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In: Ashland, Baker City Creek Estuary, climate change in northern Wisconsin, Dave Sletten, Dorothy Tank, FEMA, Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Cities Initiative conference, Karina Heim, Lake Superior Climate Champions Program, Lake Superior Collaborative, Meagan Quaderer, Natalie Chin, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Northern Institute of Applied Climate Science, Sara Hudson, Statewide Hazard Mitigation Committee, Thompson's Creek, Tony Janisch, Washburn, Wisconsin Northwest Region Emergency Managers Meeting

Members of the Lake Superior Climate Champions Program take a field trip to an eroded area in northern Wisconsin. Pictured left to right are Dave Sletten, Matt Hudson and Tony Janisch. Image credit: Karina Heim, Lake Superior Reserve

It’s official: 2023 was the hottest since we’ve been keeping records, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. This can trigger extreme weather events such as storms and flooding. Northern Wisconsin is not immune from the impacts of climate change and communities are taking action.

Leaders in several northern Wisconsin counties and cities were chosen to participate in a Lake Superior Climate Champions Program organized by Wisconsin Sea Grant and the Lake Superior National Estuarine Research Reserve in 2023. The program provided funding and guidance to two teams to work on goals of their choosing that addressed climate change.

Members of the Washburn/Ashland Climate Champions team attend a coastal resilience adaptation workshop organized by the Northern Institute of Applied Climate Science. Pictured left to right are Danielle Shannon, Sara Hudson, Tony Janisch, Bree Schabert, Matias Valero and Jessica Jacobson. Image credit: Karina Heim, Lake Superior Reserve

The first team from the cities of Washburn and Ashland included Tony Janisch, Washburn assistant city administrator, and Sara Hudson, Ashland park and recreation director and city forester. Their project involved creating the outline of a coastal adaptation plan for their cities that focused on flood resilience and climate adaptation. They also developed a project priorities list, connected with other communities at a climate-focused annual conference by the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Cities Initiative in Chicago and brought a coastal resilience adaptation workshop to the region in collaboration with the Northern Institute of Applied Climate Science and the Lake Superior Collaborative.

During a webinar, Janisch described how the contacts he made during the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Cities Initiative Conference helped him find funding for a long-standing problem in Washburn.

“We have some significant coastal erosion at one of our parks in the city. I had spent three years trying to find funding to start the work. I was connected with someone and then was able to get some FEMA funding. So, we have an engineer now doing design work for how to solve the problem,” Janisch said.

Another erosion project Janisch found possible funding sources for involves Thompson’s Creek, which runs underneath a local highway and along another road. “There was some erosion going on with one of the creek bends that’s eating away at one of our side roads. It’s very possible that it could start eroding the right-of-way on the highway itself,” Janisch said.

Hudson said the champions program, “…Opened up a couple projects that have been on the back burner in my mind. And then also just creating more of a living shoreline along our Baker City Creek Estuary and along the ore dock shoreline that is there. It’s been a really good process.”

The second team included emergency managers from Ashland, Bayfield, Douglas and Iron counties. These are Dorothy Tank (retired from Ashland County), Dave Sletten (Douglas County), Stacy Ofstad (Iron County) and Meagan Quaderer (Bayfield County) Their project focused on developing a digital form to record road maintenance activities for Great Lakes coastal counties in Wisconsin and beyond.

Quaderer said that development of the road maintenance form was timely. “This spring, the region had a lot of flooding and a lot of [road] damage. So, we actually had a real-world application of the document, especially in Bayfield County.”

The team presented the form at a Wisconsin Northwest Region Emergency Managers Meeting and it garnered their interest as well as that of representatives from Minnesota. The team was asked to present the form again to the Statewide Hazard Mitigation Committee. Those members saw the overwhelming value of the tool.

“I think it’s something that will be used here within our four counties but also hopefully, within both states,” Sletten said.

Tank said the form has already been used in Ashland County for a number of federally declared disasters. “It was not only approved at the state level, but by FEMA. It contained all the information they wanted,” she said.

The Climate Champions Program was facilitated by Karina Heim with the Reserve and Natalie Chin with Sea Grant. They recently released the call for applications for this year. Apply at this link: https://go.wisc.edu/0385yk. The deadline is March 15.

For more general information, visit: https://go.wisc.edu/am468e.

The post Northern Wisconsin communities benefit from climate change program first appeared on Wisconsin Sea Grant.

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News Releases | Wisconsin Sea Grant

News Releases | Wisconsin Sea Grant

https://www.seagrant.wisc.edu/news/northern-wisconsin-communities-benefit-from-climate-change-program/

Marie Zhuikov

On:
In: Climate change, flooding, Great Lakes coastal counties in Wisconsin, Karina Heim, Lake Superior Climate Champions Program, Lake Superior Reserve, Public Health, stormwater management, workshop planning

A program for community leaders in northern Wisconsin who are looking for ways to address climate change is available through Wisconsin Sea Grant and the Lake Superior National Estuarine Research Reserve. 

The Lake Superior Climate Champions Program began provides a yearlong opportunity for community teams to work on a goal of their choosing that addresses climate change, with a minimum of $2,500 in funding, guidance from Sea Grant and Reserve staff members and the chance to connect with other communities working on climate challenges. The program completed its first successful cohort last year and is seeking applicants for a new round of support in 2024.

Wisconsin Sea Grant’s Natalie Chin discusses climate change impacts with Climate Champions teams in 2023. Image credit: Lake Superior National Estuarine Research Reserve

Participating teams of two to four people must be from one of the four coastal counties (Douglas, Bayfield, Ashland or Iron) and may include representatives from multiple jurisdictions. The teams can include community members in decision-making roles, such as tribal or county government staff, elected officials, members of local boards and committees or regional intergovernmental committees.

“All across Lake Superior’s coastal communities, we feel the impacts of climate change firsthand,” said Karina Heim, coastal training program coordinator with the Lake Superior Reserve. “Finding time and the capacity to address climate issues can be a challenge for local leaders. Our Climate Champions Program offers dedicated, yearlong support for climate work.”

Teams who want to participate need to apply online by March 15 at: https://go.wisc.edu/0385yk. Teams will be selected by April and the program will begin in May.

The previous year’s projects included creating the outline of a coastal adaptation plan for Washburn and Ashland, Wisconsin, that focused on flood resilience, climate adaptation and a project priorities list; also, emergency managers from Ashland, Bayfield, Douglas and Iron counties developed an online form to record road maintenance activities for Great Lakes coastal counties in Wisconsin.

Applicants are encouraged to seek support for a new climate resilience effort that is relevant to their community. This could include developing a new resource or tool, initiating an assessment, bringing people together in dialog or developing a specific climate plan.

Other possible project examples include: finding and using an assessment or planning tool to prepare for climate challenges (flooding, public health, etc.), planning a workshop or a facilitated process that allows for climate change learning and dialog and incorporating climate change considerations into an existing project or process, such as land-use planning or stormwater management.

For more information, visit: https://go.wisc.edu/am468e.

The post Applications open for community climate support program first appeared on Wisconsin Sea Grant.

Original Article

News Releases | Wisconsin Sea Grant

News Releases | Wisconsin Sea Grant

https://www.seagrant.wisc.edu/news/applications-open-for-community-climate-support-program/

Marie Zhuikov

On:
In: coastal erosion, Coastal Hazards of Lake Superior, Dan and Mary Schneider, Herbster, house moving, Karina Heim, Natalie Chin, Sarah Brown, Scott Galetka, Tom Fitz

This home in Herbster, Wisconsin, was moved 150 feet back from an eroding Lake Superior bluff in 2003. Image credit: Marie Zhuikov, Wisconsin Sea Grant

The dynamics of land and water were on display for members of the Coastal Hazards of Superior (CHAOS) group when they toured Lake Superior’s South Shore at a homesite in Herbster, Wisconsin, last week. The home, now owned by Dan and Mary Schneider, was moved 20 years ago farther inland from an eroding lake bluff in one of the first efforts to address coastal home erosion and establish setback distances in Bayfield County.

Homeowner Dan Schneider shows CHAOS tour participants some eroding bluff east of his home. Image credit: Marie Zhuikov, Wisconsin Sea Grant

The tour was organized and led by CHAOS Coordinator Sarah Brown and Karina Heim, coastal training coordinator with the National Lake Superior Estuarine Research Reserve. It featured talks by homeowner Dan Schneider, Northland College Professor of Geoscience Tom Fitz, and Bayfield County Land Records Administrator Scott Galetka, who is also a member of Wisconsin Sea Grant’s Outreach and Education Committee.

I was one of the lucky tour participants along with Natalie Chin, Wisconsin Sea Grant’s climate and tourism outreach specialist.

Schneider, who has owned the 52-acre property since 2019, said he was happy to open his homesite for the tour. “The area’s got such an incredible geological history and cultural history, for us, it’s amazing to live here.”

He showed us where the house was originally situated, right on the edge of the 150-foot bluff. It now lies 150 feet farther back. The bluff was eroding from Lake Superior waves at the bottom and from stormwater runoff and groundwater flow at the top.

Moving the 3-bedroom home was a major undertaking. “They (the original owners) found a mover, but then they had to deal with the potable water supply, the electrical supply and the sanitary sewer,” Schneider said.

The spot where the house was moved to offered its own challenges in the form of shallow groundwater. Swales were installed along with drain tiles, ditches and a pond to keep the water from flowing into the house.

This is the bluff overlooking Lake Superior that was the original site of the home. Image credit: Marie Zhuikov, Wisconsin Sea Grant

Schneider said that not much erosion had occurred on the bluff since the home was moved, but that a bluff east of the house had been eroding actively. We walked about 200 feet in that direction for a view. Dirt and gravel tumbled down the slopes, which were bare of vegetation.

Fitz explained that the slopes were composed of clay and sand, remnants of the last stages of glaciation about 14,000 years ago. “There’s contact between clay of the Miller Creek Formation and sand from the Copper Falls Formation about 15 feet down,” Fitz said. “That contact is probably playing an important role in the stability of this bluff – or rather, the instability.” This sand-clay interaction characterizes much of the geology of Lake Superior’s South Shore.

Geology in action — a tour participant peers down into an eroding bluff on the Schneider property. Image credit: Marie Zhuikov, Wisconsin Sea Grant

Fitz described how groundwater was moving along the top of the clay layer and coming out of the side of the bluff, forming erosion. “What we see here is obvious evidence of the power of moving water,” he said, citing clay around the house for the groundwater issues that Schneider has noticed there.

“What we have here is a big, ‘wow.’ Geology in action,” Fitz said.

The good news is that Schneider’s house is safe from erosion thanks to its current setback from the bluff. The bad news is that the eastern ravine is eroding.

Schneider said that when he purchased the property, he noticed the erosion in the ravine, but it didn’t bother him. “I knew in my lifetime I wouldn’t need to worry about it. The privilege of living out here was worth it,” he said.

Back at a picnic table near the original bluff, we heard from Galetka, who explained how Bayfield County tracks coastal land changes over time. One of the ways he currently uses is a drone equipped with a 35 mm camera.

“I began this job in 2007. I’ve seen this program of setbacks and the importance of making sure we have science backing up where homes should go behind the bluff,” Galetka said. “This was the site that sparked everything. It was kind of like the poster child.”

CHAOS Coordinator Sarah Brown (left) and Wisconsin Sea Grant Climate and Tourism Outreach Specialist, Natalie Chin (right) look at photos of the home-moving process with Northland College Geoscience Professor Tom Fitz. Bayfield County Land Records Administrator Scott Galetka is in the background. Image credit: Marie Zhuikov, Wisconsin Sea Grant

The wind was too stiff for Galetka to demonstrate his drone, but that allowed us to have a close look as it rested on the picnic table. He said that technology has advanced greatly since the home was originally moved and that data sets are much more accurate now.

We came away from the tour with a greater appreciation for the intricacies involved in how land and water interact, and admiration for the forethought required to preserve a beautiful Lake Superior home.

For more information about coastal erosion along the South Shore and to hear from Jane Bucy, the original owner of the Schneider home, about the house-moving process, you can watch a YouTube video of the CHAOS group’s June 2022 meeting.

The post Visiting the house that sparked coastal land use setbacks first appeared on Wisconsin Sea Grant.

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Blog | Wisconsin Sea Grant

Blog | Wisconsin Sea Grant

https://www.seagrant.wisc.edu/blog/visiting-the-house-that-sparked-coastal-land-use-setbacks/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=visiting-the-house-that-sparked-coastal-land-use-setbacks

Marie Zhuikov

On:
In: Climate change, climate change project funding, Karina Heim, Lake Superior Climate Champions Program, Lake Superior National Estuarine Research Reserve

A culvert washout in Superior, Wisconsin, during a flood in 2012. Image credit: Marie Zhuikov, Wisconsin Sea Grant

A new program for community leaders in northern Wisconsin who are looking for ways to address climate change is available through Wisconsin Sea Grant and the Lake Superior National Estuarine Research Reserve.

The Lake Superior Climate Champions Program provides a yearlong opportunity for community teams to work on a goal of their choosing that addresses climate change, with a minimum of $2,500 in funding, guidance from Sea Grant and Reserve staff members and the chance to connect with other communities working on climate challenges.

Participating teams of two to four people must be from one of the four coastal counties (Douglas, Bayfield, Ashland or Iron). The teams should include community members in decision-making roles, such as tribal or county government staff, elected officials, members of local boards and committees or regional intergovernmental committees.

“All across Lake Superior’s coastal communities, we feel the impacts of climate change firsthand,” said Karina Heim, coastal training program coordinator with the Lake Superior Reserve. “Finding time and the capacity to address climate issues can be a challenge for local leaders. Our Climate Champions Program offers dedicated support for climate work.”

Teams who want to participate need to apply online by Aug. 1 at: bit.ly/39Zovej. Two teams will be selected for 2022 and the program will begin in the fall.

Examples of projects include: finding and using an assessment or planning tool to prepare for climate challenges (flooding, public health, etc.), planning a workshop or a facilitated process that allows for climate change learning and dialog and incorporating climate change considerations into an existing project or process, such as land-use planning or stormwater management.

For more information, visit lakesuperiornerr.org/focus-areas/coastal-leadership/lake-superior-climate-champions/.

The post Lake Superior Climate Champions Program Available for Communities first appeared on Wisconsin Sea Grant.

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News Releases | Wisconsin Sea Grant

News Releases | Wisconsin Sea Grant

https://www.seagrant.wisc.edu/news/lake-superior-climate-champions-program-available-for-communities/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=lake-superior-climate-champions-program-available-for-communities

Marie Zhuikov