You are invited to a Soil Health Field Day on Tuesday, September 10th hosted by the Milwaukee River Watershed Clean Farm Families and Ozaukee County Demonstration Farm Network. Farmers will showcase interseeding of cover crops, no till planting into cover crops, discuss planting green and crimping of covers.
Come Join us on September 10th for Conservation In Ozaukee Field Day.... Led by Farmers, Done by Farmers! This Field day is hosted by the Ozaukee Demo Farms & Milwaukee Clean Farm Families.
Please RSVP to attend
Two large-scale watershed restoration planning initiatives are underway in the Milwaukee River Watershed. These efforts, funded through a combination of DNR, EPA, and Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District (MMSD) dollars, are being led by the Southeastern Wisconsin Watershed Trust (SWWT) and MMSD, respectively. The goal of these planning initiatives is to develop collaborative and targeted watershed restoration plans, consistent with the USEPA 9 Key Element Planning Process, and ultimately facilitating the implementation of projects and practices that will improve water quality and facilitate restoration of impaired uses in the Milwaukee River and its tributaries.
Cedar, Pigeon, Mole, Ulao, L. Michigan Frontal Lobe
This series of watersheds encompasses the confluence of numerous tributaries in the central portion of the Milwaukee Watershed and was strategically targeted in an area with active Farmer-Led groups, a number of watershed partners, and communities actively engaged in watershed planning. Watersheds included in this effort include:
- 040400030603 - Village of Grafton-Milwaukee River
- 040400030604 - Milwaukee River-Frontal Lake Michigan
- 040400030301 - Town of Richfield – Cedar Creek
- 040400030302 - Cedar Lake - Cedar Creek
- 040400030303 - Jackson Marsh State Wildlife Area - Cedar Creek
- 040400030304 – Cedar Creek
This planning initiative focuses on watersheds around the confluence of the Milwaukee River and North Branch Milwaukee River (see below). The planning process is well underway with draft plans anticipated mid-September.
- 040400030107 - North Branch Milwaukee River
- 040400030209 - Village of Newburg-Milwaukee River
- 040400030602 - Town of Freedonia-Milwaukee River
Next Meeting: The next community meeting for the Fredonia-Newburg Nonpoint Source Watershed Restoration Plan will be Sep. 10.
Presentations from Past Meetings
The Menomonee River River Watershed has undergone extensive disturbances since settlement and development of the greater Milwaukee Region. Numerous restoration efforts have also been undertaken. The Menomonee River Watershed covers 136 square miles in portions of Washington, Ozaukee, Waukesha and Milwaukee counties. The river originates in the Village of Germantown and the City of Mequon and flows in a southeasterly direction for about 32 miles before it meets the Milwaukee and Kinnickinnic Rivers in the Milwaukee Milwaukee Harbor Estuary. The watershed contains 96 total stream miles and 4,537 wetland acres. Current planning efforts are focused on updating the previous Menomonee River Watershed Restoration Plan.
The Kinnickinnic River Watershed is the smallest and the most densely populated within the Milwaukee River Basin. It drains 25 square miles of urban landscape in the heart of Metropolitan Milwaukee and falls within the borders of six local municipalities (Milwaukee, West Milwaukee, West Allis, Greenfield, Cudahy and St. Francis) The current planning effort is a partnership between Sixteenth Street Community Clinic, Southeastern Wisconsin Watersheds Trust, Inc. (SWWT), MMSD, and other key community, environmental and municipal agencies.
The Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) and Waupaca County Land & Water Conservation Department, in partnership with Fond du Lac, Green Lake, Marquette, Outagamie, Portage, Shawano, and Winnebago counties and the Green Lake Association, are leading a successful network, the Upper Fox-Wolf Demonstration Farm Network. The partnership is supporting ten farms that are demonstrating the best conservation practices to reduce phosphorus entering the Great Lakes basin. Click Read More below for updates from each participating farm.
University of Wisconsin, in partnership with state and federal agencies, has developed a new publication sharing the basics of planting and growing cover crops including seeding rates, seeding depths, and timing of planting. It also covers the benefits of cover crops and things to avoid.
The publication can be viewed at: https://learningstore.extension.wisc.edu/collections/farming/products/cover-crops-101
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Head to Lakeshore State Park in downtown Milwaukee on Saturday, September 28, 2019 to enjoy a day of free, family fun (and make a huge difference while doing it!). The festivities will include everything from games and crafts for kids, educational booths, great community partners, delicious local food trucks, and much more! (Plus, of course, the opportunity to sponsor and hand release a sturgeon into Lake Michigan!)
Sturgeon Fest celebrates Riveredge’s 25 year partnership with the Wisconsin DNR to bring back Lake Sturgeon, a critically important species both environmentally and culturally, to the Milwaukee River, where they haven’t been seen in over 100 years.
Be a part of this amazing comeback story and join thousands of other community members when you sponsor a young sturgeon and hand release them into Lake Michigan. Enjoy fun in the sun with activities for kids and adults alike. Sturgeon Fest, September 28, 2019 - one of the biggest annual conservation events and festivals in Wisconsin, returning a breeding population of Sturgeon to Lake Michigan and the Milwaukee River!
While the 2019 monitoring season is slipping away, it's the perfect time to plan ahead to play a vital role in helping gather water quality data in our streams and rivers. Sign up to be the first to hear about monitoring in 2020! 2020 Water Quality Monitoring Interest List, Sign Up Here!
If you have any additional questions, please email our Water Quality Manager or call (414)431-0907
About RiverKeeper Citizen Monitoring
In 2006, Milwaukee Riverkeeper established a network of trained citizen-science volunteers who monitor streams and rivers throughout the Milwaukee River Basin during the months of May through October. Our volunteer Water Quality Monitoring Program is part of the statewide Water Action Volunteers (WAV) Stream Monitoring Program managed by the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (WDNR) and University of Wisconsin-Extension (UWEX).
Monitoring sites are located within the three major watersheds and corresponding subwatersheds of the Milwaukee River Basin:
- Milwaukee River Watershed: North Branch Milwaukee River Subwatershed, East and West Branch Milwaukee River Subwatershed, Cedar Creek Subwatershed, and South Branch Milwaukee River Subwatershed
- Menomonee River Watershed
- Kinnickinnic River Watershed
Our volunteer water quality monitors aid in keeping tabs on our water quality throughout the year and serve as additional “eyes, ears and noses” in the field. Our volunteer water quality monitors help recognize and identify questionable practices, erosion control violations, illicit discharges, and more. Our volunteer water quality monitoring program builds on the WDNR’s and UWEX’s efforts to improve the quality and quantity of citizen science data used to monitor the health of our waterways.
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Participants from nonprofit, government, business and academic organizations gather each year for the Clean Rivers, Clean Lake Conference to learn about improving the health of our watersheds through policy innovation, technical and engineering advances, watershed restoration planning and practices, and collaborative stakeholder involvement.
The conference is an all-day event that includes oral and poster presentations, exhibits, an awards presentation for Sweet Water Water Quality Mini-Grant recipients, and a celebration of our Watershed Champions.
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The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources and the Standards Oversight Council (SOC) are seeking volunteer technical experts to participate in developing a new technical standard related to avoiding and minimizing impacts to waterways and wetlands during underground utility construction. The Work Team will create a new technical standard that provides criteria for projects employing horizontal directional drilling, including procedures and practices to minimize potential for inadvertent releases associated with horizontal directional drilling and to respond to releases when they do happen.
Who Should Apply
SOC welcomes applications from all individuals with relevant experience in horizontal directional drilling, geotechnical engineering, underground utility construction, wetland and waterway hydrology, or related fields.
How to Apply
For more information and the application form, visit: https://socwisconsin.org/?p=162011
Applications are due to the SOC Program Manager at soc@wisconsinlandwater.org by midnight Tuesday, Sept. 3, 2019.
This popular annual event has been hosted since 2005 in partnership with the American Excelsior Company ErosionLab, one of only a few erosion control testing laboratories in the U.S. This event allows attendees to learn from experienced professionals in the morning classroom session and view product testing under a variety of control measures set up as stations around the facility during the afternoon field session. Read more...
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Have you ever wondered what a wastewater treatment plant actually does? Or, perhaps, how they are regulated? What are the skill-sets of a Superintendent or Wastewater Operator? While the science and engineering of wastewater treatment can get very complex, there are a number of resources out there that can help a lay-person better understand what exactly goes into wastewater treatment. Among these are the Wastewater Study Guides. While these guides are intended for certified Wastewater Treatment Plant Operators, the following provide high-level information that can provide a peak into the intriguing science and engineering that allows us to recycle our water and return it to our streams and lakes:
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Grant Information
Apply Through September 30 to be Eligible
Due to the recent catastrophic flooding events, Congress has provided the U.S Department of Agriculture Natural Resources Conservation Service in Wisconsin with over $7 million for the Emergency Watershed Protection Program-Floodplain Easements (EWPP-FPE). The program’s focus is to provide landowners with another option for those frequently flooded agricultural fields. Forested land, fallow land and pasture are also eligible, either alone or as part of a larger parcel, however, flooded cropland in the floodplain is the program’s primary focus. Read more...
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