More than 100 local groups get grants to tackle aquatic invasive species and runoff
April 5, 2013
CONTACT: Carroll Schaal (608) 261-6423; Kathleen Hanson (608) 266-9426
MADISON - More than 100 counties, lake associations and other organizations across Wisconsin have been awarded more than $2.8 million in state grants to help protect lakes and rivers from the threats of invasive species and runoff pollution.
“We were able to really stretch our dollars this year, funding more projects than usual,” says Carroll Schaal, who coordinates the grant programs for the Department of Natural Resources. “It’s gratifying to be able to help so many local communities protect the lakes that are so important to their economy, environment and quality of life.”
Schaal says that several initiatives helped bring in more money for grants and improved the application process so that more groups sought the financial help to protect their lakes.
For example, promotional efforts by DNR, license vendors and other partners helped fuel an increase in the number of people who added $2 to the cost of their fishing license and/or boat registration. That meant more revenue was brought in and could be returned to communities as grants to help protect against aquatic invasive species (AIS) or to fund AIS research, Schaal says. The voluntary check-off on fishing license sales and boat registrations provided $81,000 for AIS prevention and control grants and $65,000 for research aimed at helping stop the introduction and spread of invasive species.
Improvements to Clean Boats, Clean Waters grant process pays off
Process and technological improvements to the Clean Boats, Clean Waters water craft inspection and boater education program encouraged more groups to apply and receive grants. The improvements – including moving to an online application process with a much shorter form and automatic funding for eligible projects with complete applications – came about through DNR’s process improvement efforts, also known as "lean government."
DNR staff used “lean” tools to find creative ways to make the grant process less work for lake groups and DNR staff. DNR was the first agency in the state to take on lean government projects, and Clean Boats Clean Waters Clean Grants is one of DNR’s first projects.
“We had 48 sponsors use this new process that made $227,856 available for this key component of Wisconsin’s strategy to contain and prevent the spread of aquatic invasive species,” Schaal says. “Not only did sponsors have less paperwork, DNR staff did too, freeing them up to concentrate on more complex projects.”
Control grants for aquatic invasive species
Seventeen early detection and response grants totaling $283,314 went to the control of new, pioneering populations of AIS in 11 different counties, while 11 projects in 10 counties received a total of $816, 281 to go after established aquatic invasive species populations.
“This year in the established population category we had more projects targeting curly-leaf pondweed, a nuisance causing aquatic plant that also contributes to poor water quality,” Schaal says. Lake associations for Big Chetac, a 2,410-acre lake in Sawyer County and Red Cedar, a 1,841-acre lake in Barron County, will receive a combined $270,000 over three years to try to gain control over the plant that plagues those important recreational lake systems in northwestern Wisconsin.
“We’ve spent a couple years working with those groups to come up with plans to tackle this difficult plant,” Schaal says. “These will be important projects to follow to see if we can be as successful with controlling this particular invasive as we have been with some of our Eurasian water milfoil efforts.”
In some instances, like the Eagle Chain of Lakes in Vilas County and Legend Lake in Menominee County, Eurasian water-milfoil was reduced almost 90 percent through concentrated efforts supported by DNR aquatic invasive species grants.
Aquatic Invasive Species Planning and Prevention grants
Seventeen lake associations, municipalities and organizations received a combined $238,208 to develop plans to control and prevent aquatic invasive species, while $637,529 went to multi-year countywide prevention programs in Green Lake, Manitowoc, Marquette, Portage, Vilas, Washington, Waupaca and Waushara counties, according to Kathleen Hanson, DNR grant manager.
Lake Planning Grants
Thirty-six lake organizations received $406,369 in lake planning grants for developing lake and water quality and aquatic habitat management plans and programs, Hanson says. “Last year the state cost-share rate for Lake Planning grants was reduced from 75 to 67 percent. That coupled with the growing popularity of the small-scale project category is helping us fund more projects,” she said. Twenty of the 36 projects requested less than half the maximum allowed grant of $25,000.
Lists of grant recipients and their projects
Each group receiving a grant must contribute 25 to 50 percent of the total costs of the project. A complete list of aquatic invasive species grant recipients [PDF] and lake planning grant recipients [PDF] and their projects are available on the DNR website.
The next application deadline for both AIS grants and lake planning grants is Aug. 1, 2013.