2019 Lake Michigan Champions of Conservation
Sheboygan County Executive and Planning & Conservation Department
To gain state and federal approval for certain projects that cannot avoid wetland impacts, the project sponsor must purchase credits from a wetland mitigation bank to offset the environmental loss. Recently, Sheboygan County was faced with having to purchase hundreds of thousands of dollar’s worth of credits in a different county over 400 miles away due to road improvement projects. To avoid that scenario in the future, the county purchased its own 328-acre property to establish a wetland mitigation bank and preservation area along the shore of Lake Michigan in an area known as Amsterdam Dunes. The over $4.2 million investment from the County’s fund balance has already been recouped through grants and other sources. Additional funding for habitat improvements has been secured for the non-mitigation bank portion of the property and it is anticipated, once state and federal approvals are secured for the mitigation bank portion of the property, that even more funding for habitat restoration work will be made available through the sale of mitigation credits.
This exciting project, in times of levy caps and consolidations, could not have happened without the vision and resolution of Sheboygan County’s chief executive County Administrator Adam Payne, and the County Planning & Conservation Director, Aaron Brault. Both worked tirelessly, with the support of then Sheboygan County Board Chairman Roger Te Stroete, to form a coalition of support from numerous federal and state agencies as well as local entities like the Amsterdam Dunes Advisory Committee.
Chris Jones, Neenah High School
For the last 20 years Neenah Science teacher Chris Jones has made a point to provide students with authentic learning experiences and opportunities to connect with and learn from local environmental organizations. Jones believes connecting kids to the outdoors while in school is crucial in securing future environmental ambassadors. “Every day I’m working with tomorrow’s scientists, teachers, engineers and business professionals, but they’re also the next generation of active participants and supporters of outdoor clubs and organizations.”
This passion for sharing the outdoors has been a cornerstone of his classroom teaching throughout his career and has intensified greatly over the past eight years with the inception of Neenah’s fishing programs. With an active middle school program called the Finatics and one of the state’s premier high school fishing teams, Jones has found the ability to directly connect students with real world learning opportunities.
The team has participated in the annual Fox/Wolf Clean up each of the last seven years along with a variety of projects on Little Lake Butte des Morts and has coordinated with the WDNR, Stantec Engineering, UW- Stevens Point and Fox Valley Technical College for many of these efforts. Team members are involved in stream monitoring, habitat restoration, fisheries projects and the presentation of a comprehensive plan for the revitalization of Arrowhead Park for the Neenah City Council. The team’s activities have earned local and state recognition, including being featured on WBAY, Good Day Wisconsin, the Badger Sportsman magazine, and being named the Wisconsin Interscholastic Fishing Association Team of the year in 2017.
Nancy Carlson, Naturalist/Educator, Hawthorn Hollow Nature Sanctuary, Kenosha
Nancy is a Master Naturalist Educator, and is currently the Naturalist/Educator at Hawthorn Hollow Nature Sanctuary and Arboretum in Kenosha Wisconsin. Nancy has 13 years of experience teaching water quality programming to Southeast Wisconsin’s youth. She served as a leader for the State of Wisconsin Sierra Club Water Sentinels and Wisconsin Water Action Volunteers. Nancy’s role at Hawthorn Hollow is to develop and deliver environmental education while building partnerships in Southeast Wisconsin. Her passion for Lake Michigan drove her to develop and create the WATERshed Program in order to ensure the young people in her community are water literate and capable of making informed decisions to protect the future of Lake Michigan. Over 25,000 students from Racine and Kenosha have participated in the WATERshed program.
Nancy is a wonderful naturalist and is adored within the Racine and Kenosha community by youth and adults alike. Her passion for the environment and her natural ability to connect with kids makes her an ideal person to be leading environmental education programs.
The Lake Michigan Stakeholders are very happy to award each of these groups and individuals as this year’s Lake Michigan Champions of Conservation!
Winnebago Waterways Committee
In 2017, Calumet, Winnebago, and Fond du Lac Counties formalized their shared commitment, through an intergovernmental cooperation agreement, to work together to support and promote restoration and beautification of the lakes and tributaries that are commonly referred to as the Winnebago Waterways (Lake Winnebago, Lake Butte des Morts, Lake Winneconnee, and Lake Poygan).
Under this agreement, the Winnebago Waterways Committee was formed. The County Executive or Administrator, chair of the County Board, and chair of the County Board’s Land and Water Conservation Committee from each county serve on the Committee. The first action of the committee was to advance Lake Management Planning for the Winnebago Waterways. The lake plan will be complete at the end of 2019.
By formalizing their commitment, contributing financially, and being directly involved in lake improvement efforts, the counties have emerged as leaders in the region for protecting and restoring the health of the Winnebago Waterways surface waters as well as the watershed’s tributaries within the five-county area including Calumet, Fond du Lac, Outagamie, Waushara, and Winnebago Counties.