Judd Blau, President of DeForest
The 2015 leaf management pilot project with Clean Lakes Alliance heightened our community awareness on the water quality impact of leaves in storm drains. When communities establish a connection behind the “why” we ask people to participate in any program, we all benefit.
Nakoma Channel Before. Photo by Phil Gaebler.
The City of Madison completed two major channel restorations in 2015, including 2,000 feet of Wingra Creek and 500 feet in the Nakoma Channel, north of Lake Wingra. The city also completed stormwater pollution prevention plans for eight public work sites, and implemented control structures at two of these sites. These include a stormwater catch basin and screen structures and separators, which trap debris and sediment from high-volume runoff.
Steve Arnold, Mayor of Fitchburg
Fitchburg is at the headwaters of seven different creek systems. While we don’t have any Yahara lakes within our boundaries, we’re been learning and teaching our residents that our stormwater runoff has a direct and lasting impact on the Yahara lakes. We recognize that the chain of lakes is one of our region’s most valuable natural assets, and that we have a responsibility to keep our water clean, for ourselves and our downstream neighbors.
Williams Drive Bioretention Basin
In 2015, Stoughton, which is located on the Yahara River below Lake Kegonsa, removed more than 1,000 cubic yards of material using street sweepers and 910 tons of material using curbside vacuum leaf pickup. Stoughton also constructed a new bioretention basic for the Williams Drive reconstruction project.
Stormwater Treatment Facility for UW-Madison
The University of Wisconsin-Madison installed stormwater facilities on its west campus including four bioretention basins, a bioswale, and a naturalized wet pond. The project, which won an engineering excellence award, utilizes a specialized soil mix to remove as much phosphorus as possible while contending with high groundwater and limited space.
Sheehan Park. Photo by Aaron Volkening.
Stormwater efforts in Sun Prairie involved several developer-funded projects, which include a stormwater basin with an infiltration cell at Fox Point, rain gardens at the Ironwood Estates, and two bioretention basins at the Bank of Sun Prairie.
Village of Windsor, Token Creek
The Village of Windsor, located on the Upper Yahara River north of Lake Mendota and Token Creek, requires 90 to 100% infiltration of pre-development stormwater flow in its new subdivisions, plus infiltration to account for groundwater use. These requirements are in place for Prairie Creek, Wolf Hollow, and Bear Tree Farms developments.
Additional stormwater infiltration structures have been put in place at the Windsor Blue Addition and the Windsor Crossing commercial and residential plats.
From putting the finishing touches on a new system to convert countless gallons of waste and manure into clean water to investing in proven technologies, Dane County has been and will continue to be a leader in our efforts to clean up our lakes.
The Dane County Land Conservation Division helps landowners plan, design, and implement conservation practices, with the goal of protecting water quality and conserving soil in Dane County.
By Heidi Johnson, Dane County UW-Extension Crops and Soils Educator
The use of cover crops as a conservation practice in conventional, commodity crop production has been greatly increasing over the last couple of years. Here is a quick run down on what cover crops are and how they are being used in agriculture.
