Enjoy River Alliance of Wisconsin’s Summer 2024 WaterWays newsletter. To get a copy of WaterWays, become a River Alliance member or pick up a print copy at local events with our partners across Wisconsin. Download a PDF copy of the full newsletter.

Summer 2024 | Volume 30, Issue 2

Leaving a legacy: remembering Sara Johnson’s impact on Wisconsin’s Rivers

by Allison Werner, Executive Director

Sara Johnson, who became River Alliance’s first executive director in 1993, recently passed and I’ve been thinking a lot about her legacy. We all hope to leave a mark on this world. Sara’s mark on our organization is still felt today when we remember her role in the removal of the Baraboo River dams, stopping the Crandon mine, and so much more.

Under her leadership, River Alliance became nationally recognized for dam removal and river restoration. She was a leader in the removal of four dams on the Baraboo River, resulting in one of the longest reaches of river – around 110 miles – in the U.S. restored through dam removal. Restoring the Baraboo River to a free-flowing state was one of her most cherished achievements. 

She was also instrumental in a landmark settlement agreement with Wisconsin Electric Power affecting 11 dams on the Menominee River system in Wisconsin and Michigan. This included the removal of three dams as well as environmental, recreational, and economic mitigation in the basin.

Andy Morton, retired DNR Regional Supervisor and Black Earth Creek Watershed Association board member, shared his perspective on Sara’s impact: “Sara was instrumental in calling attention to the negative impact of a large number of cattle pasturing on the creek banks upstream from Cross Plains on Black Earth Creek (the cattle were owned by a large dairy CAFO). EPA got involved with Sara’s facilitation, and the issue was resolved. When you drive out to Black Earth Creek now, you will see that the creek (just east of Rocky Dell Rd) has a nice buffer along its banks. I often think of this on my frequent drives to the jewel that is Black Earth Creek is—Sara had a role in this. Sara really made a big contribution to improved stream and river management in Wisconsin!” 

At the gathering at Black Earth Creek to celebrate Sara’s life, I was struck by another legacy: being a woman in a leadership position in the conservation field. Her friends described her as energetic, enthusiastic, effervescent in the outdoors, feisty, and tenacious. She swiftly learned to navigate the male-dominated trout angling community. I am only the second woman to lead this organization in our 31-year history. I am grateful for the path Sara and other women in the conservation community blazed, creating more opportunities for women in this field.

While many things have changed in thirty years, some remain the same because the water issues we face are long term. River Alliance is still involved in hydroelectric dam relicensing, especially for the dams on the Menominee and Pine Rivers in Northeast Wisconsin. We are putting more resources toward small dam removal again as climate change increases the need for communities to reassess their aging dams. We have also stayed deeply involved in the fight to keep new proposed metallic and sulfide mines from devastating Wisconsin’s waters. 

We are honored that Sara chose to leave a legacy gift to River Alliance to help us carry on the work she started. As always, we will strive to do our best to follow the strong course she set for River Alliance. 

Make a legacy gift

A planned gift to River Alliance of Wisconsin ensures you are able to leave a legacy of clean, abundant water for future generations. If you are among those who have included River Alliance in your estate plans, you are a part of our Water Legacy Circle.

Please consult with your tax advisor to see if a bequest in your will, a retirement plan or life insurance designation, or charitable gift annuity is an option for you to support River Alliance’s mission. 

Learn more about your charitable giving options on our website: wisconsinrivers.org/legacy-giving 

2023 Annual Report

In lieu of a traditional printed annual report, we would like to share our last fiscal year’s successes and financial overview with all of our donors in this edition of our newsletter. Streamlining print resources and being transparent with all of our supporters is a way for us to be better stewards of your financial contributions. 

In our last fiscal year, River Alliance of Wisconsin 

• Celebrated our 30th anniversary with gatherings around the state and online to reflect on the progress we made with our partners to challenge metallic mining, dams, water pollution, and other barriers to clean water;
• Worked with local, statewide, tribal, and grassroots partners to monitor proposed metallic mining projects and changes in federal law;
• Deeply listened to leaders in our food system as we convened a core group to advise our Wisconsin Agricultural Agenda, a unique guide for policies that help us grow food in a way that protects water and supports rural life; 
• Provided legal analysis and advocacy support on issues related to PFAS contamination in drinking water, including participating in litigation to defend our state’s Spills Law and opposing legislation that would compromise our state’s ability to hold polluters accountable; and
• Deepened our commitment to justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion by weaving JEDI principles throughout our five-year strategic plan.

Find our full donor list, our 2023 recap video, and more at wisconsinrivers.org/financials.

Wild rice stewardship: manoomin 101

By Johnson Bridgwater, Water Advocates Organizer

River Alliance of Wisconsin is excited to announce that thanks to a grant from Fund for Lake Michigan, we will roll out a new volunteer-based effort designed to help steward manoomin, or wild rice, as it faces a series of increasing threats caused by both climate change and the prospect of mining in northern Wisconsin. 

Great Lakes Indian Fish and Wildlife Commission designated manoomin as “Extremely Vulnerable” in its most recent Climate Change Vulnerability Assessment, and we look forward to partnering with GLIFWC and its tribal partners to gather much-needed data on off-reservation waters. We are planning the launch of a hands-on, culture-based stewardship training that will connect our project volunteers to the sacred nature of this important, vital plant relative.

Is manoomin regulated? 

Yes. In Wisconsin, manoomin – specifically Northern wild rice (Zizania palustris) – is regulated by both the Wisconsin DNR as well as GLIFWC, which represents eleven Ojibwe tribes in Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan. The right to gather manoomin is a part of the reserved hunting, fishing, and gathering rights in the 1836, 1837, 1842, and 1854 treaties with the United States government.

Can I harvest manoomin?

Only tribal members and legal residents of the state of Wisconsin can harvest wild rice within the state, and a permit is required. Bodies of water that hold wild rice are either on reservation or off reservation, and off-reservation lakes are divided into “date-regulated lakes” and “open lakes.” Harvest timing and whether a lake is harvestable is determined by GLIFWC and its tribal members, but DNR handles the permit process. The DNR has email alerts on harvest dates that follow GLIFWC recommendations, and GLIFWC maintains an official public online map that is updated each year as the ricing season unfolds.

How can paddlers protect manoomin? 

Learn to identify it. While the harvest occurs in late summer and typically peaks in September, it is important that paddlers can identify Northern wild rice throughout its growing season, as it can easily be disturbed and damaged. Although many lakes will be posted with harvest rules and regulations, other lakes with manoomin won’t have signs.

Advocacy for wild rice is growing, and River Alliance is eager to educate and engage people in supporting the plant that is both sensitive to climate change and a vital part of the ecosystem and cultural heritage and beliefs of tribal members. 

Droughts, dams, and a mussel rescue squad signal what’s next for our climate

By Ellen Voss, Climate Resilience Director

With this spring’s onslaught of intense storms and many Wisconsin communities coping with the aftermath of floods, it’s hard to remember that just last fall, most of the state was locked in a strong and persistent drought. 

Last September, the combination of already low water levels in the Lower Wisconsin River, hydropower production, and unfortunately timed gate maintenance reduced Wisconsin’s namesake river to a proverbial trickle below the last dam and led to the worst-case scenario for the river’s most vulnerable species: native freshwater mussels.

Freshwater mussels are some of the most incredible creatures on the planet, and you’d never know it by looking at them. Over millennia, they’ve evolved some jaw-dropping reproductive strategies to ensure their survival, but they’ve never evolved the ability to move fast. Thanks to dams, habitat loss, and climate change, freshwater mussels are North America’s most critically imperiled species. 

In early fall of 2023, all along the riverway, tens of thousands of mussels were left stranded and drying in the hot sun as the water levels continued to fall. In response, volunteers heeded the call and took to the riverway to physically pick up and move thousands of stranded mussels to deeper water. We’ll never know how many were saved, but for species already on the precipice, every life saved mattered.

What happened last fall on the Lower Wisconsin River is a perfect illustration of choices that have to be made when there’s not enough water. At the end of this very long river with 26 hydropower dams and 21 reservoirs, there wasn’t enough water for life to persist after all other competing demands were met. 

Life in the river can’t always come last; these creatures have nowhere else to go.

The hard truth is that we really don’t know what’s coming next, and living in an anxious state of climate whiplash may be the new normal. We need a resilient system and policies in place that can handle and adapt to both ends of the extreme.

PBS Wisconsin produced a story about last fall’s mussel rescue that included River Alliance’s perspective along with interviews with leaders in the effort. You can help by visiting the Friends of the Lower Wisconsin River’s website to join the mussel rescue squad and learn about what to do next time the water levels drop: wisconsinriverfriends.org/mussel-rescue.

Planning for the future of Central Wisconsin’s watersheds

By Bill Davis, Senior Legal Analyst 

Our water is interconnected, and our actions on land affect our waters. Nature does not distinguish between surface water and groundwater, but our current water management systems do. We need a new system that follows the natural water cycle and considers cumulative impacts.

When developing the Wisconsin Water Agenda, our goal was to establish a new path to clean water. One key element, “Managing water as it exists in nature,” led us to the need to create a 50-year plan for the Central Wisconsin Basin.

The Central Wisconsin Basin faces just about every water issue, from flooding to nutrient and toxic pollution, to water scarcity. Drawing on our strong relationships with local leaders, we brought together a Wisconsin Water Agenda team that included municipal leaders, farmers, tribal representatives, scientists, and state agency staff. 

During our planning discussions, DNR staff mentioned their past authority to create watershed plans and expressed interest in reviving this authority with secured funding. This authority could achieve everything the team discussed for the basin plan. After considering this idea, the team decided to pursue it.

The DNR watershed planning authority process requires a Regional Planning Commission. The North Central Wisconsin RPC expressed interest and is drafting a funding proposal for the DNR. Using the DNR planning process can be easily replicated throughout the state, which is one of our goals for this work.

By encouraging cross-watershed collaboration among partners, we can improve our entire water management system for the health of people and our environment.

Our Agriculture Agenda is here, and we’re putting it to work

By Mike Tiboris, Agriculture and Water Policy Director

The Wisconsin Agriculture Agenda has taken some big steps forward, and we’re excited about bringing this new work to you. Transformational change in agriculture is necessary to protect our water, and the status quo is incapable of getting us there. Last year, we convened experts on the food system to identify new areas of policy change to transform agriculture and the food system into a positive force for water protection. The elements of the Agriculture Agenda are wide ranging and include some political reforms, like crop insurance changes, as well as efforts to keep diverse farms and farmers on the land, reduce waste, and improve rural quality of life.

Learn more at wisconsinrivers.org/agriculture-agenda, which will be an evolving platform for information and events. 

Over the next year, we’ll be focusing on one element of the Agenda: encouraging agricultural lenders to reward water and soil protection. Clean water is good business for farmers. Prioritizing it is a necessary change to protect farmers, banks, and our water as a shifting climate re-makes conventional farming into a high-risk activity. We’ll be working with lenders and conservation professionals to build mutual understanding of their work and identify ways for them to collaborate. Meanwhile, we’re continuing our work helping farmer-led watershed groups become strong organizations that create a culture of environmental protection among farmers.

We’re excited about this innovative work and had a lot of fun launching our new projects with a field day at Bouressa Family Farms in New London. We got to showcase some of our partners working on water and agriculture and build community with our members and their families. It was a gorgeous day on a model farm leading the way on water protection. We hope you’ll be at the next field day!

Thank you to Karen Anderson

Our deepest thanks to Karen Anderson for over four years as River Alliance of Wisconsin’s development director. The world changed quickly after she joined us in early 2020. She not only kept our ship afloat, she helped us set sail toward stable waters. We’ll miss her thoughtful reflections and commitment to being a just and equitable organization. We wish her well on her new role at the University of Wisconsin Foundation supporting the Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies, UW-Madison.

Get ready for Giving Tuesday

Tuesday, December 3, will be Giving Tuesday, a massive, global day of community philanthropy. River Alliance supporters always kick-start their year-end charitable giving by contributing on this day. We want to offer another dollar-for-dollar match again this year. If you are interested in being part of a donor pool to encourage others to give, contact Stacy at sharbaugh@wisconsinrivers.org to learn how you can help.

River Alliance of Wisconsin donors receive our triennial member newsletter by mail. To become a member, donate online.

This message is made possible by generous donors who believe people have the power to protect and restore water. Receive more updates in your inbox. Sign up for our e-newsletter to receive biweekly news and special alerts.