Press release courtesy Yahara Pride Farms
Yahara Pride Farms was honored by the The Innovation Center for U.S. Dairy, during its fifth annual U.S. Dairy Sustainability Awards ceremony May 11 in Chicago. The program recognizes dairy farms, businesses and partnerships whose sustainable practices positively impact the health and well-being of customers, communities, animals and the environment. Yahara Pride Farms received the award for Outstanding Achievement in Resource Stewardship.
The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources manages the fisheries of the Yahara lakes for recreation and water quality.
Bob Miller, Mayor of Monona
“Although Monona is confined to less than 3.5 square miles of total land size, we are blessed with more than four miles of waterfront on Lake Monona and the Yahara River. This waterfront represents one of the crown jewels of our community. We work closely with Clean Lakes Alliance on water-related projects from the annual Loop the Lake bike ride to promoting our brand new, state-of-the-art Lottes Park boat ramp. Clean Lakes Alliance has been very responsive in supporting our aggressive stormwater treatment programs, where we replace a number of old and decaying stormwater outlets with baffle systems to remove sediment and pollutants.
Kurt Sonnentag, Mayor of Middleton
Middleton is proud to affiliate with Clean Lakes Alliance because clean water is critical to our area for recreational and environmental reasons. Over the past 16 years, the City of Middleton has made a major financial commitment of about $10 million to cleanse the water that passes through Middleton from agricultural areas as well as from our own stormwater runoff. I’m pleased to say that those commitments have paid off with a 45% decrease in sedimentation and 48% decrease in phosphorus, despite increases in precipitation. As the Good Neighbor City, we are dedicated to being Good Neighbors to our lakes.
The year of 1973 is notable for a couple of firsts. The same year that I was first elected Mayor, we adopted the City’s original salt reduction resolution. Another environmental milestone was achieved ten years later, in 1983, when the City passed one of the region’s first storm water ordinances.
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.
