopt conservation practices in future crop years
• Over 80% of local education project providers plan to train additional farmers on NMP if funds are available. Producer demand for additional training is very high, with increasing waiting lists in a number of locations. New local training sessions are now being started in at least 12 counties.

Central Wisconsin Groundwater Center
The Central Wisconsin Groundwater Center was established in 1985 to work with citizens and local governments throughout Wisconsin, particularly those in the central part of the state. In the past year, the Groundwater Center has:

1. worked with county land conservation departments to develop and support private well testing programs and use the information gained to locate areas that are more likely to experience problems with nitrate and bacteria contamination,
2. provided statewide assistance to individuals with questions and concerns regarding drinking water quality and private well issues, and
3. assisted in coordinating the 2006 Wisconsin Groundwater Festival. The purpose of the festival is to increase groundwater awareness and provide examples of local people and programs taking action to protect their groundwater resources. The 2006 festival was designed to reflect the groundwater issues and concerns that face Northeast Wisconsin. Nine hundred twnety students from 11 different schools attended the festival, and nearly 200 volunteers and over 30 sponsors assisted with the event.

Project/Program: Water Action Volunteers

Water Action Volunteers (WAV) is a statewide program for Wisconsin citizens who want to learn about and improve the quality of Wisconsin’s streams and rivers. The program is coordinated through a partnership between the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources and the University of Wisconsin – Cooperative Extension. Citizens, civic groups, 4-H clubs, students and other volunteer groups are participating in WAV programs across the state. WAV currently offers informational materials and support for citizen stream monitoring, as well as storm drain stenciling, river cleanups and other action-oriented water resource protection projects. Here are some impacts from the past year:

Stream Monitoring Training
Volunteer trainings were held across the state and new programs were initiated in the past year. Over 1,250 individuals were introduced to stream monitoring and education via recent trainings. There were over 20 training events held to teach volunteers monitoring methods and background information for various WAV parameters in the past year. In these, about 845 individuals were trained, including 555 students and about 290 adults. Other trainings, held in partnership with DNR biologists and University of Wisconsin researchers, included crayfish monitoring as a way to measure stream health.

A stream monitoring “train-the-trainer” event was held to introduce individuals who will train others in the WAV monitoring methods. This will ensure consistency in trainings across the state as the program grows. Twenty-eight adults attended this day-long event.

This program also supports a citizen-based conservation resource monitoring initiative involving teams of volunteers working with cooperating Discovery Farms producers. These volunteers, Trained Local Samplers (TLS), helped rural landowners monitor the water quality effects of Discovery Farm practices. The TLS program was initiated in the fall of 2002 with three main objectives: obtain high quality data to evaluate current and future surface water quality trends on the Farms; educate farmers and area citizens about the role of agriculture within ecosystems; and bring farmer and community interests together by using study results for educa tion. One of the samplers was awarded the State Environmental Science Proficiency Award for Future Farmers of America (FFA) in 2004. He also received a gold rating at the national FFA for his efforts.

To develop the WAV program, promotion and planning for six new local monitoring programs was conducted, including multiple presentations at various venues, training planning, and equipment organization. Nine Wisconsin “wildcards” were created to provide additional assistance to monitors in identifying macroinvertebrates. A Volunteer Monitoring Team for Wisconsin (representatives from various volunteer monitoring efforts are part of the Team) was initiated. To access outreach information, research, and education about WAV program, see the WAV website.

Database Development Wisconsin Water Action Volunteer staff worked with counterparts from other water quality monitoring programs in WI as well as GIS specialists to create maps of monitoring sites with data available through program databases. Sites are being linked to separate databases to allow some coordination of the differing programs, while allowing separate databases and their associated structures to remain. GPS coordinates are being entered for all registered stream sites. Additional new sites were registered in the database, bringing the total number of registered sites to over 330. Almost 300 new days of data added to the database, bringing the total to over 2500 days of data. Forty-three Wisconsin counties have WAV program volunteers, with 1250 volunteers devoting 476 days in the past year.

Great Lakes Freshwater Estuary Needs Assessment
The University of Wisconsin-Extension, with funding assistance from the Wisconsin Coastal Management Program, is conducting a Great Lakes freshwater estuary needs assessment for Wisconsin. In the summer and fall of 2006, three coastal community working sessions were held near the shores of Lake Michigan and Lake Superior. The working sessions brought together resource experts, community leaders, and knowledgeable citizens for the purpose of identifying and prioritizing Wisconsin’s Great Lakes freshwater estuary needs.
At each working session, individuals participated in facilitated small groups and identified priority applied needs for Wisconsin’s freshwater estuaries.

The list of priority freshwater estuary needs was then narrowed to 15 comprehensive priority research, management, and outreach and education needs. The next step in the needs assessment process will be a survey to gather expert input and quantitative data regarding the priority needs. The results of the survey will increase the reliability and validity of the needs assessment process and provide the basis for a strategy document for Wisconsin's Great Lakes freshwater estuaries. This project serves as a model that can be replicated regionally and used to increase the capacity of land grant institutions and others to improve regional responsiveness to freshwater estuary needs. The needs assessment results will also be incorporated into relevant aspects of an ongoing effort to develop a National Estuarine Research Reserve on Wisconsin’s Lake Superior shoreline.

See projects under Animal Waste Management

Basin Education Program
The Wisconsin Basin Education Program involves a team of 15 University of Wisconsin-Extension Basin Educators located throughout Wisconsin in areas coinciding with the state’s major river and Great Lakes basins. Staff at the University of Wisconsin-Extension Environmental Resources Center provide statewide support for program evaluation and the development of regional and statewide educational materials. The Basin Education Program works with the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources and the Natural Resources Conservation Service to provide statewide, watershed-based natural resources education. The program promotes the integration of management activities across disciplines and interests and emphasizes ecosystem-oriented management approaches where feasible. Through a variety of interactive processes, citizens, agency staff and other key stakeholder groups work together to identify and address the important resource issues in their particular basins. During 2007, the Basin Education Program conducted watershed-based outreach and education activities, programs, and workshops and developed education materials related to topics such as agricultural performance standards and prohibitions, municipal stormwater regulations, construction site erosion control, groundwater and wetland protection, rain garden implementation, and invasive species identification, removal and control. Through these projects and activities, the Basin Education Program delivered research-based information and promoted cooperation and communication among the numerous agencies and organizations active in protecting Wisconsin’s water and land resources.