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 May 2025
Table of Contents
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Counties should have received the 2026 grant application report to review. Please find your county page and verify the information is correct. If changes are needed, please contact Kim or Hailey by May 9.
- The 2025 SWRM Master Contract for each county will be emailed in late May. The contract must be signed by the authorized county signatory and emailed to DATCP. The DATCP administrator will sign the contract and the fully executed contract will be sent to the county.
- The 2023-2024 SWRM Innovation Grant Report is now available on the SWRM webpage.
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NEW FORMS REQUIRED! Many of the SWRM forms have been updated with new content and new numbers. Please refer to Section 3 of the SWRM Grant Resources webpage to access these forms.
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First review of Engineering Reserve Fund applications resulted in the entirety of the $150,000 being awarded to six different projects. Notices and next steps will be coming out the week of May 5. Thank you to all of those who applied, and please keep this fund in mind for next year as we hope to secure more funding!
- Hanna Johnson started in the Ag Engineer position in the southeast part of the state on April 21. Hanna comes to DATCP from the Wisconsin Department of Transportation and also has past experience at the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources. Hanna will be making her way around to the counties in the southeast area of the state to introduce herself and meet all the great staff that she will be working with.
- We will be reposting our Northern Area Engineer position soon, as well as our Northwest Area Technician position. If you are interested, please check WiscJobs. We will also share these postings via the Land+Water ListServ.
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At the June 3, 2025, LWCB meeting, Marinette and Winnebago counties will be presenting LWRM plan five-year reviews to the board. Rusk County will present a plan revision. The board is planning for an educational item related to the impacts of wakeboats on the environment.
- On May 6, 2025, the LWCB Advisory Committee on Research will convene on Microsoft Teams at 9:00 a.m.
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- Counties that would like some assistance on Nutrient Management Quality Assurance Reviews should email Cody Calkins at cody.calkins@wisconsin.gov. We are looking at providing assistance this year to at least three counties.
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The DATCP Drainage Program is developing the spring 2025 quarterly newsletter. The intent of the newsletter will be to highlight successes and challenges facing drainage districts and County Drainage Boards throughout the state. The newsletter is part of the department’s overall effort to improve the effectiveness and efficiencies for all stakeholders involved with Wisconsin drainage law. The department is seeking input for the quarterly newsletter. If you have a project or information that you would like to highlight, please send your ideas to Barton T. Chapman, P.E., Drainage Program Manager at barton.chapman@wisconsin.gov.
- The Wisconsin Association of Drainage Boards (WADB), in cooperation with DATCP, will be holding regional educational outreach meetings throughout the state in 2025. Meeting logistics will be shared as they become available.
- All activities within drainage districts are managed and administered by a county drainage board. Contact information can be found on the Drainage Program website or by contacting Barton T. Chapman, Drainage Program Manager, at barton.chapman@wisconsin.gov.
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The AIS program published AIS 4602 for the Mill Road to Granville Rebuild Project in Milwaukee, Waukesha, and Washington counties, Wisconsin on March 27, 2025.
- The AIS program published AIS 4627 for the Hartford Jackson Interconnect Project in Dodge and Washington counties, Wisconsin on April 30, 2025.
- You can find more information about the AIS program at wi.gov. You can also contact DATCPAgImpactStatements@wisconsin.gov with questions regarding any active AIS statement or the AIS program.
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We are currently accepting petitions for the 2025 Agricultural Enterprise Area program until August 1. Due to the large volume of interest in petitioning this year, we are asking all potential 2025 AEA petitions submit a draft petition narrative by July 1, 2025 for a pre-submission review. If you are interested in petitioning for an AEA during this petition cycle, please contact Wednesday Coye at wednesday.coye@wisconsin.gov to review the petition process and schedule you petitioner interview. For more information AEA petition process, including application materials and examples of successful petitions, visit the Petitioning for AEA Designation webpage.
- DATCP's Farmland Preservation Tax Credits webpage has been updated with additional information to help landowners and tax preparers choose the correct tax schedule when filing for an FP tax credit. If you receive any questions from landowners or tax preparers regarding questions related to tax credit claims or tax credit denials, please contact Wednesday Coye at wednesday.coye@wisconsin.gov. Landowners who have received a denial letter have a limited amount of time to file an appeal with Department of Revenue; timely action is critical.
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CREP Monitoring Assistance with LTE Mackenzie
Mackenzie Shanahan will be rejoining DATCP as the CREP LTE this summer to again focus on assisting LCDs with completing CREP easement site visits and record keeping. Site visits are essential for benchmarking the status of the conservation practice, and for identifying and communicating to landowners issues on the site prior to them becoming severe. Over the past four years, many counties have taken advantage of the assistance offered by the CREP Interns and Mackenzie is once again eager to assist the LCDs. Mackenzie starts May 19 and will be hitting the ground running. Please also feel free to reach out to Mackenzie (mackenzie.shanahan@wisconsin.gov) via email to schedule times to visit easements in your county.
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CREP Easement Monitoring Forms and Submittal to DATCP
LCDs are encouraged to monitor CREP easements in their county, and now is a good time to start planning those visits. The statewide CREP easement monitoring form published on the DATCP CREP “For Counties” website is available to document your easement visits. LCDs completing visits on their own should check one of boxes “Status” boxes prior to submitting the monitoring forms to DATCP. Status options are 1), In Compliance; 2), In Compliance – Maintenance Needed; or 3), Violation. We appreciate all your efforts to perform easement monitoring visits. This will help DATCP with sending the correct follow-up correspondence to the landowner. Submitting monitoring forms can be done via the CREP secure SFTP site. Please be sure to follow the file naming guidelines listed in the instructions when submitting enrollment materials to the secure website.
Submit as a .pdf file with the following naming format:
[County]_[Agreement#]_[OwnerLastName][OwnerFirstName]_Monitoring_[Submital YearMonthDate].pdf
Examples: “Iowa_1234_SmithDave_Monitoring_2024may18.pdf” or “Waupaca_3245_FarmEstateTrust_Monitoring_2024june03.pdf”
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Enrollment FFY2025 Update
DATCP continues to wait to hear from our FSA partners for details when CREP will be opened again for enrollment. Reenrollment typically begins in April each year. This year there are 105 CREP 15-year agreements on 933 acres scheduled in 19 counties scheduled to expire. DATCP will provide updates to counites as soon as we receive more details.
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The online Soil Health curriculum is live and available on our soilhealthtraining.wi.gov website. The purpose of this curriculum is to develop a common definition and understanding of soil health and develop some guideposts of how to implement soil health systems on Wisconsin farms. Modules 1-3 establish a common language of soil health in Wisconsin agriculture. Module 4 of the training will be developed in 2025.
- For questions regarding these trainings or the soil health program, or if you have a need related to in-person soil health trainings or events, please contact Randy Zogbaum at randalll.zogbaum@wisconsin.gov.
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Program application was available from December 2, 2024 to January 28, 2025 and received over 224,000 acres to review for premium rebate eligibility on a first come, first served basis. Thanks for helping to spread the word about this opportunity to your farm operators. Eligible producers will see a rebate credit on their spring crop insurance premium billing statement.
- More information about this program is available online at covercroprebate.wi.gov.
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Nine projects were chosen for NOPP grants for Cycle 3 of the program, awarding $1 million to grantees and UW for research support. With a total request of $1,153,862.57, difficult decisions were required. Thank you to the scoring team for the professional review and recommendations!
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2025 was the most competitive year yet for the Producer-Led Watershed Protection Grant. We received applications from 49 producer-led groups, for a total funding request of over $1.6 million. With a program budget of $1 million, the grants review committee had to make extremely difficult decisions. Priorities were to fund new viable groups while also providing the highest level of funding merited to as many existing groups as possible.
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