Great Lakes Aquatic Habitat News
The Newsletter of the Great Lakes
Aquatic Habitat Network and Fund
Volume 11, Number 3 • Summer 2003
Great Lakes Aquatic Habitat NewsThe Newsletter of the Great Lakes
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By: Charlie Luthin
The River Alliance of Wisconsin and Trout Unlimited have published a report, Restoring the Flow: Improving Selective Small Dam Removal Understanding and Practice in the Great Lakes States, which summarizes dam removal policy and management recommendations from more than 40 river restoration experts from around the Great Lakes. It is the product of a unique gathering of resource professionals, conservationists, and academics with over 100 years of combined dam removal experience and involvement with more than 100 dam removals across the Great Lakes region. The recommendations in this report are intended to guide policies and initiatives and to improve the understanding and use of small dam removal as a fisheries and river restoration tool in the Great Lakes region.
Nationwide, more than 500 dams have been removed in the last century, over half of these in the Great Lakes region. Selective small dam removal is recognized as one of the most effective and economical river restoration tools today. But dam removal can also be a contentious issue within local communities, invoking concerns about economic impacts, public safety, and the loss of impoundments created by dams. While there is a wealth of dam removal experience in the region, there is a need to more effectively collect and share information, communicate, and inform affected communities about the potential benefits and impacts of small dam removal. This report is a first concrete step to meeting these needs.
Wisconsin continues to lead the nation in removal of old, unsafe and uneconomical dams from public waters, and recently made history with the Baraboo River dam removals. Four dams were removed, restoring the entire river - over 115 miles - to free-flowing, making this the largest river restoration through dam removal in US history. More than 100 dams have been removed from Wisconsin waters in the last 50 years.
The report is available online at the websites of both Trout Unlimited (www.tu.org) and River Alliance of Wisconsin (www.wisconsinrivers.org/SmallDams/restoring.pdf).
Last summer Wisconsin Wetlands Association, with the support of the Wisconsin Coastal Management Program and the help of more than twenty natural resource agencies, conservation and education organizations, and individuals, coordinated a road survey of thirteen Great Lakes coastal counties. More than 140 volunteers logged more than 6,000 miles and found more than 600 sites infested with purple loosestrife. The results of the 2002 survey can be found on the Great Lakes Indian Fish & Wildlife Commission's website:www.glifwc-maps.org.
This year, thanks to continued funding from the Wisconsin Coastal Management Program and American Transmission Company, and with new funding from the Great Lakes Protection Fund, We Energies Foundation, and Dairyland Power Cooperative, the invasive plant program will be expanded. Approximately half of Wisconsin – 30 to 40 counties – will be surveyed for purple loosestrife, and all coastal counties will also be surveyed for the invasive giant reed grass (Phragmites). Citizen volunteers are being trained in a series of short workshops in each county. Additional training will be provided to individuals who wish to participate in the purple loosestrife biological control program coordinated by the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources. For more information check WWA’s website:www.wiscwetlands.org.
The powerful Joint Finance Committee (JFC) of the State Legislature has passed a biennial budget proposal that would significantly cut the state’s very popular Knowles-Nelson Stewardship Fund that has successfully helped protect more than 225,000 acres of sensitive lands in Wisconsin. The Fund, originally authorized at $60 million/year for ten years, has been slashed by $245 million by the JFC . The Stewardship Fund is a bond program, and costs the state approximately $5 million per year to manage—not a significant amount when one considers the state budget deficit to be $3 billion! In addition, JFC has insisted that the Department of Natural Resources sell off $40 million in state lands to help with the state’s deficit. Furthermore, the Legislature is insisting on having review and oversight over every purchase made under the program…thereby making every conservation purchase political. The sweeping changes proposed for conservation land acquisitions are less a matter of fiscal concern, more a product of public land philosophy and political disparity. Governor Doyle (D) has committed to vetoing all of these proposed changes to the Stewardship Fund by the Republican-dominated State Legislature.
| Charlie Luthin Wisconsin Wetlands Association Serving as Hub for Wisconsin 222 S. Hamilton Street-Suite 1 Madison, WI 53703 (608)-250-9971 (608)-256-4562 (fax) E-mail: Charlie@wiscwetlands.org Website: www.wiscwetlands.org |