Transcript

Event transcript
OK, I call them ease this meeting to order the Conservation Extension Committee meeting. 00:00:00
And, umm. 00:00:06
I made the roll call and I don't see any other guests supervisors here, so we're good there. We got a quorum. 00:00:07
Any public comment? I don't see anybody except our team members here. 00:00:14
OK, looking for emotional emotion for the approval of the minutes for the March 4th. 00:00:19
John moved second. Please no. 00:00:27
Ken, I think. Ken, I think you were first. 00:00:32
OK. 00:00:34
Any discussion on the minutes? 00:00:35
I would like to make a notation to you. 00:00:38
That the posting of the minutes has changed. 00:00:40
And if see no one looked for them, otherwise you would know that. 00:00:44
Just so you know, it's different than it was before and when we. 00:00:48
John, do you want to? 00:00:52
Talk about that or. 00:00:53
Cameron, if you want to talk about that, I don't know. We changed our system, how we post minutes and do agendas. 00:00:55
So yeah, so on the city or on the county website? 00:01:01
The. 00:01:04
One is our new system to support all of our minutes. 00:01:06
Videos and agendas. 00:01:10
For meetings. 00:01:12
So. 00:01:13
Prior to this lat this month we we've got all of our records back to. 00:01:14
Gosh, I think 2015, maybe earlier. 00:01:20
In the in our existing system, those are being migrated to Sweet, but if you go into the website and you were on to go to the 00:01:22
front page, we've got kind of a. 00:01:27
Set of 6 buttons. 00:01:33
Calling that right on the page and I think the farthest one to the right is agendas and minutes. 00:01:35
If you were to click on that or whatever route you typically take to get to agendas and minutes. 00:01:40
It will. It might take a minute to come up. 00:01:44
But it will be a new format. 00:01:47
Everything should be in there displayed similar to how it has been in the past in terms of the title of the meeting. 00:01:49
On the far left. 00:01:55
And then as you move across. 00:01:56
A table kind of format to see the agenda. 00:01:58
And minutes. And then a little. 00:02:01
Looks like a little icon of film I think if the video is is available. 00:02:03
Future meetings so possibly this one, but others for sure. 00:02:08
In coming months. 00:02:12
Will begin to actually be time stamped so the agenda will have links and you'll be able to go right to. 00:02:13
Specific item on the agenda and when you open that link and. 00:02:21
Opens up the video at that spot. 00:02:25
So. 00:02:28
Going to be very helpful I think for people to follow along. 00:02:29
But it is it is new, so if you have any difficulties finding anything please. 00:02:32
Feel free to reach out. You can reach out to. 00:02:36
My office, my executive assistant Don Golf can can help. 00:02:40
Or just contact the. 00:02:44
Office directly. 00:02:45
That will be your first option, but. 00:02:47
My option is my office is Yep. 00:02:49
OK, thank you for the update. I appreciate it because I could. I went the old way and it wouldn't work. 00:02:51
I called John and I called Daniel because they're also in process of changing. Yes, in process of changing. So if you're looking 00:02:56
for this is regarding posting of the minutes, it wasn't like before. 00:03:01
It's different in that system, just to make sure everyone's aware, OK? 00:03:06
Any further discussion on the minutes? 00:03:11
Hearing none, those in favor signify approval by saying aye, aye those opposed. 00:03:14
OK, Cindy, you're up. 00:03:22
Come on up. 00:03:24
Update on the forum. 00:03:26
The community needs form. 00:03:28
All right. The next step is in the the timeline that we presented as out of May 1st while we'll have the all the drafts for the 00:03:33
work plans. 00:03:39
Umm, we have 1 completely done and I'll meet with Cameron and Andrew and we'll look through it to make sure that everything that 00:03:45
we're providing is what. 00:03:49
Was what was expected and then it'll be shared with the whole group the end at the next meeting. 00:03:54
All of them and they know, Andrew said. You want to have a discussion conversation, which will be great. 00:04:01
So that's where we are. 00:04:06
With that, one thing I do want you to know is this listening session in Dodge County. 00:04:08
There is now a state team that is actually taking what we learned here and developing it into kind of like a. 00:04:15
A curriculum or a workbook that all counties will use in the future to be systematic. 00:04:24
And it nothing's maybe tweaked a little bit. 00:04:32
But we're working on that. 00:04:34
Plan to help other counties. So you guys were really the the first ones in the state and. 00:04:37
So it's great. I mean it's, you know, it's a good thing there is some other areas or other counties that are already doing this 00:04:43
before that work plan or that thing comes out that document that will help. 00:04:49
And they learned from you, so I shared all the information and the feedback with them. So like I said, your guys were on the 00:04:57
cutting edge. 00:05:00
So that's wonderful. 00:05:05
And other than that? 00:05:06
I will I'd like to say just one thing. So so you know next is it the next month then are we going to discuss the actual work plan 00:05:08
next month? OK, So what that means for us, this is the difference from the past. The difference is, is that there's going to be 3 00:05:16
to five goals for each educator approximately, right? Is that what it is that how you so our job is representatives of the people 00:05:23
in the county board is that we think of the strategic objectives of the. 00:05:31
Board, Where's the county headed? Where's the county board? How we directing the employees, the staff? 00:05:38
And then we interact that. 00:05:45
With the needs assessment. 00:05:48
And then that's the direction. 00:05:49
That extension goes that's that's a critical step because what the mistake that has happened in other counties is that step was 00:05:51
missed. 00:05:55
And then extension just had no direction and they just went off. Not not talk about you, but I'm just saying, I know that's a fact 00:05:59
in some counties, in some counties, not not yours, of course, but but but but what happened is an extension started doing their 00:06:06
their own thing because they didn't get the direction from the county board specific direction. 00:06:13
And then frustration came between the county board and extension, like, why is there value there, but yet they didn't tell them 00:06:20
what to do. 00:06:23
So it's a critical step. So please, if you get a chance, review the counties strategic objectives. I don't know like Bill and Ken, 00:06:27
you might not have that. Don't let that Cameron get that to you. 00:06:32
We've got a document of our of our objectives for our county and you really need to come ready to discuss those. It's just not 00:06:37
they present them to us. They oh, we just rubber stamp it. That's not what this is. We should be directing that. That's the job of 00:06:43
this committee. We are directing. 00:06:48
And I just think that's an important point. So it's different, yes. Is that going to be in the agenda? 00:06:54
It'll be under the forum, it'll be it'll be the what we're talking about. This is the follow up to the I'm saying, well, the work 00:07:02
plan be in the agenda. They will all be sent to you prior. OK, That's what I asked. Put it in the pack. Excuse me. Thank you. 00:07:09
And so I wonder if I can add to that too, you know, direction this there is a spot on the work plan that talks about the county 00:07:16
strategic. 00:07:21
Priorities and how it does align these these goals and it is a partnership. 00:07:25
You know, we share not only from the Community Needs Forum, the resources that we gain, the needs assessment. It's not just from 00:07:30
the Community Needs Forum. There are other assessments. 00:07:36
That each educator uses and that information is in there. So if you say well. 00:07:43
You know, this was a need that was identified like I'll use succession planning. Our educators here, that's not their focus. 00:07:47
However, succession planning is a state focus. So that will be in there. You'll say, well, Will and Manuel are not doing 00:07:53
succession planning. 00:07:59
That's not part what they were hired to do. They were hired to do crops and soils. 00:08:05
And dairy. So you know, so that's what that conversation will be like. Well, we need this. Well, there's other thing other 00:08:10
departments that may already be doing that. So we will look at that and have that conversation in in that meeting in May. I know I 00:08:17
can't be at the board meeting because I have to present in another board meeting. But Cameron's going to also share where we are 00:08:25
in the process as well as probably the work plans too at the county board meeting. Yeah, if we can talk, if that's what you're. 00:08:32
Share them there or after we have the discussion with the team. Yeah, probably the final ones be after, but. 00:08:40
OK. All right. 00:08:46
And we after the work plans have been discussed is do we make a resolute or motion or resolution? What are your, what is the 00:08:48
camera, what is your, what do you want to have happen? 00:08:53
That's so she present, the committee discusses it, we say OK, we're good with it. What do we do? 00:08:59
I think final action by this body is was is all that's necessary. We make a motion informative. 00:09:04
It's an information. 00:09:10
Piece to the county. 00:09:12
The yeah, I think a motion to approve plans, we need a resolution. 00:09:13
OK. I'll talk with Kim though and see if she if she would prefer. 00:09:18
OK. Anything else? 00:09:23
Thank you. 00:09:27
I guess are you up next here for this extension cordary? 00:09:31
But it just makes it easier. 00:10:05
You know, we'll have maybe a little bit of carryover transition piece. So just OK, you're stuck with me for a little bit now. 00:10:07
Congratulations. All right, thank you. 00:10:12
All right, Marie. 00:10:17
Good morning everyone. It's a. 00:10:28
Been volunteer months in Dodge County. We actually celebrated last week was the volunteer week, but I started early because it's 00:10:30
been a crazy, crazy month. So I'll just share a few things with you and I will tell I'm going to give you a document that's on our 00:10:36
website as well because I want to. 00:10:42
Just share some of those highlights with you, but volunteer week. 00:10:49
Umm was last week I actually did the. 00:10:54
Hometown Today earlier this month. 00:10:58
A couple weeks ago on a Monday with. 00:11:02
The new guy, I get to train the new guys all the time, so that's always fun. But we talked about volunteers and there are 130. 00:11:04
Approved volunteers in the Dutch County 4H program and we really rely heavily on their work in order to be able to offer what we 00:11:12
do to the young people in the in the program. So I wanted to just mention. 00:11:19
Cindy shared in at the community forum for anyone that was there. 00:11:26
Is that our volunteers in Dodge County said that they spend about 10,686 1/2 hours supporting the program in the county. So the 00:11:31
independent sector values that time at $33.49 an hour, so that means about 320 plus. 00:11:40
Umm, dollars that were contributed to the county and one of the things that I thought was really exciting was the statewide the 00:11:50
state did volunteer. 00:11:55
Shared volunteer resources with everybody to share in their program. 00:12:01
And one of the Facebook posts actually came from a Dodge County 4H member. 00:12:06
And it talked about an adult that supported her in running for an officer position. And now she was the secretary before H Club. 00:12:12
So I thought that was really exciting that that came out of that Thrive survey that I talked to you about last fall. 00:12:18
And it was highlighted during this during this week. 00:12:24
But what I really wanted to tell you and one of the things that we learned. 00:12:28
Ironically, I was at a volunteer conference last week. 00:12:32
And. 00:12:35
One of the things that we learned is it's not really about the money. It's really about sorry, I've made just enough for the 00:12:37
committee. I do not. 00:12:41
I didn't guess very well. 00:12:46
It's really about the impact on the individual, the organization and the public value. 00:12:48
And so this survey was done in 12 states, which is the North Central region of extension. 00:12:53
And. 00:13:01
The interesting part is. 00:13:02
This is only Wisconsin data that I'm sharing with you and. 00:13:04
Of that 220 people responses came from Wisconsin. And so that's a 22% response rate. So we had a pretty good response rate. And a 00:13:10
couple of things that I just wanted to highlight for you. 00:13:16
One of the things the graph on the right hand side is that. 00:13:23
We used to think that boomers were always. 00:13:28
The volunteers in the program, really, it looks like a big mix. 00:13:30
I mean, there are the same number of boomers almost as millennials, and then the Gen. Xers obviously are the big. 00:13:35
Are the big groups. So that's really exciting when we talk about individual benefits of volunteering. 00:13:40
I think. 00:13:48
They have fun when they're volunteering. 00:13:49
And they built new relationships with youth. 00:13:52
Are really two of the things that jump out and I like these quotes. Some of the quotes on the side. 00:13:54
That they the skill that they learned from volunteering in 4H translates to other areas of their life, such as. 00:14:00
Volunteer activities, their job in their personal relationships. And that's one of the things that I heard reinforced again last 00:14:07
week is that people. 00:14:11
Are really taking away things as as they volunteer, so they're getting as much out of volunteering some of the confidence and 00:14:17
skill building, skill building things. So that's pretty exciting. 00:14:23
Then on the second page, the organizational benefits, because that's of course what. 00:14:34
Is exciting for me, and then public value is what's probably exciting for you. But they're teaching new skills and they're 00:14:38
planning new experiences and they're sharing the value of the 4H program. 00:14:43
And so even the AmeriCorps that is in our office now is considered a volunteer. 00:14:49
Umm, like the domestic peace course and, and she talked about that. Is that people in the program that she did last week? 00:14:56
They were gaining new skills that they hadn't really thought about doing before in Horicon, which is our area where we don't have 00:15:03
a. 00:15:06
4H presence. Really. Very much. 00:15:09
And then the public value, which is that's where you are, is the impact on the communities where they live and work. 00:15:12
They shared that it 90% thinks that they make the community stronger and they connect with communities. 00:15:19
And so that quote again. 00:15:26
I see the volunteers making the community stronger by validating and helping youth make our communities better. When you give 00:15:29
youth positive role models, they become positive, stronger citizens. And so that's really a strong statement of the impact on the 00:15:34
volunteers in our. 00:15:39
In our counties and so it's really an exciting thing to see. And as I was thinking about this, umm. 00:15:44
Volunteer piece. The one thing that we don't highlight as much is. 00:15:50
Youth volunteers. 00:15:55
But I will have. 00:15:56
I have three of them coming with me on Saturday over to the Power sports has orange days. So for those of you that, you know, like 00:15:58
the orange Kubota stuff, it's power day that's this week in Dodge County. And so I have three young people that are coming to 00:16:04
teach you safety lessons during that. 00:16:09
Youth interaction part on Saturday, so that's a great opportunity as well. So questions that you may have 01 of the things I did 00:16:15
want to share so. 00:16:20
All of the volunteers in the program background checks every other year, they do several types of trainings that they and and 00:16:25
those are offered online so they can kind of do them when it works for them and then. 00:16:31
One of the things that I noted is that shooting sports volunteers, which we've talked about that in the past, is one of the big 00:16:38
growing programs and we have a young person going to the national competition again this year for shooting sports. 00:16:45
Those volunteers contribute have to get at. 00:16:51
Least eight additional hours of training. 00:16:55
For their per area, so we had several that were trained in archery this past weekend. We had more of them get trained in that like 00:16:58
the air rifle and things like that. So another 8 hour training that they attended so that they can be certified in that. 00:17:06
Area so they they actually do a lot. 00:17:14
More training than a lot of the other project areas in the 4H program, so. 00:17:17
I really give them a lot of credit because. 00:17:23
There's a reason that our young people go to the tri-county Shoot over in Washington County and bring home a lot of awards to 00:17:25
Dodge County. It's because of the dedication of the volunteers that are teaching those programs. 00:17:30
So. 00:17:35
Any questions that you might have? 00:17:36
When is the when is the big archery event that you have Well, Dodge County hosts in July it. 00:17:38
They have not confirmed, but I know it's like around the 25th, whatever that last Saturday is in July, the state has not put it 00:17:45
out. 00:17:49
Has not confirmed that on their website yet, but. 00:17:53
That's when it's that's when it's happened. The national contest is in the summer, usually in July in Grand Rapids. 00:17:56
Nebraska, where it's nice and toasty warm. 00:18:04
For the four days that they're competing. 00:18:07
The Bowman's Club with their new building, they reached out to me. 00:18:10
And about. 00:18:13
Thought having you over there and so I'm sure they'll be in touch with you or you'll that it's still under construction. You know 00:18:15
the big news they're making buildings so that'll so that that's why that we haven't confirmed the July shoot. I don't know it's 00:18:21
because it's whether or not they're going to be done with it by then. So but it's an out we do it outside most of it because 00:18:27
that's their chance to go out and do the. 00:18:33
The targets in the woods, The animal. 00:18:39
Those who don't know on the committee, they're building a big new facility South of Mabel on 67. The Bowman's at the landfill is 00:18:42
paying for. It's huge, huge. It's under construction if you stay on Hwy. 67, so. 00:18:48
Huge complex SO. 00:18:54
So hopefully we're there in July. 00:18:56
That's that was the reason is because the moments haven't said yay or nay for sure if we're going to be able to do what we need to 00:18:58
do. 00:19:01
In July and what's the current status of how many kids are we servicing right now? 00:19:05
I think 78. 00:19:10
80 ish in the Archer? Oh in 4H or in the archery project? Sorry, 4H is 642. That's amazing. 00:19:13
Any questions? 00:19:22
How did the 4H volunteers compare against the similar age groups across the whole? 00:19:24
Class, let's say so he. 00:19:29
The 8th grader and 4H that volunteers versus the whole class of 8th graders. 00:19:31
Does the 4H group have life skills that they've learned on their property? 00:19:37
That makes them more predisposed to volunteer. 00:19:43
Well, yes and no. And this study is only out for adults. 00:19:46
That are that are volunteering but. 00:19:49
Yes, adults that are volunteering for 4H but. 00:19:53
Umm, I think that's actually one of the things that I'm working with my AmeriCorps this summer is that we realized that. 00:19:56
8th to 9th grade. Ironically, you picked the right target. That's where we have a drop. 00:20:02
That once kids get into high school, I think that it is really sports related because they have and jobs. I mean, I'm I'm helping 00:20:08
chaperone the Citizenship Washington focus trip this summer. And last night we had our Zoom because we did it on Sunday so that 00:20:14
hopefully we could catch more kids because it was in between sports and things. 00:20:20
And we still had kids that were missing because that's when they can work right or whatever. So so we do have that that bit of a 00:20:27
dip. And so we're going to try and look at and see if there are ways that we can. 00:20:33
Maintain the membership and I we don't. 00:20:39
It's been a while since we had him. Was that we had a 4H. 00:20:44
Survey the learner study. 00:20:50
That rated 4H against other youth organizations, but. 00:20:53
4H did rank high and that was a national study that was done by Richard Lerner on the East Coast. 00:20:58
Comparing 4H membership to non 4H membership and their volunteer and there that's when I want to use the quotes during National 4H 00:21:06
week when we're recruiting members, that's where we're getting the membership numbers of they contribute more to their 00:21:11
communities. 00:21:16
They contribute more to leadership. 00:21:21
Than the average youth organizations. 00:21:23
Other questions? 00:21:28
Thank you. All right, congratulations. Awesome. 00:21:31
And and yet this so this study is also on the website if people are interested in sharing this. 00:21:34
OK. Moving over to. 00:21:43
Agencies, we have quarries not here. 00:21:48
That's not here. 00:21:52
They, I haven't gotten anything. They do come in, we'll rearrange the agenda unless anyone objects. 00:21:54
So OK, go to land and water video. 00:22:00
This presentation is designed to provide you. 00:22:21
As a member of the Land Conservation Committee with information about county land and water resource management plans. 00:22:24
Each one of Wisconsin's 72 counties. 00:22:32
Has a land and water resource management plan. 00:22:36
These plans are required by Wisconsin law under Chapter 92 of the state statute. 00:22:39
The plans are approved by the Wisconsin Department of AG Trade and Consumer Protection. 00:22:45
Having an approved plan affords benefits to the county, including eligibility for grant funding through the state's Soil and Water 00:22:51
Resource Management Grant program. 00:22:56
These grants provide funding for county conservation staff and to cost share conservation practice installation on private land. 00:23:02
Each one of the 72 county plans includes an assessment of the county's unique soil and water resources. 00:23:11
The plan also includes an assessment of the condition of these resources. 00:23:18
As part of the planning process, local conservation priorities are identified and conservation goals for the county are 00:23:24
established. 00:23:28
The goals and priorities are informed by the resource assessment. 00:23:32
As well as through consultation with other conservation partners. 00:23:36
A local citizen advisory committee is also appointed to help guide the development of the plan. 00:23:40
A citizen advisory committee must be reflective of a broad spectrum of public interests and perspectives. 00:23:47
Although each one of the county plans is unique, there are a number of key components that must be included. 00:23:54
The required plan contents are described in detail in State Administrative Rule. 00:24:02
80 CP 50. 00:24:07
Some select components in each plan include. 00:24:09
A strategy to encourage compliance with the state soil and water conservation standards, known as the Agricultural Performance 00:24:13
Standards. 00:24:17
And a description of how the county can support compliance with these standards. 00:24:21
A work plan for the county that is based upon a reasonable assessment of available funding and staffing resources. 00:24:26
The plan must also identify how the county will implement the plan, including identification of the programs. 00:24:33
And regulations that will help with this implementation. 00:24:40
The plan must also identify opportunities to monitor and evaluate the progress in implementing the plan. 00:24:43
And must also include an information and education component related to the land and water conservation needs and priorities. 00:24:50
The plan is an important piece of your county's conservation program. 00:25:00
With an approved Land and Water Resource Management plan, the county remains eligible to receive grant funding through the 00:25:04
Department of AG, Trade and Consumer Protection through the Soil and Water Resource Management Grant Program, also known as the 00:25:09
SWARM Grant. 00:25:15
Through this grant program, the county receives funding for conservation staff. 00:25:21
The county also receives funds to cost share conservation practices on private land and to support nutrient management planning. 00:25:26
The work planning completed as a part of the Land and Water Resource Management Plan guides the county's conservation efforts to 00:25:35
achieve the goals of the plan. 00:25:39
The work plan includes the planned activities for the year and the anticipated outcomes. 00:25:44
The plan and the annual work plans help the county to prioritize the conservation workload. 00:25:50
Finally, the plan also helps you show progress in meeting your conservation goals. 00:25:57
Each year, the Land Conservation Committee is required to submit an annual report. 00:26:02
On conservation activities and accomplishments. 00:26:07
This annual reporting provides information that helps to show statewide progress in achieving conservation goals. 00:26:10
Once a land and water resource management plan is completed. 00:26:19
And approved by the Land Conservation Committee. 00:26:23
The plan is presented to the Wisconsin Land and Water Conservation Board. 00:26:26
This board reviews the plans and makes a recommendation for approval to the Department of AG Trade and Consumer Protection. 00:26:30
Following the board recommendation. 00:26:40
The county usually takes the plan to the full local county board for adoption. 00:26:42
Once the county board adopts the plan, the county notifies the department. 00:26:47
Finally, approval will then be made by the Department of AG, Trade and Consumer Protection. 00:26:52
This plan approval is good for 10 years. 00:26:58
Five years after the plan is approved, the county will be asked to meet with the Land and Water Conservation Board again to review 00:27:02
progress in implementing the plan. 00:27:07
The Land and Water Conservation Board has developed guidance documents detailing the requirements. 00:27:12
Of presenting a plan for tenure approval. 00:27:17
And for presenting A5 year review. 00:27:20
These guidance documents include a list of questions regarding plan, implementation and accomplishments that the county should be 00:27:24
prepared to address. 00:27:28
At least one member of the LCC is requested to attend both of the presentations to the Land and Water Conservation Board. 00:27:33
As Land Conservation Committee members, you have a very important role in the development and implementation of the county's Land 00:27:42
and Water Resource Management Plan. 00:27:47
As a committee member, you will be asked to help guide the development of the plan. 00:27:52
And to consider attending the Land and Water Conservation Board meetings to support your county conservation department. 00:27:57
In addition, each county is asked to develop and submit an annual work plan and to report annual accomplishments. 00:28:04
We hope this presentation helps you understand a little more about the county Land and Water Resource Management Plan and the 00:28:12
importance of this plan to your county's conservation program. 00:28:18
Please get in touch with us in the Bureau of Land and Water Resources at the Wisconsin Department of AG, Trade and Consumer 00:28:24
Protection for additional information or for help with your plan revision. 00:28:30
Highlighted the water plan was. 00:28:54
Just rewritten in 22, so the five year review be coming up in 27. 00:28:56
OK. 00:29:06
Any discussion on the video? 00:29:08
OK, change it up. You guys a Sawyer? You want to clap? 00:29:12
Sure. 00:29:15
Hello everyone. 00:29:19
Sawyer Schmidt with Natural Resources Conservation Service. 00:29:20
Just some updates, umm. 00:29:27
Currently all thirty of our newly received Conservation Stewardship program applications. 00:29:29
That we've received this calendar year, have had their site visits been assessed and ranked for our May 2nd deadline. 00:29:36
Umm, other than that. 00:29:43
We have our. 00:29:47
Drumlin Marine Local work group meeting. 00:29:49
Scheduled for June 12th. 00:29:52
Basically, that meeting is for land owners to give their input on what practices they want prioritized for the coming year. 00:29:54
So it's kind of the land owners way of having some say in what. 00:30:02
Some of our funding goes to. 00:30:06
Umm, early June we start transitioning to our Farm Service Agency random compliance checks. 00:30:10
These are basically for. 00:30:16
Tracks that have either a highly erodible land or. 00:30:19
Wetland on site. 00:30:23
Once the fields are planted, we check to make sure that. 00:30:25
Wetlands aren't being failed and. 00:30:28
There's not giant gullies on hillsides and whatnot. 00:30:30
This year there's roughly 40 tracks that were randomly drawed. 00:30:34
So as soon as. 00:30:38
Soon as those farmers have those fields planted, we can actually go check them. 00:30:39
And then within the next week or two, we should find out. 00:30:45
What Conservation Conservation Stewardship program applications have been pre approved? 00:30:49
Once that list comes out, we work on. 00:30:55
Making those applications into contracts. So that's kind of where we're sitting with workload right now. 00:30:58
Any questions from any of you guys? 00:31:05
Thank you. 00:31:10
OK. Thank you. 00:31:11
Hey, Matt. 00:31:13
Morning, everyone. 00:31:20
Not a whole lot new for us. We completed our. 00:31:23
Arc PLC sign up regular. 00:31:28
Sign up. We are now into late file era so that will run to September 30th for that for anybody that missed. 00:31:31
We were roughly 98% completed at this point, so that's pretty darn good. 00:31:39
We're still working on the ECAP program, which is the emergency Conservation Assistance program, the one that was. 00:31:46
Approved back in December that came out. 00:31:55
We roughly have. 00:31:58
600 producers signed up for that. Currently, Right now, we've put out roughly $6.5 million in Dodge County. 00:32:00
What was the name of that again? The emergency one? 00:32:10
Commodity Assistance program. Thank you. 00:32:12
That program runs till August 15th. 00:32:16
So we're rolling right along with that. We figure we're probably right around 80% done with that one right now. So. 00:32:20
Things are looking good there. 00:32:27
So we're just gearing up now for our spring crop reporting season. 00:32:29
Which should be right around the corner. Hopefully the weather kicks in and guys can get in the field and get things planted 00:32:34
without many issues. 00:32:38
I know they like it that way, and we like it that way in our office as well because it's a lot less paperwork when there's no 00:32:42
problem. 00:32:45
So we should start mailing maps out in the next week or two to get that rolling for you guys. 00:32:49
And that's about it for right now. 00:32:57
Any questions for me? 00:32:58
Thank you. Thank you, man. 00:33:04
Hey John, budget update. 00:33:08
Nothing. 00:33:11
Outlandish with the budget everything seems to be following on track with last year. 00:33:14
There are a couple line items that I just got to have the finance. 00:33:21
Take some money from one business unit and transfer it to another because it was deposited in the wrong, wrong one. 00:33:25
But other than that, budgets good so far. 00:33:32
OK, update on the tree sale. 00:33:37
We just finished up the tree sales last week. Basically that's a. 00:33:39
Very much an all week program for us I. 00:33:44
We get. 00:33:48
We sold just a little over 4600 tree tubes, so they come. 00:33:49
Like the first part of April. 00:33:55
Get store at the highway department. So on Monday we transferred all them to the fairgrounds and. 00:33:57
Package that broke them down into individual orders. 00:34:03
On Tuesday we went and picked up the trees. Half of them were up in Plainfield, the other half we got in Columbia County. 00:34:07
We get quite a few trees from Michigan. 00:34:14
So to save on ship, each one truck goes to Columbia County. So then we go and pick them up there and bring them home. 00:34:17
Spent most of the day Wednesday breaking them down. Individual orders Thursday. 00:34:25
Everybody comes and picks them up and we have a few stragglers on Friday. 00:34:30
So everything is picked up. 00:34:34
Just a little over 22,000 trees we sold this year, so. 00:34:37
I'd like to congratulate. I did go out there and those you haven't seen it, it's amazing. 00:34:43
The whole office, the whole team, the whole they all work together, they're all working really hard and they work long hours. 00:34:48
And I just appreciate the extra work. I mean, that was a lot of extra effort. 00:34:54
And I mean, hauling those, moving them, dividing them up, putting the orders, putting alphabetical order, having it there at the 00:34:59
fairgrounds, I was thoroughly impressed. I never saw it before. I didn't really understand it, so I went. 00:35:04
And I just want you to know that work in that department work very hard at the extra effort. So thank you, John, for doing that 00:35:10
and everybody helped. 00:35:15
We also get support from NRCS. There's three staff that came on the day that we on Wednesday when we broke them down to individual 00:35:21
orders. 00:35:25
So. 00:35:29
They help out a lot too. 00:35:30
Huge undertaking. Thank you. 00:35:32
Columbia County sells 50,000 trees. 00:35:34
But we're only half. 00:35:37
That's our challenge. 00:35:40
Yeah, yeah. 00:35:41
OK, Rock River Flood group update. 00:35:46
OK, we met on April 9th. 00:35:49
And our next meeting is the 22nd. 00:35:53
A couple things that has happened since the last meeting in April 9th is I had an individual call. 00:35:57
Wanting to know where the. 00:36:05
The minutes and the agendas are posted for this organization. 00:36:07
Or not organization the group. 00:36:13
We do not. 00:36:16
Post agendas for them because they're not part of the county. 00:36:17
So they're not on our website. 00:36:23
They're not officially an organization, they're just a couple land owners. 00:36:25
So anything. 00:36:31
In talking with Kim from Corp Council. 00:36:34
She doesn't see where they're legally bound to where they have to post these items. 00:36:37
So in the future, any reference that I get, any questions I get, I'm just going to be referring them to them because it's. 00:36:43
Their responsibility, not not mine to be posting that. 00:36:51
Basically all I'm doing is. 00:36:55
Organizing the meetings, setting them up. If this room is available, we have them in here. 00:36:57
On the meeting we had on the 9th I had to take a smaller room upstairs because this one was not available so. 00:37:02
So that's something that, umm. 00:37:10
That has come up since the last meeting. 00:37:13
You are scheduled to. 00:37:16
Listen to them next month. 00:37:19
They came to us last fall requesting funding. It was late in the budgeting process, so the committee at that time. 00:37:21
Postponed it until May of this year, so they will be coming to the committee in May to make their presentation and. 00:37:30
You'll have to make a decision then as to whether we're going to support them financially in any way or not. 00:37:37
So I'll be reaching out to them to make sure they're they're aware that. 00:37:46
Remind them that's coming up in May that they're here to. 00:37:50
Present to you. 00:37:54
OK. Any discussion? 00:37:57
Have they completed a hydraulic study up to Horicon yet or counting down? 00:37:59
What has happened? 00:38:05
No. 00:38:09
No, they do have. 00:38:10
Several staff members from UD students, grad students. 00:38:12
That are going to be working on that this year. 00:38:16
Hydraulic study of the watershed. And they're going to be. 00:38:20
Comparing that with. 00:38:26
The climate change effects that have been happening in the area. 00:38:28
Umm, but no, it has not been done yet. 00:38:33
They wanted to do a. 00:38:39
Coordinated drawdown effort between Lake Ms. 00:38:41
The Horkin Dam and the. 00:38:46
Marsh Dam. 00:38:49
Conversations that took place, it sounded like everybody was on board with it. 00:38:52
When it came time to implement. 00:38:58
The. 00:39:01
Fish and Wildlife Service at the Horke Marsh said no, we're not going to. 00:39:03
Lake Santa Sippy did. 00:39:07
And. 00:39:10
In a. 00:39:11
In a roundabout way, the Hork and dam also did because they have a stop log that's broke at the bottom. 00:39:12
So essentially they drew down to because like Sissippi did. 00:39:20
Umm, we got Nichiren and. 00:39:27
They were back to capacity shortly thereafter, so. 00:39:29
In what I saw living in the area and driving by the Rock River on Hwy. 60. 00:39:34
That drawdown had very little effect. 00:39:41
Sinnissippi and Hurricane Marsh. The dams were never designed to be flood retention. 00:39:45
So. 00:39:52
So did you drive back and forth or you just saying at one point you were just driving by and you looked? 00:39:56
I work in Hartford on weekends, so I drive by the Rock River four times on Saturday and Sunday. 00:40:01
So. 00:40:06
And then I did make an effort to drive down. 00:40:08
On where our USGS station is on MP down there, so I'd go by down. So look at that too. Did they take any measurements? 00:40:12
While they got the monitoring station where they're. 00:40:21
They're measuring all the time, so. 00:40:24
Yeah, and the purpose of the drawdown was prior to the. 00:40:27
Anticipated rain, is that right? Right. The intention, thought process was if you drew them down. 00:40:33
6 inches. 00:40:42
Still in their damn order. 00:40:43
Priorities. 00:40:46
That. 00:40:48
Spring thaw, Spring rains. 00:40:49
Would create 6 inches of storage. Yeah, create 6 inches storage post pull some of the flooding effects downstream. 00:40:53
The Rock River on Hwy. 60 has been out of its banks. 00:41:04
Ever since we got the the rains in the first part of April. 00:41:07
So it hasn't changed much at all. 00:41:11
You don't know what it would have looked like. 00:41:16
Without the drawdown though. 00:41:19
You have no idea if it would have been worse. No, right? No. So it might not be better. 00:41:20
It might be less worse. 00:41:27
Which is different, right? That's why the measurements are important. 00:41:30
No matter what you got 6 inches of drawdown. I think the time frame is the only difference. It's it's I I don't believe it's going 00:41:34
to make a difference as to the. 00:41:39
The severity of the Flood. 00:41:44
I think the drawdown would only be a time frame difference instead of happening. 00:41:47
April 1. 00:41:53
It possibly happened April 10th. 00:41:55
That's in my opinion that that's really the only difference that Drawdown would have done. 00:41:58
Did you talk to any of the? 00:42:04
Professional. 00:42:06
Umm, I don't know what they are. They're not. 00:42:08
There was, there's conversation on the 9th about it. Yeah, Roger was, Robert was there, yeah. But nothing was discussed as far as. 00:42:13
What the actual effect? 00:42:24
Was. 00:42:27
With the drawdown. 00:42:28
So how full a sediment is the Rock River? 00:42:30
I mean, obviously that'll play a role into it. If it's getting filled with sediment, it's obviously going to be out of its banks 00:42:32
longer. That's that's one thing that could be the biggest problem. Odd, you know, granted the heavy rainfalls we get, but if 00:42:36
that's full of sediment. 00:42:40
Yeah, no matter what you're going to do, what you do, you're not going to fix it. 00:42:45
Right, that's one thing that the Fish and Wildlife Service did say that they have seen in the last several years, more sediment 00:42:48
coming into the marsh. 00:42:52
So that's one thing that they have noticed. 00:42:58
I do know that. 00:43:00
And you're aware too. 00:43:03
That. 00:43:06
The Rock River. 00:43:06
From the Oxbow Marine up to the Horkin Dam is very shallow. I mean when I had a boat several years back. 00:43:08
You didn't troll. 00:43:17
You. You went or you floated. 00:43:18
The the props bottom out in the muck, so you're shallow there. 00:43:23
And and Sinnissippi as a whole. 00:43:28
It averages 4 feet deep. 00:43:30
I mean, you go on the website and they say it's 8 feet deep. Well, that's at the dam. Yeah. The rest of it, it averages 4 feet 00:43:33
deep, right? 00:43:37
So it looks pretty. It looks pretty. Everybody knows it's got sediment, everybody knows it's so. 00:43:44
They're not fixing anything. They're minimizing additional damage. Those are two different things. 00:43:51
And I'll be more interested, no offense, hearing what Robert says, because they're gonna look at actual measurements. 00:43:57
You know. 00:44:03
Post whatever I mean that's that's why we gave them money right? To take measurements on the. 00:44:05
Actual gauges. 00:44:10
So. 00:44:12
It's. I'd be interested in seeing how you measure what you avoided right because. 00:44:15
One way or another, they got 6 inches. 00:44:21
And even if it's several days later, you, you've got evaporation on a shallow river, right, you can start absorbing water if you 00:44:25
can postpone it. That's the whole point is postponing. 00:44:31
The flooding right and not doing it all at once. 00:44:38
All high erosion events happen with a high burst of water all at once. That's where 95% of the damage happens. So actually. 00:44:41
Postponing flooding. 00:44:49
Is uh. 00:44:51
I mean, you know what I'm saying? 00:44:52
You've heard this 100 times. 00:44:54
Postponing the flooding or stretching it out minimizes the flooding and the erosion. 00:44:56
Just generally, but I would like to hear what. 00:45:02
I don't know if they're bringing Robert. 00:45:05
But uh, uh. 00:45:07
It would be interesting to hear what their measurements say and. 00:45:09
You know what the result is. 00:45:13
OK. 00:45:20
Discuss possible research project for Dodge County. 00:45:23
Airport Farm. 00:45:27
Umm well and I have not met since we went out to the place. 00:45:28
I believe it's before last month's meeting, Will and I actually went out there, walked around a while. 00:45:35
He was supposed to be getting hold of some extension people letting them know OK now that he's actually seen the place. 00:45:40
This is what we have what who's interested in doing what kind of research out there because. 00:45:47
We've never really come up with. 00:45:53
This is the type of research. 00:45:55
Dodge County definitely wants to see. 00:45:57
But I've gotten from. 00:46:00
Some different people that I've talked to. 00:46:02
Compare. 00:46:06
No till and cover crops to a conventional till which. 00:46:08
I mean, you can drive around Dodge County and see that. 00:46:13
So. So he is supposed to be contacting them. 00:46:15
I did have another conversation with Dave frolling as far as. 00:46:19
Renting the place out, how do we go about doing that? Coming up with equipment? 00:46:24
I mean. 00:46:30
If you just do the. 00:46:31
The no till as compared to the conventional till. 00:46:33
That's a couple trips that the landowner, whoever rents it, has to come to do. 00:46:37
But if you start doing trial test plots. 00:46:43
Smaller strips. 00:46:45
That also means special equipment, smaller equipment to have, extension does not have. 00:46:47
Extra equipment laying around that they can. 00:46:55
Haul back and forth to different sites the. 00:46:58
The thing about the Rock County one is they have equipment that stays actually stays there. How did they get their equipment in 00:47:02
Rock County? 00:47:06
I don't know if they were donated, I know the tractors were rented and they get very very cheap rental rates with them. 00:47:10
But I don't know if if the county bought the equipment or I believe the a lot of the planters were extensions and years ago they 00:47:18
had more equipment than they were able to. But things have changed a lot in the last five years. 00:47:24
So we're still having conversations to see what. 00:47:32
What? Umm. 00:47:36
What kind of? 00:47:37
Work we want to do out there. I mean, we're an agricultural county. Has anybody ever thought of putting something out to producers 00:47:38
to see if they would rent out smaller equipment? I mean, there's a lot of people. 00:47:44
That have smaller equipment, right, a lot a lot of them have not done the big multi billion dollar massive and they've got the 00:47:51
small equipment all over the county. 00:47:56
I mean, if we just. 00:48:01
Organized a request. 00:48:03
I think. 00:48:05
And we've had, we've had that conversation, Will and I and then staff and I about. 00:48:07
Who locally? 00:48:12
Do we know that has that stuff? I mean, obviously somebody from the Myers not going to. 00:48:13
Show up with a four row corn planter, just a plant and then then take it all back home. 00:48:18
So who locally has that stuff? You know, that's that's what we're I'm just saying if you put out a request. 00:48:23
To everybody to say we're looking for equipment and would you be willing to rent it? It's to help. 00:48:30
It's for research in the county that's going to directly help farmers in this county. It's not like, oh, look what happened in 00:48:36
Iowa. 00:48:39
It's our land right here. They have a real. 00:48:43
Interest in it? 00:48:46
Yeah. And and that's that's the direction that we will go when we get to that point. We're still trying to figure out what kind of 00:48:49
research we're going to be doing. 00:48:52
He came and talked to us, remember? Yeah. So he was pretty detailed about it. Yeah. Yeah. But we still don't know who and what 00:48:56
kind of research. That's what we're working on. 00:49:00
There's a lot of things that can be done. It's finding somebody from extension that has the time. 00:49:05
That has the interest in coming here to do it. 00:49:10
That's what he's working on. 00:49:13
Will. Well, all right, Can. Is he gonna? 00:49:15
Give us an update next month. 00:49:18
I'll get on. 00:49:21
Between now and then because we are coming down to crunch time where we gotta make a decision to get it out there. So yeah. 00:49:22
Staff Introductions. 00:49:37
All right, I got 2 left that are here. 00:49:39
Dave, yes, you want to come up and. 00:49:43
You got to sit and talk to the mic, right? In the mic, Yeah, you're being recorded, so. 00:49:46
Who you are, what you do, and how long you been here. 00:49:52
Alrighty morning fellas and ladies. 00:49:54
I'm Dave Brown Schweig. 00:50:01
I've been. 00:50:03
Then one of the technicians here in land conservation, now land and water conservation. 00:50:04
Since 1991 when? 00:50:11
The Beaver Ram River Watershed project was brought on board here in Dodge County. 00:50:16
And Mark was the county con. And. 00:50:21
I came back home and. 00:50:24
I took this job with Dodge County and I've. 00:50:26
Been here ever since and. 00:50:31
Enjoyed working here for all those years and. 00:50:34
And still do. And working with farmers. 00:50:37
Like Dale, etc. And and and others throughout the county. 00:50:40
Some areas we've definitely worked more often. 00:50:45
Doing erosion practices is one of the biggest things lately, obviously. Umm. 00:50:49
So manure storage projects were done, John and I when he was a technician. 00:50:55
Those have. 00:51:00
Basically. 00:51:01
Pretty much handled, but so now we're down to trying to keep soil. 00:51:02
As much as possible. 00:51:08
On with the farmers, obviously with them changing their practices, etcetera and. 00:51:10
Where it's needed. 00:51:16
To keep things from eroding into the streams and rivers so. 00:51:17
Beaver Dam Lake, as we know, had an issue over the winter here and so forth. So that's another thing that I, you know. 00:51:22
Can we help and tackle with or not but? 00:51:28
The Some of that shoreline work was done years ago in the Beaver River watershed. 00:51:31
But. 00:51:37
So yeah, since the Beaver Dam River. 00:51:39
Watershed Project came on board. That's how long I've been here. 00:51:42
I working with many land owners and doing some good projects. I think some really good projects and. 00:51:48
And just watching things change, farming systems, etc and. 00:51:56
There's a lot of things that still need to be done, obviously with. 00:52:02
Mother Nature and the weather we've had here lately, but. But maybe that's just the way things go. Obviously in the cycles, but. 00:52:06
So what are the biggest changes you've seen? You've been here decades. What are the biggest changes you've seen? 00:52:16
Definitely the. 00:52:21
Cropping systems themselves and more guys doing less tillage, No, maybe not no till totally, but just much less tillage and the 00:52:24
tools that are out there for just. 00:52:31
Lightly. 00:52:38
Working the ground and then just planting it and saving in time and fuel etc. So that's certainly probably the biggest and it's a 00:52:39
good thing and. 00:52:44
As dairy operations have gone to the wayside here, as we know, there's less alfalfa. So those guys that are working on that ground 00:52:50
now. 00:52:54
Not everything is meant for corn and beans. You've got to take the next step to try to. 00:53:00
Make sure soil is staying where it belongs and. 00:53:04
And I know that's a challenge in some areas in Dodge County with the Drummond's and the hills and stuff that we have. 00:53:08
But those guys, you see a number of them doing. 00:53:15
As much as they possibly can. 00:53:18
Without just seating it all down again. But that's just not what they want to do. And it's not. 00:53:20
You know, fruitful for them and so forth and but. 00:53:26
But that's a Bobby the the biggest thing definitely and. 00:53:30
And seeing the small dairy operations leave the countryside as was, you know, it's always kind of, that's kind of tough, you know, 00:53:34
and. 00:53:37
And but. 00:53:41
But that's just how times change and either you get bigger or you get out. I mean, I guess that's the way it's been so. 00:53:42
The direction that's kind of dairy has gone. 00:53:50
But no, there's not a good. 00:53:53
It's not a good. 00:53:57
Farmers out there that doing doing the right thing and. 00:53:58
And many more that. 00:54:01
Probably could, but we're trying to reach his, yeah, reach them and hopefully they can see what their neighbors doing or something 00:54:03
if they're doing something different. 00:54:07
And it'll start. 00:54:12
Making sense to them. 00:54:14
Try that system as well. 00:54:16
But it doesn't happen overnight as we all know. But but hopefully things. 00:54:19
Can change in. 00:54:24
In some other areas really that could need it here in the county, so. 00:54:26
Thanks. You bet. Thank you. 00:54:32
OK. 00:54:35
Robert. 00:54:38
Recorded no position. 00:54:45
Not quite like that. 00:54:48
Trying to get to know you. 00:54:51
So my name is Robert Byrd. I've been with the department for. 00:54:53
Let's see, since 98 I worked under the Beaver Dam River Watershed program for years and then when that ended. 00:54:58
Basically. 00:55:06
They kept me on to go. Countrywide did a lot of work with Jim Vanta and Nancy Drummy out of Extension over the years. They were 00:55:07
doing a program where farmers could take soil tests. 00:55:13
And then write nutrient plans. And then when they retired and left, there was #1 there to. 00:55:19
Keep that program going so. 00:55:26
I guess I hope to. 00:55:28
Work with a ton of agronomists that write a lot of the plans. 00:55:29
Work with farmers trying to keep them compliant for programs like farmland preservation. 00:55:35
Dave is exactly right in that you know the world is changing and practices have changed on the farm. 00:55:41
You know, years ago farmers were trying to grow, say, 150 bushel corn, and now it seems like if they don't get 200 bushel corn, 00:55:48
something went wrong. 00:55:52
And one of the things that bothers me the most, probably about what we do is extreme weather. 00:55:57
And how to handle that? 00:56:04
You know, we go through these periods of, you know, maybe dry and then also we just get hammered by multiple in rainfall. 00:56:05
And sometimes at the wrong time of the year when there is a much residue cover. 00:56:14
And then you see the gullies in the fields and, and, and, you know, used to be years ago it seemed like, you know, everybody was 00:56:19
kind of questioning, you know. 00:56:24
How much runoff is coming from the farm versus how much is coming from? 00:56:29
You know, suburbia versus how much is coming from the treatment plants and. 00:56:32
And and I do believe that there is a significant amount at times of the year that is coming from the farm. 00:56:37
And it's kind of undeniable when you see it run down the road ditches and you know, it's everyone is kind of implicated in this 00:56:43
and, you know, to make improvements, you know, on each individual farm. 00:56:50
You know, it's kind of like one step at a time. I always said if farmers would make just one incremental change. 00:56:59
You know, say if you're a chisel flower, you know, maybe try a less deep tillage. 00:57:06
You know, try to add cover crops in your rotation. John and I, well Mark, Becky actually helped to start out. 00:57:13
Dodge County Farmers for Healthy Soil, Healthy Water and and I do think that group has been impactful. 00:57:21
And. 00:57:27
So, you know, and, and one of the things that they've brought about is mostly a practice of cover cropping and you do see more 00:57:28
cover crops in the in the neighborhood. 00:57:33
But then viewing soil health as being important. 00:57:39
So instead of just looking at individual practices, you know, how can we boost the health of our soil? And boy, that's a mouthful 00:57:43
there, as Dale well knows that, you know, trying to figure that into your system, it's complicated. 00:57:51
Right. So, but one of the things that I want to work on in the future is. 00:57:59
Doing more soil health testing on farm. 00:58:05
So. 00:58:08
You know, I think that adds some value. I mean, I don't know. 00:58:09
If farmers are always viewing their soil, you know, out in the field. 00:58:13
Looking at the water infiltration rates. 00:58:18
I seeing a. 00:58:22
You know the living organisms in the soil and keeping living runs. 00:58:24
So I've been doing some testing lately again and there's certain soil types in Dodge County that don't seem to infiltrate water. 00:58:29
It's like 1 big hunk of clay and. 00:58:37
And that's bad. 00:58:41
And but one thing I have found is that when. 00:58:42
There's heavy cover crops on those soils. They do infiltrate water. So, so it's like we have earthworm and old road channels, but 00:58:47
just in a corn, soybean system, there's not enough roots in the in the. 00:58:52
In the soybean year? 00:58:58
And so, you know, if we go a whole year without many roots in the soil and then can infiltrate water. 00:58:59
You know, and, and how come it's 2025 and and no one has figured this out yet? 00:59:07
We're still learning about soils. You know, I didn't have a soils degree when I started here. And to me it's, it's pretty darn 00:59:12
interesting now. 00:59:17
You know, looking at our soils. So, so if you have any questions, I mean most of you know me. 00:59:23
Been around, worked with a ton of farmers. 00:59:27
I mean, you know, I was trying to get them to kind of think out-of-the-box or push the envelope or, or like I said. 00:59:30
You know, if we can, if we can have them make that incremental change. 00:59:38
You know, so if there's something else that. 00:59:42
You know, you think we should be doing. We're all ears. 00:59:45
So what you and they were doing it very important because covering big parcel of land. 00:59:49
So Beaver Creek, Mill Creek are pretty well buffered. 00:59:53
Versus a residential where you have a. 00:59:57
100 foot frontage. 01:00:00
So when you attack something, you're attacking acreages. Oh yeah, that's key. 01:00:01
Yeah. So, so in the SNAP program, always been a big advocate of SNAP plus and and in that program you can see the the. 01:00:06
The so based on farming practices you can calculate what the runoff. 01:00:14
What the potential is and then you know the reductions. 01:00:20
And you know, with the healthy soils group, we did that. 01:00:24
You know, and so cover crops say, for instance, we had to determine that, you know, over many 1000 acres that the cover crops can 01:00:28
reduce phosphorus runoff by on average about a half pound of phosphorus per acre per year. 01:00:35
That's significant. 01:00:43
You know, if you put that over 1000 acres, 500 pounds, 500 phosphorus that would be delivered to surface water, so. 01:00:44
You know, uh. 01:00:50
How do you deal with the the tenants? 01:00:53
Farmers that are renting, how do you handle that issue because the benefit goes to the owner. Well, the benefit for the farmland 01:00:56
preservation program gets the owner, but most of the tenants, they want to continue to operate that land. 01:01:02
Right. You know, otherwise there will always be another person, another farmer that's saying, you know, what, if that person isn't 01:01:09
going to keep you compliant, I will, you know, So there's always that. 01:01:14
You know, uh. 01:01:19
But farmland preservation probably wasn't lucrative enough. Now they've increased the per acre rate up to $10.00 an acre. 01:01:20
You know, and then having the ability to not to have to sign the contract in most townships other than like Westford. 01:01:27
You know no contract helps. 01:01:35
Because some of the farmers don't know where they're going to be in 10 or 15 years or landlord land owners, you know? 01:01:38
And uh. 01:01:43
But yeah, you have to be able to look at this from all sides. 01:01:44
You know. 01:01:47
But but I do think, you know, the world is changing, right? Yeah. And you know the. 01:01:48
You know, some of the younger farmers, boy, they are really all about. 01:01:55
Changing practices, you know, we we've seen an increase in acres of practice called strip tillage and we're a pure no till 01:02:01
sometimes held guys back, especially in the transition. And so farmers that are it's really expensive equipment and but then some 01:02:10
of them are able to ban fertilizer and and then plant into a strip and then leave their the in betweens and. 01:02:19
And maybe plant covers. 01:02:28
You know, on the strip, Yeah, in between where you're gonna plant your. Oh OK cash crop. All right, you know the strip till system 01:02:30
has. 01:02:35
Seems to be on the increase in county. 01:02:41
And, and I think Healthy Soils is going to try to chip away at that topic here in August again. 01:02:43
And where they're going to have a field day. So if anybody's interested in that, but that's a practice that. 01:02:49
You know, I think that we could gain traction in the in the conservation field. 01:02:56
But, you know, farmland preservation in the county is kind of. 01:03:00
It's not consistent. 01:03:05
In other words, there's tone ships that aren't even in it. You know those those land owners generally aren't walking in our 01:03:07
office. 01:03:10
And, and there definitely we work more in the farmland preservation townships than we do in. 01:03:13
Than the ones that aren't, you know, so that's kind of a shame, you know, and whereas some of the other counties are all zoned for 01:03:20
from. And that's probably a problem that has gone back 20 years in a town of Lowell, for example, you know, has not been in, you 01:03:26
know, we did a ton of work in a ton of wool in the Beaver Dam River watershed days. 01:03:33
But since then, not really, you know, and they really need to change their ways and thinking and, you know, try to adopt it if 01:03:39
they want to make some progress down there and, you know, in conservation. 01:03:46
So I don't mean to hold you up here. I mean, anybody can call me anytime. 01:03:53
Be glad to work with you. 01:03:57
So. 01:03:59
Thank you. 01:04:01
All right. Well, thank you, Robert. All right. 01:04:02
We're small staff, we have 6 people. 01:04:06
But we have a total of 127 years of experience between the six of us, so. 01:04:10
I've seen in the field days too as you're approachable. 01:04:18
So there are communities. 01:04:21
Reluctant to ask a question. 01:04:23
Thanks. 01:04:29
OK, committee reports like Senna Sippy let's me start. 01:04:31
Most of our we had met. 01:04:36
And great. 01:04:38
And most of the meeting was line by line, preparing for the 26th budget. 01:04:43
We did get correspondence from the Village of Uses for they accepted our request, the LSID's request and voted unanimously to 01:04:48
change the dam orders. So the lake level drawdown will now be February after February 15th. 01:04:54
Our lake management plan update that we are are. 01:05:03
Our advisor or expert is still working on shoreline mapping, anticipating and getting a graph. We're also anticipate getting a 01:05:06
draft of the feasibility study for the lake inlet dredging. 01:05:12
That's for annual meeting coming up, that'll be a pretty big contract will we've awarded. 01:05:17
They're, umm, stocking update. We're going to change, probably change the mix of fish because. 01:05:23
The change in the lake levels. 01:05:28
That'll happen in the fall. 01:05:31
Umm and Chris, our current chairman is going to step down and she told us that she will not after August, she will not no longer 01:05:34
be leading the organization. She's a bill works with her, she's outstanding and. 01:05:41
But she got married and moved up to Wausau. So it's she comes back down, but it's. 01:05:48
So I don't know if we can get a good leader or not. 01:05:54
That's going to be a big loss, I think. 01:05:56
So. 01:05:59
That's all I have. 01:06:00
The Beaver Dam. 01:06:02
Now with the DNR Fishery Bureau leadership. 01:06:04
And we had a 90 minute discussion. 01:06:08
Provided me. 01:06:10
Executive summary because some of them had not. 01:06:13
That experience would be with Emily previously. 01:06:16
And we talked about raw fish and phosphorus. 01:06:19
How to manage that? 01:06:23
And the key to it we use the. 01:06:25
DNR, surface water. 01:06:28
Data Viewer. 01:06:34
For the past 20 years. 01:06:37
5 principles and track on the lake. 01:06:40
So you started 2005 on? 01:06:43
Powder we see the flashless level in the upper left hand corner. 01:06:46
The .5 milligrams per liter. 01:06:50
And then through 2017, it dropped down to about. 01:06:53
.15. 01:06:57
You then see it go back up. 01:06:59
And you're at about the .4 now in 2025. 01:07:02
So you have the phosphorus level on Deaver damn lake. 01:07:06
The orange dots are the early season. 01:07:10
Meaning the runoff and the ice melt. 01:07:13
Then you have the black dots that are typically. 01:07:18
Events that are current on the lake over the year. 01:07:21
Which are the rough fish price? 01:07:26
So back in 2017 through 2005. 01:07:31
The DNR was conducting rough fish removal. 01:07:35
And the fastest level kept going down from .5 to .15. 01:07:39
I think that's pretty significant. 01:07:44
They stopped in 2017. 01:07:47
And you can see what it did from 2017 to this year. 01:07:49
So if phosphorus is a. 01:07:54
The devil's element, which it is, and it causes algae. 01:07:57
Green and blue-green. 01:08:01
And it causes severe damage to the lake, which it does. 01:08:02
We did ourselves with this service by stop collecting rough fish out of Beaver Dam Light. 01:08:06
I'm sorry, who did you meet with again? 01:08:12
It was the. 01:08:15
DNR fishery management up to but not including the Secretary. 01:08:17
The Director, Secretary, Bureau division. 01:08:22
Deputy Division Administrator. 01:08:25
Deputy Bureau Director. 01:08:27
So they have. 01:08:28
Up to, but not the secretary of DNR. 01:08:31
I think it was a productive meeting. 01:08:37
I think so. I don't believe that some of the data the food chain to them before. 01:08:39
So this is to some of them with new data which. 01:08:45
Was kind of surprising. 01:08:49
So again, this was the key element here, that phosphorus is a problem. 01:08:51
And it's not a secret. 01:08:55
How did they respond? 01:08:57
Please. 01:09:01
I think some of them were not. 01:09:05
Up to the. 01:09:07
They were not up to speed yet. 01:09:08
So they were kind of neutral. 01:09:10
We had a couple folks offer ideas. 01:09:11
And what I asked for was to have an experimental contract. 01:09:14
For this year. 01:09:18
To identify what the mass balances in the lake. 01:09:19
So if they find that the mass balance is below 258, let's say. 01:09:24
Then it's not an issue. 01:09:28
If it's over 400. 01:09:30
It's a serious issue. I don't know what mass balance means. Pounds per acre. Alright, thank you. 01:09:31
We also want to have a demonstration for the community. 01:09:38
At one of the parks or one of the parks? 01:09:41
For the commercial fishermen gather out. 01:09:44
A netting of fish. 01:09:47
They'll show the community where 50,000 lbs of carp looks like. 01:09:48
To look in the lake and see one or two swimming around. 01:09:51
You don't get the full impact. 01:09:54
Of a semi load of. 01:09:56
So we've asked for those two things. One, what is the quantity in the lake? 01:09:58
And what does 50,000 lbs of carp look like? 01:10:03
And why it's not a good thing to have them? 01:10:06
In the leg. 01:10:09
So we're going to wait and see now. This just happened last Tuesday. 01:10:10
And hopefully a positive response. 01:10:15
Was this in the event? 01:10:21
Way up here. 01:10:22
I think that was the. 01:10:24
Craylee Pond Weed. 01:10:26
So you have a lot of. 01:10:27
Different parameters that affect. 01:10:29
Phosphorus. 01:10:31
When we had the curly economy back then. 01:10:32
You had a just a. 01:10:35
Very dense growth on the surface of the lake. 01:10:37
Then it died off. Once it died off. 01:10:40
You have massive amount of phosphorus out there. 01:10:42
Your NRCS FSA guy can respond to that better than I can. 01:10:47
Is that correct? 01:10:52
About the curly leaf pond, yeah, I mean, that's. 01:10:53
Early fall that dies off. 01:10:57
It's basically Barrett at that point and then all your phosphorus is kind of. 01:10:59
Available at that point. 01:11:05
So you got. 01:11:07
So you have the normal phosphorus, then the reactive is from the vegetation and. 01:11:07
And animal waste and such. 01:11:13
So you have two different things impacting the phosphorus, a total phosphorus. 01:11:14
So I think that's what that is, but I can't say with any. 01:11:19
Iverson, certainly it is. 01:11:23
It's a dynamic system. 01:11:26
We can identify in generalities. 01:11:28
For example, the early season. That's why the DNR broke that out, made it July. 01:11:30
Because that's one you can. 01:11:36
Hold back some of that, have some buffering. 01:11:38
Hopefully you have infiltration coming in early on. 01:11:41
And hold the. 01:11:45
Nutrients on the ground before it hits the lake. 01:11:46
Who did this? Some this is a product of. Did you have interns help you with this or no? 01:11:50
The incentive will start May 19th, as a matter of fact. 01:11:56
This chart this is off the. 01:12:00
The inner. 01:12:03
Surface Water Data Viewer. Oh my goodness. OK. 01:12:04
And I drew the 2 red lines in there to correlate. 01:12:07
To the black dots. 01:12:11
A trend, so the downward slope. 01:12:13
That's about a 90% correlation. That's pretty good. 01:12:17
The upscope about 80%. 01:12:20
But still. 01:12:22
It gives you a very factual idea of the trend of phosphorus. 01:12:23
And the only change that I could find there. 01:12:27
I looked at temperature. 01:12:30
Rainfall runoff. 01:12:32
Runoff through the dam. Cubic feet per second. 01:12:34
That is the only variable I can find that affects this dramatically. 01:12:36
So the temperature is all over the map, the flow rates run. 01:12:42
Up and down, year to year. 01:12:46
But the correlation to the fish removal? 01:12:48
As you can't ignore it. 01:12:53
What time frame did they give you? A time frame that they would get back within a week? A month? 01:12:56
Within the month within the May. 01:13:00
Because we have to get the contractor up to speed. 01:13:03
To perform his work. 01:13:06
May, June, because now you start at the spawning period, come in. 01:13:07
So you have once it gets warm. 01:13:11
We'll start you on and that will be a worst case scenario. 01:13:14
We know every 2 1/2 years the population of the carp will double. 01:13:17
So once you get past the next two sporting Cy. 01:13:21
You're fighting an uphill battle. 01:13:24
And you told them that, of course. 01:13:29
Some of them knew it, some were not as up to speed. 01:13:32
Is the What do you think about the public's awareness? 01:13:38
There are some that are very intuitive, some fishermen out there that are out there every day. 01:13:44
But the smaller population I'm seeing in Beaver Dam. 01:13:48
The demographics are changing and Beaver Dam watershed. 01:13:51
The house is going up now, replacing cottages. 01:13:55
You're seeing people put in. 01:13:58
Very large residences. 01:14:00
You're seeing less fishermen and more boaters. 01:14:03
The surveys we've had, they are doing more recreational. 01:14:06
And boating. And fishing. And honey. 01:14:10
And that that's pretty much played out by the. 01:14:12
Fishing tags and hunting tags being going down past couple years. 01:14:15
Don't you think don't don't people that use a lake for recreation still would not want it to double the curb every three half 01:14:20
years? 01:14:24
Yeah, they blow the water. 01:14:28
As you can jump inside with a scuba gear. 01:14:30
So at £600 per acre. 01:14:32
That's 85 car per acre in front of your house. 01:14:35
There's only one walleye out there for that same acre. 01:14:39
So that one while he's. 01:14:42
Trying to get around all the carp in his acre of land. 01:14:44
Thank you. 7 LB three acre rough, 7 lbs per car. 01:14:49
£600 per acre. 01:14:53
That's a lot of curve. 01:14:55
When you do hear back, could you please notify Chris right away also, because Lake Santa Sippy is in the, you know, we would like 01:14:56
to do the same thing, you know, if possible. 01:15:01
Kristen Mayor meeting on May 8th, OK to talk about that, OK. 01:15:05
There's a lot of catfish too, but they don't have the same effect, They're different. 01:15:10
Catfish do not as much damage. They eat a lot of the. 01:15:14
Basic zooplankton and bottom small fish feeders. 01:15:18
So they're not as bad as the carp, but. 01:15:23
Anything in over abundance. 01:15:26
That play of whitetail deer hunts? Get over Bunny. You gotta get rid of them. 01:15:28
Same thing with the carp and the catfish and Buffalo. 01:15:33
So it's £600 per acre of carp to how many pounds per acre of walleye? 01:15:36
11 So one walleye breaker. 01:15:42
So 3 lbs. 01:15:45
He's a tough little guy, though. 01:15:49
Yeah, wow. 01:15:50
You have our WM class starting on May 19th. 01:15:55
We have our scheduled session this Wednesday. 01:15:59
We have our grad students, they'll be working on the town of Westward Shoreline. 01:16:03
Doing an assessment from Hickory Point down to High Island. 01:16:08
The intent there is to look at the. 01:16:12
Runoff points in the shoreline to see how we can strengthen the shoreline. 01:16:15
In find areas where we may be getting runoff that affects the lake. 01:16:19
And work with the producer there to. 01:16:24
Go into the. 01:16:26
Past the buffer zone. 01:16:28
And see how we can minimize that. 01:16:30
So they're starting again week of May 19th. You'll see them out on the lake. 01:16:33
And they'll be out there pretty much. 01:16:37
That week in couple weeks in June. 01:16:39
Good group. We have good support from the water quality DNR group. 01:16:43
Arthur Watson. 01:16:47
And Scott that Egert will teach them how to do proper shoreline surveys. 01:16:48
And let's win the day out there with them on the 20th. 01:16:53
So I'm looking forward to the good progress there. 01:16:59
OK, Yeah. 01:17:03
OK, the Fox Lake District. 01:17:07
Had the regular meeting on April 10th and then we met again on April 17th. 01:17:09
To set up their. 01:17:14
Their cost share program that they pay farmers. 01:17:16
To do practices to. 01:17:19
Keep the soil on the land basically instead of getting into the lake. 01:17:22
And. 01:17:26
They think they got about $30,000 to spend to give to local farmers. 01:17:27
Decided on a maximum of $2000 per farmer. 01:17:32
And then? 01:17:36
Basically it's on a payment per acre and a practice that they do. 01:17:39
And on our regular meeting on the 10th, we. 01:17:46
Rob Frank from MCO introduced his new employee. 01:17:50
I just got his first name, Bill. 01:17:54
Since the other. 01:17:58
Their last employee retired, not didn't retire, but moved down to another job. 01:18:00
And from a lack of. 01:18:06
Interests in the job, they had to increase the wages like I mentioned last week. 01:18:08
And Bill is actually. 01:18:13
Coming from Las Vegas. 01:18:16
He's moving to Beaver Dam from Las Vegas and now? 01:18:18
He told our committee that his 17 year old daughter was a senior in high school. Wasn't real thrilled with him. 01:18:21
Yeah, Bag. 01:18:26
But then he also said she'll get over it. I don't know. I'm so sure she will. But. 01:18:31
What? What is his job title again that you're hiring him for? 01:18:35
He'll be maintaining the sanitary system around the lake. 01:18:39
As an MCO employee. 01:18:43
So then Rab also brought up. 01:18:47
They had a grinder pump go out. 01:18:49
And. 01:18:51
They no longer. They used up the spare they had, but they no longer make that pump, so the committee decided to go ahead and 01:18:53
purchase a whole pallet of pumps. 01:18:57
To try to offset. 01:19:01
Big changes to the system for a while, you know to put it off. 01:19:03
And then, uh. 01:19:12
Jerry Cipher gave the Alliance report. 01:19:16
Kind of talked about. 01:19:18
Bills subject on CARP. 01:19:20
And updated. 01:19:23
Fox Lake on that issue. 01:19:26
Umm, then Tracy also want to set up another meeting separate from this one to go over their budget. 01:19:28
And. 01:19:36
The last thing I talked about is. 01:19:37
The wake boat signs that are. 01:19:40
Supposedly going up. 01:19:42
They're still waiting for response from the town's lawyer. 01:19:44
And the DNR an actual wording. 01:19:48
That's about all I have. 01:19:53
OK. 01:19:55
Upcoming events. We have nothing there, John, No. 01:19:58
Next meeting. 01:20:01
Everybody OK that we moved it up one week because of the holiday? May 19th, 8:30. 01:20:03
Yep, OK. 01:20:08
All right. Future agenda items, anyone else have other things that John talked about already? Is there anything else for next 01:20:10
month and if? 01:20:13
OK. 01:20:19
Yes. 01:20:20
It's not on the agenda, but. 01:20:24
Since you asked about putting it on the agenda. 01:20:27
I wondered if we could have. We don't have to spend hardly anytime on it. 01:20:30
But we could literally have the exact percentage. The easiest way to say it. 01:20:35
Of of. 01:20:41
Acreage in farmland preservation, right, Because it's changing. So it's like, so we can instead of waiting five years to go, wow, 01:20:43
we had this goal of increasing it by 20% or whatever it was. 01:20:49
We could say, OK, what is it going up? Is it going down? And we could just. 01:20:55
OK. Just put that in your report. 01:21:00
When John talks, yeah. 01:21:02
Idea a good idea? 01:21:03
OK, I call the meeting adjourned by finishing the agenda. 01:21:07
Thanks. Thank you. 01:21:10
So what you said 18I. 01:21:13
Thanks. 01:21:19
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Transcript

Event transcript
OK, I call them ease this meeting to order the Conservation Extension Committee meeting. 00:00:00
And, umm. 00:00:06
I made the roll call and I don't see any other guests supervisors here, so we're good there. We got a quorum. 00:00:07
Any public comment? I don't see anybody except our team members here. 00:00:14
OK, looking for emotional emotion for the approval of the minutes for the March 4th. 00:00:19
John moved second. Please no. 00:00:27
Ken, I think. Ken, I think you were first. 00:00:32
OK. 00:00:34
Any discussion on the minutes? 00:00:35
I would like to make a notation to you. 00:00:38
That the posting of the minutes has changed. 00:00:40
And if see no one looked for them, otherwise you would know that. 00:00:44
Just so you know, it's different than it was before and when we. 00:00:48
John, do you want to? 00:00:52
Talk about that or. 00:00:53
Cameron, if you want to talk about that, I don't know. We changed our system, how we post minutes and do agendas. 00:00:55
So yeah, so on the city or on the county website? 00:01:01
The. 00:01:04
One is our new system to support all of our minutes. 00:01:06
Videos and agendas. 00:01:10
For meetings. 00:01:12
So. 00:01:13
Prior to this lat this month we we've got all of our records back to. 00:01:14
Gosh, I think 2015, maybe earlier. 00:01:20
In the in our existing system, those are being migrated to Sweet, but if you go into the website and you were on to go to the 00:01:22
front page, we've got kind of a. 00:01:27
Set of 6 buttons. 00:01:33
Calling that right on the page and I think the farthest one to the right is agendas and minutes. 00:01:35
If you were to click on that or whatever route you typically take to get to agendas and minutes. 00:01:40
It will. It might take a minute to come up. 00:01:44
But it will be a new format. 00:01:47
Everything should be in there displayed similar to how it has been in the past in terms of the title of the meeting. 00:01:49
On the far left. 00:01:55
And then as you move across. 00:01:56
A table kind of format to see the agenda. 00:01:58
And minutes. And then a little. 00:02:01
Looks like a little icon of film I think if the video is is available. 00:02:03
Future meetings so possibly this one, but others for sure. 00:02:08
In coming months. 00:02:12
Will begin to actually be time stamped so the agenda will have links and you'll be able to go right to. 00:02:13
Specific item on the agenda and when you open that link and. 00:02:21
Opens up the video at that spot. 00:02:25
So. 00:02:28
Going to be very helpful I think for people to follow along. 00:02:29
But it is it is new, so if you have any difficulties finding anything please. 00:02:32
Feel free to reach out. You can reach out to. 00:02:36
My office, my executive assistant Don Golf can can help. 00:02:40
Or just contact the. 00:02:44
Office directly. 00:02:45
That will be your first option, but. 00:02:47
My option is my office is Yep. 00:02:49
OK, thank you for the update. I appreciate it because I could. I went the old way and it wouldn't work. 00:02:51
I called John and I called Daniel because they're also in process of changing. Yes, in process of changing. So if you're looking 00:02:56
for this is regarding posting of the minutes, it wasn't like before. 00:03:01
It's different in that system, just to make sure everyone's aware, OK? 00:03:06
Any further discussion on the minutes? 00:03:11
Hearing none, those in favor signify approval by saying aye, aye those opposed. 00:03:14
OK, Cindy, you're up. 00:03:22
Come on up. 00:03:24
Update on the forum. 00:03:26
The community needs form. 00:03:28
All right. The next step is in the the timeline that we presented as out of May 1st while we'll have the all the drafts for the 00:03:33
work plans. 00:03:39
Umm, we have 1 completely done and I'll meet with Cameron and Andrew and we'll look through it to make sure that everything that 00:03:45
we're providing is what. 00:03:49
Was what was expected and then it'll be shared with the whole group the end at the next meeting. 00:03:54
All of them and they know, Andrew said. You want to have a discussion conversation, which will be great. 00:04:01
So that's where we are. 00:04:06
With that, one thing I do want you to know is this listening session in Dodge County. 00:04:08
There is now a state team that is actually taking what we learned here and developing it into kind of like a. 00:04:15
A curriculum or a workbook that all counties will use in the future to be systematic. 00:04:24
And it nothing's maybe tweaked a little bit. 00:04:32
But we're working on that. 00:04:34
Plan to help other counties. So you guys were really the the first ones in the state and. 00:04:37
So it's great. I mean it's, you know, it's a good thing there is some other areas or other counties that are already doing this 00:04:43
before that work plan or that thing comes out that document that will help. 00:04:49
And they learned from you, so I shared all the information and the feedback with them. So like I said, your guys were on the 00:04:57
cutting edge. 00:05:00
So that's wonderful. 00:05:05
And other than that? 00:05:06
I will I'd like to say just one thing. So so you know next is it the next month then are we going to discuss the actual work plan 00:05:08
next month? OK, So what that means for us, this is the difference from the past. The difference is, is that there's going to be 3 00:05:16
to five goals for each educator approximately, right? Is that what it is that how you so our job is representatives of the people 00:05:23
in the county board is that we think of the strategic objectives of the. 00:05:31
Board, Where's the county headed? Where's the county board? How we directing the employees, the staff? 00:05:38
And then we interact that. 00:05:45
With the needs assessment. 00:05:48
And then that's the direction. 00:05:49
That extension goes that's that's a critical step because what the mistake that has happened in other counties is that step was 00:05:51
missed. 00:05:55
And then extension just had no direction and they just went off. Not not talk about you, but I'm just saying, I know that's a fact 00:05:59
in some counties, in some counties, not not yours, of course, but but but but what happened is an extension started doing their 00:06:06
their own thing because they didn't get the direction from the county board specific direction. 00:06:13
And then frustration came between the county board and extension, like, why is there value there, but yet they didn't tell them 00:06:20
what to do. 00:06:23
So it's a critical step. So please, if you get a chance, review the counties strategic objectives. I don't know like Bill and Ken, 00:06:27
you might not have that. Don't let that Cameron get that to you. 00:06:32
We've got a document of our of our objectives for our county and you really need to come ready to discuss those. It's just not 00:06:37
they present them to us. They oh, we just rubber stamp it. That's not what this is. We should be directing that. That's the job of 00:06:43
this committee. We are directing. 00:06:48
And I just think that's an important point. So it's different, yes. Is that going to be in the agenda? 00:06:54
It'll be under the forum, it'll be it'll be the what we're talking about. This is the follow up to the I'm saying, well, the work 00:07:02
plan be in the agenda. They will all be sent to you prior. OK, That's what I asked. Put it in the pack. Excuse me. Thank you. 00:07:09
And so I wonder if I can add to that too, you know, direction this there is a spot on the work plan that talks about the county 00:07:16
strategic. 00:07:21
Priorities and how it does align these these goals and it is a partnership. 00:07:25
You know, we share not only from the Community Needs Forum, the resources that we gain, the needs assessment. It's not just from 00:07:30
the Community Needs Forum. There are other assessments. 00:07:36
That each educator uses and that information is in there. So if you say well. 00:07:43
You know, this was a need that was identified like I'll use succession planning. Our educators here, that's not their focus. 00:07:47
However, succession planning is a state focus. So that will be in there. You'll say, well, Will and Manuel are not doing 00:07:53
succession planning. 00:07:59
That's not part what they were hired to do. They were hired to do crops and soils. 00:08:05
And dairy. So you know, so that's what that conversation will be like. Well, we need this. Well, there's other thing other 00:08:10
departments that may already be doing that. So we will look at that and have that conversation in in that meeting in May. I know I 00:08:17
can't be at the board meeting because I have to present in another board meeting. But Cameron's going to also share where we are 00:08:25
in the process as well as probably the work plans too at the county board meeting. Yeah, if we can talk, if that's what you're. 00:08:32
Share them there or after we have the discussion with the team. Yeah, probably the final ones be after, but. 00:08:40
OK. All right. 00:08:46
And we after the work plans have been discussed is do we make a resolute or motion or resolution? What are your, what is the 00:08:48
camera, what is your, what do you want to have happen? 00:08:53
That's so she present, the committee discusses it, we say OK, we're good with it. What do we do? 00:08:59
I think final action by this body is was is all that's necessary. We make a motion informative. 00:09:04
It's an information. 00:09:10
Piece to the county. 00:09:12
The yeah, I think a motion to approve plans, we need a resolution. 00:09:13
OK. I'll talk with Kim though and see if she if she would prefer. 00:09:18
OK. Anything else? 00:09:23
Thank you. 00:09:27
I guess are you up next here for this extension cordary? 00:09:31
But it just makes it easier. 00:10:05
You know, we'll have maybe a little bit of carryover transition piece. So just OK, you're stuck with me for a little bit now. 00:10:07
Congratulations. All right, thank you. 00:10:12
All right, Marie. 00:10:17
Good morning everyone. It's a. 00:10:28
Been volunteer months in Dodge County. We actually celebrated last week was the volunteer week, but I started early because it's 00:10:30
been a crazy, crazy month. So I'll just share a few things with you and I will tell I'm going to give you a document that's on our 00:10:36
website as well because I want to. 00:10:42
Just share some of those highlights with you, but volunteer week. 00:10:49
Umm was last week I actually did the. 00:10:54
Hometown Today earlier this month. 00:10:58
A couple weeks ago on a Monday with. 00:11:02
The new guy, I get to train the new guys all the time, so that's always fun. But we talked about volunteers and there are 130. 00:11:04
Approved volunteers in the Dutch County 4H program and we really rely heavily on their work in order to be able to offer what we 00:11:12
do to the young people in the in the program. So I wanted to just mention. 00:11:19
Cindy shared in at the community forum for anyone that was there. 00:11:26
Is that our volunteers in Dodge County said that they spend about 10,686 1/2 hours supporting the program in the county. So the 00:11:31
independent sector values that time at $33.49 an hour, so that means about 320 plus. 00:11:40
Umm, dollars that were contributed to the county and one of the things that I thought was really exciting was the statewide the 00:11:50
state did volunteer. 00:11:55
Shared volunteer resources with everybody to share in their program. 00:12:01
And one of the Facebook posts actually came from a Dodge County 4H member. 00:12:06
And it talked about an adult that supported her in running for an officer position. And now she was the secretary before H Club. 00:12:12
So I thought that was really exciting that that came out of that Thrive survey that I talked to you about last fall. 00:12:18
And it was highlighted during this during this week. 00:12:24
But what I really wanted to tell you and one of the things that we learned. 00:12:28
Ironically, I was at a volunteer conference last week. 00:12:32
And. 00:12:35
One of the things that we learned is it's not really about the money. It's really about sorry, I've made just enough for the 00:12:37
committee. I do not. 00:12:41
I didn't guess very well. 00:12:46
It's really about the impact on the individual, the organization and the public value. 00:12:48
And so this survey was done in 12 states, which is the North Central region of extension. 00:12:53
And. 00:13:01
The interesting part is. 00:13:02
This is only Wisconsin data that I'm sharing with you and. 00:13:04
Of that 220 people responses came from Wisconsin. And so that's a 22% response rate. So we had a pretty good response rate. And a 00:13:10
couple of things that I just wanted to highlight for you. 00:13:16
One of the things the graph on the right hand side is that. 00:13:23
We used to think that boomers were always. 00:13:28
The volunteers in the program, really, it looks like a big mix. 00:13:30
I mean, there are the same number of boomers almost as millennials, and then the Gen. Xers obviously are the big. 00:13:35
Are the big groups. So that's really exciting when we talk about individual benefits of volunteering. 00:13:40
I think. 00:13:48
They have fun when they're volunteering. 00:13:49
And they built new relationships with youth. 00:13:52
Are really two of the things that jump out and I like these quotes. Some of the quotes on the side. 00:13:54
That they the skill that they learned from volunteering in 4H translates to other areas of their life, such as. 00:14:00
Volunteer activities, their job in their personal relationships. And that's one of the things that I heard reinforced again last 00:14:07
week is that people. 00:14:11
Are really taking away things as as they volunteer, so they're getting as much out of volunteering some of the confidence and 00:14:17
skill building, skill building things. So that's pretty exciting. 00:14:23
Then on the second page, the organizational benefits, because that's of course what. 00:14:34
Is exciting for me, and then public value is what's probably exciting for you. But they're teaching new skills and they're 00:14:38
planning new experiences and they're sharing the value of the 4H program. 00:14:43
And so even the AmeriCorps that is in our office now is considered a volunteer. 00:14:49
Umm, like the domestic peace course and, and she talked about that. Is that people in the program that she did last week? 00:14:56
They were gaining new skills that they hadn't really thought about doing before in Horicon, which is our area where we don't have 00:15:03
a. 00:15:06
4H presence. Really. Very much. 00:15:09
And then the public value, which is that's where you are, is the impact on the communities where they live and work. 00:15:12
They shared that it 90% thinks that they make the community stronger and they connect with communities. 00:15:19
And so that quote again. 00:15:26
I see the volunteers making the community stronger by validating and helping youth make our communities better. When you give 00:15:29
youth positive role models, they become positive, stronger citizens. And so that's really a strong statement of the impact on the 00:15:34
volunteers in our. 00:15:39
In our counties and so it's really an exciting thing to see. And as I was thinking about this, umm. 00:15:44
Volunteer piece. The one thing that we don't highlight as much is. 00:15:50
Youth volunteers. 00:15:55
But I will have. 00:15:56
I have three of them coming with me on Saturday over to the Power sports has orange days. So for those of you that, you know, like 00:15:58
the orange Kubota stuff, it's power day that's this week in Dodge County. And so I have three young people that are coming to 00:16:04
teach you safety lessons during that. 00:16:09
Youth interaction part on Saturday, so that's a great opportunity as well. So questions that you may have 01 of the things I did 00:16:15
want to share so. 00:16:20
All of the volunteers in the program background checks every other year, they do several types of trainings that they and and 00:16:25
those are offered online so they can kind of do them when it works for them and then. 00:16:31
One of the things that I noted is that shooting sports volunteers, which we've talked about that in the past, is one of the big 00:16:38
growing programs and we have a young person going to the national competition again this year for shooting sports. 00:16:45
Those volunteers contribute have to get at. 00:16:51
Least eight additional hours of training. 00:16:55
For their per area, so we had several that were trained in archery this past weekend. We had more of them get trained in that like 00:16:58
the air rifle and things like that. So another 8 hour training that they attended so that they can be certified in that. 00:17:06
Area so they they actually do a lot. 00:17:14
More training than a lot of the other project areas in the 4H program, so. 00:17:17
I really give them a lot of credit because. 00:17:23
There's a reason that our young people go to the tri-county Shoot over in Washington County and bring home a lot of awards to 00:17:25
Dodge County. It's because of the dedication of the volunteers that are teaching those programs. 00:17:30
So. 00:17:35
Any questions that you might have? 00:17:36
When is the when is the big archery event that you have Well, Dodge County hosts in July it. 00:17:38
They have not confirmed, but I know it's like around the 25th, whatever that last Saturday is in July, the state has not put it 00:17:45
out. 00:17:49
Has not confirmed that on their website yet, but. 00:17:53
That's when it's that's when it's happened. The national contest is in the summer, usually in July in Grand Rapids. 00:17:56
Nebraska, where it's nice and toasty warm. 00:18:04
For the four days that they're competing. 00:18:07
The Bowman's Club with their new building, they reached out to me. 00:18:10
And about. 00:18:13
Thought having you over there and so I'm sure they'll be in touch with you or you'll that it's still under construction. You know 00:18:15
the big news they're making buildings so that'll so that that's why that we haven't confirmed the July shoot. I don't know it's 00:18:21
because it's whether or not they're going to be done with it by then. So but it's an out we do it outside most of it because 00:18:27
that's their chance to go out and do the. 00:18:33
The targets in the woods, The animal. 00:18:39
Those who don't know on the committee, they're building a big new facility South of Mabel on 67. The Bowman's at the landfill is 00:18:42
paying for. It's huge, huge. It's under construction if you stay on Hwy. 67, so. 00:18:48
Huge complex SO. 00:18:54
So hopefully we're there in July. 00:18:56
That's that was the reason is because the moments haven't said yay or nay for sure if we're going to be able to do what we need to 00:18:58
do. 00:19:01
In July and what's the current status of how many kids are we servicing right now? 00:19:05
I think 78. 00:19:10
80 ish in the Archer? Oh in 4H or in the archery project? Sorry, 4H is 642. That's amazing. 00:19:13
Any questions? 00:19:22
How did the 4H volunteers compare against the similar age groups across the whole? 00:19:24
Class, let's say so he. 00:19:29
The 8th grader and 4H that volunteers versus the whole class of 8th graders. 00:19:31
Does the 4H group have life skills that they've learned on their property? 00:19:37
That makes them more predisposed to volunteer. 00:19:43
Well, yes and no. And this study is only out for adults. 00:19:46
That are that are volunteering but. 00:19:49
Yes, adults that are volunteering for 4H but. 00:19:53
Umm, I think that's actually one of the things that I'm working with my AmeriCorps this summer is that we realized that. 00:19:56
8th to 9th grade. Ironically, you picked the right target. That's where we have a drop. 00:20:02
That once kids get into high school, I think that it is really sports related because they have and jobs. I mean, I'm I'm helping 00:20:08
chaperone the Citizenship Washington focus trip this summer. And last night we had our Zoom because we did it on Sunday so that 00:20:14
hopefully we could catch more kids because it was in between sports and things. 00:20:20
And we still had kids that were missing because that's when they can work right or whatever. So so we do have that that bit of a 00:20:27
dip. And so we're going to try and look at and see if there are ways that we can. 00:20:33
Maintain the membership and I we don't. 00:20:39
It's been a while since we had him. Was that we had a 4H. 00:20:44
Survey the learner study. 00:20:50
That rated 4H against other youth organizations, but. 00:20:53
4H did rank high and that was a national study that was done by Richard Lerner on the East Coast. 00:20:58
Comparing 4H membership to non 4H membership and their volunteer and there that's when I want to use the quotes during National 4H 00:21:06
week when we're recruiting members, that's where we're getting the membership numbers of they contribute more to their 00:21:11
communities. 00:21:16
They contribute more to leadership. 00:21:21
Than the average youth organizations. 00:21:23
Other questions? 00:21:28
Thank you. All right, congratulations. Awesome. 00:21:31
And and yet this so this study is also on the website if people are interested in sharing this. 00:21:34
OK. Moving over to. 00:21:43
Agencies, we have quarries not here. 00:21:48
That's not here. 00:21:52
They, I haven't gotten anything. They do come in, we'll rearrange the agenda unless anyone objects. 00:21:54
So OK, go to land and water video. 00:22:00
This presentation is designed to provide you. 00:22:21
As a member of the Land Conservation Committee with information about county land and water resource management plans. 00:22:24
Each one of Wisconsin's 72 counties. 00:22:32
Has a land and water resource management plan. 00:22:36
These plans are required by Wisconsin law under Chapter 92 of the state statute. 00:22:39
The plans are approved by the Wisconsin Department of AG Trade and Consumer Protection. 00:22:45
Having an approved plan affords benefits to the county, including eligibility for grant funding through the state's Soil and Water 00:22:51
Resource Management Grant program. 00:22:56
These grants provide funding for county conservation staff and to cost share conservation practice installation on private land. 00:23:02
Each one of the 72 county plans includes an assessment of the county's unique soil and water resources. 00:23:11
The plan also includes an assessment of the condition of these resources. 00:23:18
As part of the planning process, local conservation priorities are identified and conservation goals for the county are 00:23:24
established. 00:23:28
The goals and priorities are informed by the resource assessment. 00:23:32
As well as through consultation with other conservation partners. 00:23:36
A local citizen advisory committee is also appointed to help guide the development of the plan. 00:23:40
A citizen advisory committee must be reflective of a broad spectrum of public interests and perspectives. 00:23:47
Although each one of the county plans is unique, there are a number of key components that must be included. 00:23:54
The required plan contents are described in detail in State Administrative Rule. 00:24:02
80 CP 50. 00:24:07
Some select components in each plan include. 00:24:09
A strategy to encourage compliance with the state soil and water conservation standards, known as the Agricultural Performance 00:24:13
Standards. 00:24:17
And a description of how the county can support compliance with these standards. 00:24:21
A work plan for the county that is based upon a reasonable assessment of available funding and staffing resources. 00:24:26
The plan must also identify how the county will implement the plan, including identification of the programs. 00:24:33
And regulations that will help with this implementation. 00:24:40
The plan must also identify opportunities to monitor and evaluate the progress in implementing the plan. 00:24:43
And must also include an information and education component related to the land and water conservation needs and priorities. 00:24:50
The plan is an important piece of your county's conservation program. 00:25:00
With an approved Land and Water Resource Management plan, the county remains eligible to receive grant funding through the 00:25:04
Department of AG, Trade and Consumer Protection through the Soil and Water Resource Management Grant Program, also known as the 00:25:09
SWARM Grant. 00:25:15
Through this grant program, the county receives funding for conservation staff. 00:25:21
The county also receives funds to cost share conservation practices on private land and to support nutrient management planning. 00:25:26
The work planning completed as a part of the Land and Water Resource Management Plan guides the county's conservation efforts to 00:25:35
achieve the goals of the plan. 00:25:39
The work plan includes the planned activities for the year and the anticipated outcomes. 00:25:44
The plan and the annual work plans help the county to prioritize the conservation workload. 00:25:50
Finally, the plan also helps you show progress in meeting your conservation goals. 00:25:57
Each year, the Land Conservation Committee is required to submit an annual report. 00:26:02
On conservation activities and accomplishments. 00:26:07
This annual reporting provides information that helps to show statewide progress in achieving conservation goals. 00:26:10
Once a land and water resource management plan is completed. 00:26:19
And approved by the Land Conservation Committee. 00:26:23
The plan is presented to the Wisconsin Land and Water Conservation Board. 00:26:26
This board reviews the plans and makes a recommendation for approval to the Department of AG Trade and Consumer Protection. 00:26:30
Following the board recommendation. 00:26:40
The county usually takes the plan to the full local county board for adoption. 00:26:42
Once the county board adopts the plan, the county notifies the department. 00:26:47
Finally, approval will then be made by the Department of AG, Trade and Consumer Protection. 00:26:52
This plan approval is good for 10 years. 00:26:58
Five years after the plan is approved, the county will be asked to meet with the Land and Water Conservation Board again to review 00:27:02
progress in implementing the plan. 00:27:07
The Land and Water Conservation Board has developed guidance documents detailing the requirements. 00:27:12
Of presenting a plan for tenure approval. 00:27:17
And for presenting A5 year review. 00:27:20
These guidance documents include a list of questions regarding plan, implementation and accomplishments that the county should be 00:27:24
prepared to address. 00:27:28
At least one member of the LCC is requested to attend both of the presentations to the Land and Water Conservation Board. 00:27:33
As Land Conservation Committee members, you have a very important role in the development and implementation of the county's Land 00:27:42
and Water Resource Management Plan. 00:27:47
As a committee member, you will be asked to help guide the development of the plan. 00:27:52
And to consider attending the Land and Water Conservation Board meetings to support your county conservation department. 00:27:57
In addition, each county is asked to develop and submit an annual work plan and to report annual accomplishments. 00:28:04
We hope this presentation helps you understand a little more about the county Land and Water Resource Management Plan and the 00:28:12
importance of this plan to your county's conservation program. 00:28:18
Please get in touch with us in the Bureau of Land and Water Resources at the Wisconsin Department of AG, Trade and Consumer 00:28:24
Protection for additional information or for help with your plan revision. 00:28:30
Highlighted the water plan was. 00:28:54
Just rewritten in 22, so the five year review be coming up in 27. 00:28:56
OK. 00:29:06
Any discussion on the video? 00:29:08
OK, change it up. You guys a Sawyer? You want to clap? 00:29:12
Sure. 00:29:15
Hello everyone. 00:29:19
Sawyer Schmidt with Natural Resources Conservation Service. 00:29:20
Just some updates, umm. 00:29:27
Currently all thirty of our newly received Conservation Stewardship program applications. 00:29:29
That we've received this calendar year, have had their site visits been assessed and ranked for our May 2nd deadline. 00:29:36
Umm, other than that. 00:29:43
We have our. 00:29:47
Drumlin Marine Local work group meeting. 00:29:49
Scheduled for June 12th. 00:29:52
Basically, that meeting is for land owners to give their input on what practices they want prioritized for the coming year. 00:29:54
So it's kind of the land owners way of having some say in what. 00:30:02
Some of our funding goes to. 00:30:06
Umm, early June we start transitioning to our Farm Service Agency random compliance checks. 00:30:10
These are basically for. 00:30:16
Tracks that have either a highly erodible land or. 00:30:19
Wetland on site. 00:30:23
Once the fields are planted, we check to make sure that. 00:30:25
Wetlands aren't being failed and. 00:30:28
There's not giant gullies on hillsides and whatnot. 00:30:30
This year there's roughly 40 tracks that were randomly drawed. 00:30:34
So as soon as. 00:30:38
Soon as those farmers have those fields planted, we can actually go check them. 00:30:39
And then within the next week or two, we should find out. 00:30:45
What Conservation Conservation Stewardship program applications have been pre approved? 00:30:49
Once that list comes out, we work on. 00:30:55
Making those applications into contracts. So that's kind of where we're sitting with workload right now. 00:30:58
Any questions from any of you guys? 00:31:05
Thank you. 00:31:10
OK. Thank you. 00:31:11
Hey, Matt. 00:31:13
Morning, everyone. 00:31:20
Not a whole lot new for us. We completed our. 00:31:23
Arc PLC sign up regular. 00:31:28
Sign up. We are now into late file era so that will run to September 30th for that for anybody that missed. 00:31:31
We were roughly 98% completed at this point, so that's pretty darn good. 00:31:39
We're still working on the ECAP program, which is the emergency Conservation Assistance program, the one that was. 00:31:46
Approved back in December that came out. 00:31:55
We roughly have. 00:31:58
600 producers signed up for that. Currently, Right now, we've put out roughly $6.5 million in Dodge County. 00:32:00
What was the name of that again? The emergency one? 00:32:10
Commodity Assistance program. Thank you. 00:32:12
That program runs till August 15th. 00:32:16
So we're rolling right along with that. We figure we're probably right around 80% done with that one right now. So. 00:32:20
Things are looking good there. 00:32:27
So we're just gearing up now for our spring crop reporting season. 00:32:29
Which should be right around the corner. Hopefully the weather kicks in and guys can get in the field and get things planted 00:32:34
without many issues. 00:32:38
I know they like it that way, and we like it that way in our office as well because it's a lot less paperwork when there's no 00:32:42
problem. 00:32:45
So we should start mailing maps out in the next week or two to get that rolling for you guys. 00:32:49
And that's about it for right now. 00:32:57
Any questions for me? 00:32:58
Thank you. Thank you, man. 00:33:04
Hey John, budget update. 00:33:08
Nothing. 00:33:11
Outlandish with the budget everything seems to be following on track with last year. 00:33:14
There are a couple line items that I just got to have the finance. 00:33:21
Take some money from one business unit and transfer it to another because it was deposited in the wrong, wrong one. 00:33:25
But other than that, budgets good so far. 00:33:32
OK, update on the tree sale. 00:33:37
We just finished up the tree sales last week. Basically that's a. 00:33:39
Very much an all week program for us I. 00:33:44
We get. 00:33:48
We sold just a little over 4600 tree tubes, so they come. 00:33:49
Like the first part of April. 00:33:55
Get store at the highway department. So on Monday we transferred all them to the fairgrounds and. 00:33:57
Package that broke them down into individual orders. 00:34:03
On Tuesday we went and picked up the trees. Half of them were up in Plainfield, the other half we got in Columbia County. 00:34:07
We get quite a few trees from Michigan. 00:34:14
So to save on ship, each one truck goes to Columbia County. So then we go and pick them up there and bring them home. 00:34:17
Spent most of the day Wednesday breaking them down. Individual orders Thursday. 00:34:25
Everybody comes and picks them up and we have a few stragglers on Friday. 00:34:30
So everything is picked up. 00:34:34
Just a little over 22,000 trees we sold this year, so. 00:34:37
I'd like to congratulate. I did go out there and those you haven't seen it, it's amazing. 00:34:43
The whole office, the whole team, the whole they all work together, they're all working really hard and they work long hours. 00:34:48
And I just appreciate the extra work. I mean, that was a lot of extra effort. 00:34:54
And I mean, hauling those, moving them, dividing them up, putting the orders, putting alphabetical order, having it there at the 00:34:59
fairgrounds, I was thoroughly impressed. I never saw it before. I didn't really understand it, so I went. 00:35:04
And I just want you to know that work in that department work very hard at the extra effort. So thank you, John, for doing that 00:35:10
and everybody helped. 00:35:15
We also get support from NRCS. There's three staff that came on the day that we on Wednesday when we broke them down to individual 00:35:21
orders. 00:35:25
So. 00:35:29
They help out a lot too. 00:35:30
Huge undertaking. Thank you. 00:35:32
Columbia County sells 50,000 trees. 00:35:34
But we're only half. 00:35:37
That's our challenge. 00:35:40
Yeah, yeah. 00:35:41
OK, Rock River Flood group update. 00:35:46
OK, we met on April 9th. 00:35:49
And our next meeting is the 22nd. 00:35:53
A couple things that has happened since the last meeting in April 9th is I had an individual call. 00:35:57
Wanting to know where the. 00:36:05
The minutes and the agendas are posted for this organization. 00:36:07
Or not organization the group. 00:36:13
We do not. 00:36:16
Post agendas for them because they're not part of the county. 00:36:17
So they're not on our website. 00:36:23
They're not officially an organization, they're just a couple land owners. 00:36:25
So anything. 00:36:31
In talking with Kim from Corp Council. 00:36:34
She doesn't see where they're legally bound to where they have to post these items. 00:36:37
So in the future, any reference that I get, any questions I get, I'm just going to be referring them to them because it's. 00:36:43
Their responsibility, not not mine to be posting that. 00:36:51
Basically all I'm doing is. 00:36:55
Organizing the meetings, setting them up. If this room is available, we have them in here. 00:36:57
On the meeting we had on the 9th I had to take a smaller room upstairs because this one was not available so. 00:37:02
So that's something that, umm. 00:37:10
That has come up since the last meeting. 00:37:13
You are scheduled to. 00:37:16
Listen to them next month. 00:37:19
They came to us last fall requesting funding. It was late in the budgeting process, so the committee at that time. 00:37:21
Postponed it until May of this year, so they will be coming to the committee in May to make their presentation and. 00:37:30
You'll have to make a decision then as to whether we're going to support them financially in any way or not. 00:37:37
So I'll be reaching out to them to make sure they're they're aware that. 00:37:46
Remind them that's coming up in May that they're here to. 00:37:50
Present to you. 00:37:54
OK. Any discussion? 00:37:57
Have they completed a hydraulic study up to Horicon yet or counting down? 00:37:59
What has happened? 00:38:05
No. 00:38:09
No, they do have. 00:38:10
Several staff members from UD students, grad students. 00:38:12
That are going to be working on that this year. 00:38:16
Hydraulic study of the watershed. And they're going to be. 00:38:20
Comparing that with. 00:38:26
The climate change effects that have been happening in the area. 00:38:28
Umm, but no, it has not been done yet. 00:38:33
They wanted to do a. 00:38:39
Coordinated drawdown effort between Lake Ms. 00:38:41
The Horkin Dam and the. 00:38:46
Marsh Dam. 00:38:49
Conversations that took place, it sounded like everybody was on board with it. 00:38:52
When it came time to implement. 00:38:58
The. 00:39:01
Fish and Wildlife Service at the Horke Marsh said no, we're not going to. 00:39:03
Lake Santa Sippy did. 00:39:07
And. 00:39:10
In a. 00:39:11
In a roundabout way, the Hork and dam also did because they have a stop log that's broke at the bottom. 00:39:12
So essentially they drew down to because like Sissippi did. 00:39:20
Umm, we got Nichiren and. 00:39:27
They were back to capacity shortly thereafter, so. 00:39:29
In what I saw living in the area and driving by the Rock River on Hwy. 60. 00:39:34
That drawdown had very little effect. 00:39:41
Sinnissippi and Hurricane Marsh. The dams were never designed to be flood retention. 00:39:45
So. 00:39:52
So did you drive back and forth or you just saying at one point you were just driving by and you looked? 00:39:56
I work in Hartford on weekends, so I drive by the Rock River four times on Saturday and Sunday. 00:40:01
So. 00:40:06
And then I did make an effort to drive down. 00:40:08
On where our USGS station is on MP down there, so I'd go by down. So look at that too. Did they take any measurements? 00:40:12
While they got the monitoring station where they're. 00:40:21
They're measuring all the time, so. 00:40:24
Yeah, and the purpose of the drawdown was prior to the. 00:40:27
Anticipated rain, is that right? Right. The intention, thought process was if you drew them down. 00:40:33
6 inches. 00:40:42
Still in their damn order. 00:40:43
Priorities. 00:40:46
That. 00:40:48
Spring thaw, Spring rains. 00:40:49
Would create 6 inches of storage. Yeah, create 6 inches storage post pull some of the flooding effects downstream. 00:40:53
The Rock River on Hwy. 60 has been out of its banks. 00:41:04
Ever since we got the the rains in the first part of April. 00:41:07
So it hasn't changed much at all. 00:41:11
You don't know what it would have looked like. 00:41:16
Without the drawdown though. 00:41:19
You have no idea if it would have been worse. No, right? No. So it might not be better. 00:41:20
It might be less worse. 00:41:27
Which is different, right? That's why the measurements are important. 00:41:30
No matter what you got 6 inches of drawdown. I think the time frame is the only difference. It's it's I I don't believe it's going 00:41:34
to make a difference as to the. 00:41:39
The severity of the Flood. 00:41:44
I think the drawdown would only be a time frame difference instead of happening. 00:41:47
April 1. 00:41:53
It possibly happened April 10th. 00:41:55
That's in my opinion that that's really the only difference that Drawdown would have done. 00:41:58
Did you talk to any of the? 00:42:04
Professional. 00:42:06
Umm, I don't know what they are. They're not. 00:42:08
There was, there's conversation on the 9th about it. Yeah, Roger was, Robert was there, yeah. But nothing was discussed as far as. 00:42:13
What the actual effect? 00:42:24
Was. 00:42:27
With the drawdown. 00:42:28
So how full a sediment is the Rock River? 00:42:30
I mean, obviously that'll play a role into it. If it's getting filled with sediment, it's obviously going to be out of its banks 00:42:32
longer. That's that's one thing that could be the biggest problem. Odd, you know, granted the heavy rainfalls we get, but if 00:42:36
that's full of sediment. 00:42:40
Yeah, no matter what you're going to do, what you do, you're not going to fix it. 00:42:45
Right, that's one thing that the Fish and Wildlife Service did say that they have seen in the last several years, more sediment 00:42:48
coming into the marsh. 00:42:52
So that's one thing that they have noticed. 00:42:58
I do know that. 00:43:00
And you're aware too. 00:43:03
That. 00:43:06
The Rock River. 00:43:06
From the Oxbow Marine up to the Horkin Dam is very shallow. I mean when I had a boat several years back. 00:43:08
You didn't troll. 00:43:17
You. You went or you floated. 00:43:18
The the props bottom out in the muck, so you're shallow there. 00:43:23
And and Sinnissippi as a whole. 00:43:28
It averages 4 feet deep. 00:43:30
I mean, you go on the website and they say it's 8 feet deep. Well, that's at the dam. Yeah. The rest of it, it averages 4 feet 00:43:33
deep, right? 00:43:37
So it looks pretty. It looks pretty. Everybody knows it's got sediment, everybody knows it's so. 00:43:44
They're not fixing anything. They're minimizing additional damage. Those are two different things. 00:43:51
And I'll be more interested, no offense, hearing what Robert says, because they're gonna look at actual measurements. 00:43:57
You know. 00:44:03
Post whatever I mean that's that's why we gave them money right? To take measurements on the. 00:44:05
Actual gauges. 00:44:10
So. 00:44:12
It's. I'd be interested in seeing how you measure what you avoided right because. 00:44:15
One way or another, they got 6 inches. 00:44:21
And even if it's several days later, you, you've got evaporation on a shallow river, right, you can start absorbing water if you 00:44:25
can postpone it. That's the whole point is postponing. 00:44:31
The flooding right and not doing it all at once. 00:44:38
All high erosion events happen with a high burst of water all at once. That's where 95% of the damage happens. So actually. 00:44:41
Postponing flooding. 00:44:49
Is uh. 00:44:51
I mean, you know what I'm saying? 00:44:52
You've heard this 100 times. 00:44:54
Postponing the flooding or stretching it out minimizes the flooding and the erosion. 00:44:56
Just generally, but I would like to hear what. 00:45:02
I don't know if they're bringing Robert. 00:45:05
But uh, uh. 00:45:07
It would be interesting to hear what their measurements say and. 00:45:09
You know what the result is. 00:45:13
OK. 00:45:20
Discuss possible research project for Dodge County. 00:45:23
Airport Farm. 00:45:27
Umm well and I have not met since we went out to the place. 00:45:28
I believe it's before last month's meeting, Will and I actually went out there, walked around a while. 00:45:35
He was supposed to be getting hold of some extension people letting them know OK now that he's actually seen the place. 00:45:40
This is what we have what who's interested in doing what kind of research out there because. 00:45:47
We've never really come up with. 00:45:53
This is the type of research. 00:45:55
Dodge County definitely wants to see. 00:45:57
But I've gotten from. 00:46:00
Some different people that I've talked to. 00:46:02
Compare. 00:46:06
No till and cover crops to a conventional till which. 00:46:08
I mean, you can drive around Dodge County and see that. 00:46:13
So. So he is supposed to be contacting them. 00:46:15
I did have another conversation with Dave frolling as far as. 00:46:19
Renting the place out, how do we go about doing that? Coming up with equipment? 00:46:24
I mean. 00:46:30
If you just do the. 00:46:31
The no till as compared to the conventional till. 00:46:33
That's a couple trips that the landowner, whoever rents it, has to come to do. 00:46:37
But if you start doing trial test plots. 00:46:43
Smaller strips. 00:46:45
That also means special equipment, smaller equipment to have, extension does not have. 00:46:47
Extra equipment laying around that they can. 00:46:55
Haul back and forth to different sites the. 00:46:58
The thing about the Rock County one is they have equipment that stays actually stays there. How did they get their equipment in 00:47:02
Rock County? 00:47:06
I don't know if they were donated, I know the tractors were rented and they get very very cheap rental rates with them. 00:47:10
But I don't know if if the county bought the equipment or I believe the a lot of the planters were extensions and years ago they 00:47:18
had more equipment than they were able to. But things have changed a lot in the last five years. 00:47:24
So we're still having conversations to see what. 00:47:32
What? Umm. 00:47:36
What kind of? 00:47:37
Work we want to do out there. I mean, we're an agricultural county. Has anybody ever thought of putting something out to producers 00:47:38
to see if they would rent out smaller equipment? I mean, there's a lot of people. 00:47:44
That have smaller equipment, right, a lot a lot of them have not done the big multi billion dollar massive and they've got the 00:47:51
small equipment all over the county. 00:47:56
I mean, if we just. 00:48:01
Organized a request. 00:48:03
I think. 00:48:05
And we've had, we've had that conversation, Will and I and then staff and I about. 00:48:07
Who locally? 00:48:12
Do we know that has that stuff? I mean, obviously somebody from the Myers not going to. 00:48:13
Show up with a four row corn planter, just a plant and then then take it all back home. 00:48:18
So who locally has that stuff? You know, that's that's what we're I'm just saying if you put out a request. 00:48:23
To everybody to say we're looking for equipment and would you be willing to rent it? It's to help. 00:48:30
It's for research in the county that's going to directly help farmers in this county. It's not like, oh, look what happened in 00:48:36
Iowa. 00:48:39
It's our land right here. They have a real. 00:48:43
Interest in it? 00:48:46
Yeah. And and that's that's the direction that we will go when we get to that point. We're still trying to figure out what kind of 00:48:49
research we're going to be doing. 00:48:52
He came and talked to us, remember? Yeah. So he was pretty detailed about it. Yeah. Yeah. But we still don't know who and what 00:48:56
kind of research. That's what we're working on. 00:49:00
There's a lot of things that can be done. It's finding somebody from extension that has the time. 00:49:05
That has the interest in coming here to do it. 00:49:10
That's what he's working on. 00:49:13
Will. Well, all right, Can. Is he gonna? 00:49:15
Give us an update next month. 00:49:18
I'll get on. 00:49:21
Between now and then because we are coming down to crunch time where we gotta make a decision to get it out there. So yeah. 00:49:22
Staff Introductions. 00:49:37
All right, I got 2 left that are here. 00:49:39
Dave, yes, you want to come up and. 00:49:43
You got to sit and talk to the mic, right? In the mic, Yeah, you're being recorded, so. 00:49:46
Who you are, what you do, and how long you been here. 00:49:52
Alrighty morning fellas and ladies. 00:49:54
I'm Dave Brown Schweig. 00:50:01
I've been. 00:50:03
Then one of the technicians here in land conservation, now land and water conservation. 00:50:04
Since 1991 when? 00:50:11
The Beaver Ram River Watershed project was brought on board here in Dodge County. 00:50:16
And Mark was the county con. And. 00:50:21
I came back home and. 00:50:24
I took this job with Dodge County and I've. 00:50:26
Been here ever since and. 00:50:31
Enjoyed working here for all those years and. 00:50:34
And still do. And working with farmers. 00:50:37
Like Dale, etc. And and and others throughout the county. 00:50:40
Some areas we've definitely worked more often. 00:50:45
Doing erosion practices is one of the biggest things lately, obviously. Umm. 00:50:49
So manure storage projects were done, John and I when he was a technician. 00:50:55
Those have. 00:51:00
Basically. 00:51:01
Pretty much handled, but so now we're down to trying to keep soil. 00:51:02
As much as possible. 00:51:08
On with the farmers, obviously with them changing their practices, etcetera and. 00:51:10
Where it's needed. 00:51:16
To keep things from eroding into the streams and rivers so. 00:51:17
Beaver Dam Lake, as we know, had an issue over the winter here and so forth. So that's another thing that I, you know. 00:51:22
Can we help and tackle with or not but? 00:51:28
The Some of that shoreline work was done years ago in the Beaver River watershed. 00:51:31
But. 00:51:37
So yeah, since the Beaver Dam River. 00:51:39
Watershed Project came on board. That's how long I've been here. 00:51:42
I working with many land owners and doing some good projects. I think some really good projects and. 00:51:48
And just watching things change, farming systems, etc and. 00:51:56
There's a lot of things that still need to be done, obviously with. 00:52:02
Mother Nature and the weather we've had here lately, but. But maybe that's just the way things go. Obviously in the cycles, but. 00:52:06
So what are the biggest changes you've seen? You've been here decades. What are the biggest changes you've seen? 00:52:16
Definitely the. 00:52:21
Cropping systems themselves and more guys doing less tillage, No, maybe not no till totally, but just much less tillage and the 00:52:24
tools that are out there for just. 00:52:31
Lightly. 00:52:38
Working the ground and then just planting it and saving in time and fuel etc. So that's certainly probably the biggest and it's a 00:52:39
good thing and. 00:52:44
As dairy operations have gone to the wayside here, as we know, there's less alfalfa. So those guys that are working on that ground 00:52:50
now. 00:52:54
Not everything is meant for corn and beans. You've got to take the next step to try to. 00:53:00
Make sure soil is staying where it belongs and. 00:53:04
And I know that's a challenge in some areas in Dodge County with the Drummond's and the hills and stuff that we have. 00:53:08
But those guys, you see a number of them doing. 00:53:15
As much as they possibly can. 00:53:18
Without just seating it all down again. But that's just not what they want to do. And it's not. 00:53:20
You know, fruitful for them and so forth and but. 00:53:26
But that's a Bobby the the biggest thing definitely and. 00:53:30
And seeing the small dairy operations leave the countryside as was, you know, it's always kind of, that's kind of tough, you know, 00:53:34
and. 00:53:37
And but. 00:53:41
But that's just how times change and either you get bigger or you get out. I mean, I guess that's the way it's been so. 00:53:42
The direction that's kind of dairy has gone. 00:53:50
But no, there's not a good. 00:53:53
It's not a good. 00:53:57
Farmers out there that doing doing the right thing and. 00:53:58
And many more that. 00:54:01
Probably could, but we're trying to reach his, yeah, reach them and hopefully they can see what their neighbors doing or something 00:54:03
if they're doing something different. 00:54:07
And it'll start. 00:54:12
Making sense to them. 00:54:14
Try that system as well. 00:54:16
But it doesn't happen overnight as we all know. But but hopefully things. 00:54:19
Can change in. 00:54:24
In some other areas really that could need it here in the county, so. 00:54:26
Thanks. You bet. Thank you. 00:54:32
OK. 00:54:35
Robert. 00:54:38
Recorded no position. 00:54:45
Not quite like that. 00:54:48
Trying to get to know you. 00:54:51
So my name is Robert Byrd. I've been with the department for. 00:54:53
Let's see, since 98 I worked under the Beaver Dam River Watershed program for years and then when that ended. 00:54:58
Basically. 00:55:06
They kept me on to go. Countrywide did a lot of work with Jim Vanta and Nancy Drummy out of Extension over the years. They were 00:55:07
doing a program where farmers could take soil tests. 00:55:13
And then write nutrient plans. And then when they retired and left, there was #1 there to. 00:55:19
Keep that program going so. 00:55:26
I guess I hope to. 00:55:28
Work with a ton of agronomists that write a lot of the plans. 00:55:29
Work with farmers trying to keep them compliant for programs like farmland preservation. 00:55:35
Dave is exactly right in that you know the world is changing and practices have changed on the farm. 00:55:41
You know, years ago farmers were trying to grow, say, 150 bushel corn, and now it seems like if they don't get 200 bushel corn, 00:55:48
something went wrong. 00:55:52
And one of the things that bothers me the most, probably about what we do is extreme weather. 00:55:57
And how to handle that? 00:56:04
You know, we go through these periods of, you know, maybe dry and then also we just get hammered by multiple in rainfall. 00:56:05
And sometimes at the wrong time of the year when there is a much residue cover. 00:56:14
And then you see the gullies in the fields and, and, and, you know, used to be years ago it seemed like, you know, everybody was 00:56:19
kind of questioning, you know. 00:56:24
How much runoff is coming from the farm versus how much is coming from? 00:56:29
You know, suburbia versus how much is coming from the treatment plants and. 00:56:32
And and I do believe that there is a significant amount at times of the year that is coming from the farm. 00:56:37
And it's kind of undeniable when you see it run down the road ditches and you know, it's everyone is kind of implicated in this 00:56:43
and, you know, to make improvements, you know, on each individual farm. 00:56:50
You know, it's kind of like one step at a time. I always said if farmers would make just one incremental change. 00:56:59
You know, say if you're a chisel flower, you know, maybe try a less deep tillage. 00:57:06
You know, try to add cover crops in your rotation. John and I, well Mark, Becky actually helped to start out. 00:57:13
Dodge County Farmers for Healthy Soil, Healthy Water and and I do think that group has been impactful. 00:57:21
And. 00:57:27
So, you know, and, and one of the things that they've brought about is mostly a practice of cover cropping and you do see more 00:57:28
cover crops in the in the neighborhood. 00:57:33
But then viewing soil health as being important. 00:57:39
So instead of just looking at individual practices, you know, how can we boost the health of our soil? And boy, that's a mouthful 00:57:43
there, as Dale well knows that, you know, trying to figure that into your system, it's complicated. 00:57:51
Right. So, but one of the things that I want to work on in the future is. 00:57:59
Doing more soil health testing on farm. 00:58:05
So. 00:58:08
You know, I think that adds some value. I mean, I don't know. 00:58:09
If farmers are always viewing their soil, you know, out in the field. 00:58:13
Looking at the water infiltration rates. 00:58:18
I seeing a. 00:58:22
You know the living organisms in the soil and keeping living runs. 00:58:24
So I've been doing some testing lately again and there's certain soil types in Dodge County that don't seem to infiltrate water. 00:58:29
It's like 1 big hunk of clay and. 00:58:37
And that's bad. 00:58:41
And but one thing I have found is that when. 00:58:42
There's heavy cover crops on those soils. They do infiltrate water. So, so it's like we have earthworm and old road channels, but 00:58:47
just in a corn, soybean system, there's not enough roots in the in the. 00:58:52
In the soybean year? 00:58:58
And so, you know, if we go a whole year without many roots in the soil and then can infiltrate water. 00:58:59
You know, and, and how come it's 2025 and and no one has figured this out yet? 00:59:07
We're still learning about soils. You know, I didn't have a soils degree when I started here. And to me it's, it's pretty darn 00:59:12
interesting now. 00:59:17
You know, looking at our soils. So, so if you have any questions, I mean most of you know me. 00:59:23
Been around, worked with a ton of farmers. 00:59:27
I mean, you know, I was trying to get them to kind of think out-of-the-box or push the envelope or, or like I said. 00:59:30
You know, if we can, if we can have them make that incremental change. 00:59:38
You know, so if there's something else that. 00:59:42
You know, you think we should be doing. We're all ears. 00:59:45
So what you and they were doing it very important because covering big parcel of land. 00:59:49
So Beaver Creek, Mill Creek are pretty well buffered. 00:59:53
Versus a residential where you have a. 00:59:57
100 foot frontage. 01:00:00
So when you attack something, you're attacking acreages. Oh yeah, that's key. 01:00:01
Yeah. So, so in the SNAP program, always been a big advocate of SNAP plus and and in that program you can see the the. 01:00:06
The so based on farming practices you can calculate what the runoff. 01:00:14
What the potential is and then you know the reductions. 01:00:20
And you know, with the healthy soils group, we did that. 01:00:24
You know, and so cover crops say, for instance, we had to determine that, you know, over many 1000 acres that the cover crops can 01:00:28
reduce phosphorus runoff by on average about a half pound of phosphorus per acre per year. 01:00:35
That's significant. 01:00:43
You know, if you put that over 1000 acres, 500 pounds, 500 phosphorus that would be delivered to surface water, so. 01:00:44
You know, uh. 01:00:50
How do you deal with the the tenants? 01:00:53
Farmers that are renting, how do you handle that issue because the benefit goes to the owner. Well, the benefit for the farmland 01:00:56
preservation program gets the owner, but most of the tenants, they want to continue to operate that land. 01:01:02
Right. You know, otherwise there will always be another person, another farmer that's saying, you know, what, if that person isn't 01:01:09
going to keep you compliant, I will, you know, So there's always that. 01:01:14
You know, uh. 01:01:19
But farmland preservation probably wasn't lucrative enough. Now they've increased the per acre rate up to $10.00 an acre. 01:01:20
You know, and then having the ability to not to have to sign the contract in most townships other than like Westford. 01:01:27
You know no contract helps. 01:01:35
Because some of the farmers don't know where they're going to be in 10 or 15 years or landlord land owners, you know? 01:01:38
And uh. 01:01:43
But yeah, you have to be able to look at this from all sides. 01:01:44
You know. 01:01:47
But but I do think, you know, the world is changing, right? Yeah. And you know the. 01:01:48
You know, some of the younger farmers, boy, they are really all about. 01:01:55
Changing practices, you know, we we've seen an increase in acres of practice called strip tillage and we're a pure no till 01:02:01
sometimes held guys back, especially in the transition. And so farmers that are it's really expensive equipment and but then some 01:02:10
of them are able to ban fertilizer and and then plant into a strip and then leave their the in betweens and. 01:02:19
And maybe plant covers. 01:02:28
You know, on the strip, Yeah, in between where you're gonna plant your. Oh OK cash crop. All right, you know the strip till system 01:02:30
has. 01:02:35
Seems to be on the increase in county. 01:02:41
And, and I think Healthy Soils is going to try to chip away at that topic here in August again. 01:02:43
And where they're going to have a field day. So if anybody's interested in that, but that's a practice that. 01:02:49
You know, I think that we could gain traction in the in the conservation field. 01:02:56
But, you know, farmland preservation in the county is kind of. 01:03:00
It's not consistent. 01:03:05
In other words, there's tone ships that aren't even in it. You know those those land owners generally aren't walking in our 01:03:07
office. 01:03:10
And, and there definitely we work more in the farmland preservation townships than we do in. 01:03:13
Than the ones that aren't, you know, so that's kind of a shame, you know, and whereas some of the other counties are all zoned for 01:03:20
from. And that's probably a problem that has gone back 20 years in a town of Lowell, for example, you know, has not been in, you 01:03:26
know, we did a ton of work in a ton of wool in the Beaver Dam River watershed days. 01:03:33
But since then, not really, you know, and they really need to change their ways and thinking and, you know, try to adopt it if 01:03:39
they want to make some progress down there and, you know, in conservation. 01:03:46
So I don't mean to hold you up here. I mean, anybody can call me anytime. 01:03:53
Be glad to work with you. 01:03:57
So. 01:03:59
Thank you. 01:04:01
All right. Well, thank you, Robert. All right. 01:04:02
We're small staff, we have 6 people. 01:04:06
But we have a total of 127 years of experience between the six of us, so. 01:04:10
I've seen in the field days too as you're approachable. 01:04:18
So there are communities. 01:04:21
Reluctant to ask a question. 01:04:23
Thanks. 01:04:29
OK, committee reports like Senna Sippy let's me start. 01:04:31
Most of our we had met. 01:04:36
And great. 01:04:38
And most of the meeting was line by line, preparing for the 26th budget. 01:04:43
We did get correspondence from the Village of Uses for they accepted our request, the LSID's request and voted unanimously to 01:04:48
change the dam orders. So the lake level drawdown will now be February after February 15th. 01:04:54
Our lake management plan update that we are are. 01:05:03
Our advisor or expert is still working on shoreline mapping, anticipating and getting a graph. We're also anticipate getting a 01:05:06
draft of the feasibility study for the lake inlet dredging. 01:05:12
That's for annual meeting coming up, that'll be a pretty big contract will we've awarded. 01:05:17
They're, umm, stocking update. We're going to change, probably change the mix of fish because. 01:05:23
The change in the lake levels. 01:05:28
That'll happen in the fall. 01:05:31
Umm and Chris, our current chairman is going to step down and she told us that she will not after August, she will not no longer 01:05:34
be leading the organization. She's a bill works with her, she's outstanding and. 01:05:41
But she got married and moved up to Wausau. So it's she comes back down, but it's. 01:05:48
So I don't know if we can get a good leader or not. 01:05:54
That's going to be a big loss, I think. 01:05:56
So. 01:05:59
That's all I have. 01:06:00
The Beaver Dam. 01:06:02
Now with the DNR Fishery Bureau leadership. 01:06:04
And we had a 90 minute discussion. 01:06:08
Provided me. 01:06:10
Executive summary because some of them had not. 01:06:13
That experience would be with Emily previously. 01:06:16
And we talked about raw fish and phosphorus. 01:06:19
How to manage that? 01:06:23
And the key to it we use the. 01:06:25
DNR, surface water. 01:06:28
Data Viewer. 01:06:34
For the past 20 years. 01:06:37
5 principles and track on the lake. 01:06:40
So you started 2005 on? 01:06:43
Powder we see the flashless level in the upper left hand corner. 01:06:46
The .5 milligrams per liter. 01:06:50
And then through 2017, it dropped down to about. 01:06:53
.15. 01:06:57
You then see it go back up. 01:06:59
And you're at about the .4 now in 2025. 01:07:02
So you have the phosphorus level on Deaver damn lake. 01:07:06
The orange dots are the early season. 01:07:10
Meaning the runoff and the ice melt. 01:07:13
Then you have the black dots that are typically. 01:07:18
Events that are current on the lake over the year. 01:07:21
Which are the rough fish price? 01:07:26
So back in 2017 through 2005. 01:07:31
The DNR was conducting rough fish removal. 01:07:35
And the fastest level kept going down from .5 to .15. 01:07:39
I think that's pretty significant. 01:07:44
They stopped in 2017. 01:07:47
And you can see what it did from 2017 to this year. 01:07:49
So if phosphorus is a. 01:07:54
The devil's element, which it is, and it causes algae. 01:07:57
Green and blue-green. 01:08:01
And it causes severe damage to the lake, which it does. 01:08:02
We did ourselves with this service by stop collecting rough fish out of Beaver Dam Light. 01:08:06
I'm sorry, who did you meet with again? 01:08:12
It was the. 01:08:15
DNR fishery management up to but not including the Secretary. 01:08:17
The Director, Secretary, Bureau division. 01:08:22
Deputy Division Administrator. 01:08:25
Deputy Bureau Director. 01:08:27
So they have. 01:08:28
Up to, but not the secretary of DNR. 01:08:31
I think it was a productive meeting. 01:08:37
I think so. I don't believe that some of the data the food chain to them before. 01:08:39
So this is to some of them with new data which. 01:08:45
Was kind of surprising. 01:08:49
So again, this was the key element here, that phosphorus is a problem. 01:08:51
And it's not a secret. 01:08:55
How did they respond? 01:08:57
Please. 01:09:01
I think some of them were not. 01:09:05
Up to the. 01:09:07
They were not up to speed yet. 01:09:08
So they were kind of neutral. 01:09:10
We had a couple folks offer ideas. 01:09:11
And what I asked for was to have an experimental contract. 01:09:14
For this year. 01:09:18
To identify what the mass balances in the lake. 01:09:19
So if they find that the mass balance is below 258, let's say. 01:09:24
Then it's not an issue. 01:09:28
If it's over 400. 01:09:30
It's a serious issue. I don't know what mass balance means. Pounds per acre. Alright, thank you. 01:09:31
We also want to have a demonstration for the community. 01:09:38
At one of the parks or one of the parks? 01:09:41
For the commercial fishermen gather out. 01:09:44
A netting of fish. 01:09:47
They'll show the community where 50,000 lbs of carp looks like. 01:09:48
To look in the lake and see one or two swimming around. 01:09:51
You don't get the full impact. 01:09:54
Of a semi load of. 01:09:56
So we've asked for those two things. One, what is the quantity in the lake? 01:09:58
And what does 50,000 lbs of carp look like? 01:10:03
And why it's not a good thing to have them? 01:10:06
In the leg. 01:10:09
So we're going to wait and see now. This just happened last Tuesday. 01:10:10
And hopefully a positive response. 01:10:15
Was this in the event? 01:10:21
Way up here. 01:10:22
I think that was the. 01:10:24
Craylee Pond Weed. 01:10:26
So you have a lot of. 01:10:27
Different parameters that affect. 01:10:29
Phosphorus. 01:10:31
When we had the curly economy back then. 01:10:32
You had a just a. 01:10:35
Very dense growth on the surface of the lake. 01:10:37
Then it died off. Once it died off. 01:10:40
You have massive amount of phosphorus out there. 01:10:42
Your NRCS FSA guy can respond to that better than I can. 01:10:47
Is that correct? 01:10:52
About the curly leaf pond, yeah, I mean, that's. 01:10:53
Early fall that dies off. 01:10:57
It's basically Barrett at that point and then all your phosphorus is kind of. 01:10:59
Available at that point. 01:11:05
So you got. 01:11:07
So you have the normal phosphorus, then the reactive is from the vegetation and. 01:11:07
And animal waste and such. 01:11:13
So you have two different things impacting the phosphorus, a total phosphorus. 01:11:14
So I think that's what that is, but I can't say with any. 01:11:19
Iverson, certainly it is. 01:11:23
It's a dynamic system. 01:11:26
We can identify in generalities. 01:11:28
For example, the early season. That's why the DNR broke that out, made it July. 01:11:30
Because that's one you can. 01:11:36
Hold back some of that, have some buffering. 01:11:38
Hopefully you have infiltration coming in early on. 01:11:41
And hold the. 01:11:45
Nutrients on the ground before it hits the lake. 01:11:46
Who did this? Some this is a product of. Did you have interns help you with this or no? 01:11:50
The incentive will start May 19th, as a matter of fact. 01:11:56
This chart this is off the. 01:12:00
The inner. 01:12:03
Surface Water Data Viewer. Oh my goodness. OK. 01:12:04
And I drew the 2 red lines in there to correlate. 01:12:07
To the black dots. 01:12:11
A trend, so the downward slope. 01:12:13
That's about a 90% correlation. That's pretty good. 01:12:17
The upscope about 80%. 01:12:20
But still. 01:12:22
It gives you a very factual idea of the trend of phosphorus. 01:12:23
And the only change that I could find there. 01:12:27
I looked at temperature. 01:12:30
Rainfall runoff. 01:12:32
Runoff through the dam. Cubic feet per second. 01:12:34
That is the only variable I can find that affects this dramatically. 01:12:36
So the temperature is all over the map, the flow rates run. 01:12:42
Up and down, year to year. 01:12:46
But the correlation to the fish removal? 01:12:48
As you can't ignore it. 01:12:53
What time frame did they give you? A time frame that they would get back within a week? A month? 01:12:56
Within the month within the May. 01:13:00
Because we have to get the contractor up to speed. 01:13:03
To perform his work. 01:13:06
May, June, because now you start at the spawning period, come in. 01:13:07
So you have once it gets warm. 01:13:11
We'll start you on and that will be a worst case scenario. 01:13:14
We know every 2 1/2 years the population of the carp will double. 01:13:17
So once you get past the next two sporting Cy. 01:13:21
You're fighting an uphill battle. 01:13:24
And you told them that, of course. 01:13:29
Some of them knew it, some were not as up to speed. 01:13:32
Is the What do you think about the public's awareness? 01:13:38
There are some that are very intuitive, some fishermen out there that are out there every day. 01:13:44
But the smaller population I'm seeing in Beaver Dam. 01:13:48
The demographics are changing and Beaver Dam watershed. 01:13:51
The house is going up now, replacing cottages. 01:13:55
You're seeing people put in. 01:13:58
Very large residences. 01:14:00
You're seeing less fishermen and more boaters. 01:14:03
The surveys we've had, they are doing more recreational. 01:14:06
And boating. And fishing. And honey. 01:14:10
And that that's pretty much played out by the. 01:14:12
Fishing tags and hunting tags being going down past couple years. 01:14:15
Don't you think don't don't people that use a lake for recreation still would not want it to double the curb every three half 01:14:20
years? 01:14:24
Yeah, they blow the water. 01:14:28
As you can jump inside with a scuba gear. 01:14:30
So at £600 per acre. 01:14:32
That's 85 car per acre in front of your house. 01:14:35
There's only one walleye out there for that same acre. 01:14:39
So that one while he's. 01:14:42
Trying to get around all the carp in his acre of land. 01:14:44
Thank you. 7 LB three acre rough, 7 lbs per car. 01:14:49
£600 per acre. 01:14:53
That's a lot of curve. 01:14:55
When you do hear back, could you please notify Chris right away also, because Lake Santa Sippy is in the, you know, we would like 01:14:56
to do the same thing, you know, if possible. 01:15:01
Kristen Mayor meeting on May 8th, OK to talk about that, OK. 01:15:05
There's a lot of catfish too, but they don't have the same effect, They're different. 01:15:10
Catfish do not as much damage. They eat a lot of the. 01:15:14
Basic zooplankton and bottom small fish feeders. 01:15:18
So they're not as bad as the carp, but. 01:15:23
Anything in over abundance. 01:15:26
That play of whitetail deer hunts? Get over Bunny. You gotta get rid of them. 01:15:28
Same thing with the carp and the catfish and Buffalo. 01:15:33
So it's £600 per acre of carp to how many pounds per acre of walleye? 01:15:36
11 So one walleye breaker. 01:15:42
So 3 lbs. 01:15:45
He's a tough little guy, though. 01:15:49
Yeah, wow. 01:15:50
You have our WM class starting on May 19th. 01:15:55
We have our scheduled session this Wednesday. 01:15:59
We have our grad students, they'll be working on the town of Westward Shoreline. 01:16:03
Doing an assessment from Hickory Point down to High Island. 01:16:08
The intent there is to look at the. 01:16:12
Runoff points in the shoreline to see how we can strengthen the shoreline. 01:16:15
In find areas where we may be getting runoff that affects the lake. 01:16:19
And work with the producer there to. 01:16:24
Go into the. 01:16:26
Past the buffer zone. 01:16:28
And see how we can minimize that. 01:16:30
So they're starting again week of May 19th. You'll see them out on the lake. 01:16:33
And they'll be out there pretty much. 01:16:37
That week in couple weeks in June. 01:16:39
Good group. We have good support from the water quality DNR group. 01:16:43
Arthur Watson. 01:16:47
And Scott that Egert will teach them how to do proper shoreline surveys. 01:16:48
And let's win the day out there with them on the 20th. 01:16:53
So I'm looking forward to the good progress there. 01:16:59
OK, Yeah. 01:17:03
OK, the Fox Lake District. 01:17:07
Had the regular meeting on April 10th and then we met again on April 17th. 01:17:09
To set up their. 01:17:14
Their cost share program that they pay farmers. 01:17:16
To do practices to. 01:17:19
Keep the soil on the land basically instead of getting into the lake. 01:17:22
And. 01:17:26
They think they got about $30,000 to spend to give to local farmers. 01:17:27
Decided on a maximum of $2000 per farmer. 01:17:32
And then? 01:17:36
Basically it's on a payment per acre and a practice that they do. 01:17:39
And on our regular meeting on the 10th, we. 01:17:46
Rob Frank from MCO introduced his new employee. 01:17:50
I just got his first name, Bill. 01:17:54
Since the other. 01:17:58
Their last employee retired, not didn't retire, but moved down to another job. 01:18:00
And from a lack of. 01:18:06
Interests in the job, they had to increase the wages like I mentioned last week. 01:18:08
And Bill is actually. 01:18:13
Coming from Las Vegas. 01:18:16
He's moving to Beaver Dam from Las Vegas and now? 01:18:18
He told our committee that his 17 year old daughter was a senior in high school. Wasn't real thrilled with him. 01:18:21
Yeah, Bag. 01:18:26
But then he also said she'll get over it. I don't know. I'm so sure she will. But. 01:18:31
What? What is his job title again that you're hiring him for? 01:18:35
He'll be maintaining the sanitary system around the lake. 01:18:39
As an MCO employee. 01:18:43
So then Rab also brought up. 01:18:47
They had a grinder pump go out. 01:18:49
And. 01:18:51
They no longer. They used up the spare they had, but they no longer make that pump, so the committee decided to go ahead and 01:18:53
purchase a whole pallet of pumps. 01:18:57
To try to offset. 01:19:01
Big changes to the system for a while, you know to put it off. 01:19:03
And then, uh. 01:19:12
Jerry Cipher gave the Alliance report. 01:19:16
Kind of talked about. 01:19:18
Bills subject on CARP. 01:19:20
And updated. 01:19:23
Fox Lake on that issue. 01:19:26
Umm, then Tracy also want to set up another meeting separate from this one to go over their budget. 01:19:28
And. 01:19:36
The last thing I talked about is. 01:19:37
The wake boat signs that are. 01:19:40
Supposedly going up. 01:19:42
They're still waiting for response from the town's lawyer. 01:19:44
And the DNR an actual wording. 01:19:48
That's about all I have. 01:19:53
OK. 01:19:55
Upcoming events. We have nothing there, John, No. 01:19:58
Next meeting. 01:20:01
Everybody OK that we moved it up one week because of the holiday? May 19th, 8:30. 01:20:03
Yep, OK. 01:20:08
All right. Future agenda items, anyone else have other things that John talked about already? Is there anything else for next 01:20:10
month and if? 01:20:13
OK. 01:20:19
Yes. 01:20:20
It's not on the agenda, but. 01:20:24
Since you asked about putting it on the agenda. 01:20:27
I wondered if we could have. We don't have to spend hardly anytime on it. 01:20:30
But we could literally have the exact percentage. The easiest way to say it. 01:20:35
Of of. 01:20:41
Acreage in farmland preservation, right, Because it's changing. So it's like, so we can instead of waiting five years to go, wow, 01:20:43
we had this goal of increasing it by 20% or whatever it was. 01:20:49
We could say, OK, what is it going up? Is it going down? And we could just. 01:20:55
OK. Just put that in your report. 01:21:00
When John talks, yeah. 01:21:02
Idea a good idea? 01:21:03
OK, I call the meeting adjourned by finishing the agenda. 01:21:07
Thanks. Thank you. 01:21:10
So what you said 18I. 01:21:13
Thanks. 01:21:19