Wisconsin academy launches water initiative

by Joan Fischer

The Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts and Letters is launching a statewide initiative on water use and conservation to examine and analyze the current state and long-term sustainability of Wisconsin’s waters.

Results of the initiative, called “Waters of Wisconsin: The Future of Wisconsin’s Aquatic Ecosystems and Resources,” will include policy recommendations for legislators, educational materials for teachers and the public, and a statewide conference in late 2002 to discuss courses of action and policy options.

The initiative grows out of concerns about water resources that are making headlines throughout the state: PCBs in the Fox River. Toxic levels of mercury in fish in Wisconsin lakes. A proposed Perrier bottling plant in Adams County and the Crandon Mine on the Wolf River. Filling and development threatening many Wisconsin wetlands this spring. Problems managing nonpoint-source runoff from farms, suburbs and cities.

The initiative will serve as a public forum, offering many outreach activities and opportunities for citizen involvement. One such opportunity will be joining an advisory network for regular e-mail updates on the initiative’s development and progress.

Preliminary talks with experts from various sectors of water policy and science pointed to a widespread recognition: Wisconsin lacks a comprehensive, long-term water conservation strategy.

“The clear, common thread that emerged in our talks with leaders in industry, agriculture, academia and conservation was that a comprehensive approach to the use and conservation of the state’s water should be based on fact and not on the prevailing wind of opinion,” says Michael Strigel, the Wisconsin Academy’s director of programs.

With this investigation, the academy hopes to take a systemic look at the overarching challenges to water quality, supply and conservation. “With this initiative, the Wisconsin Academy seeks to start a process that will provide the factual foundation for a comprehensive strategy,” says Strigel, who will head the water initiative with Curt Meine, the Wisconsin Academy’s director of conservation programs.

The academy will draw on the state’s leading scientists in water resources. Initiative committee co-chairs are John Magnuson, director emeritus of the UW–Madison Center for Limnology; Patricia Leavenworth, state conservationist with the Natural Resources Conservation Service; and Steve Born, a professor with the departments of urban and regional planning/environmental studies.

The co-chairs are establishing criteria for participating in a working group that will contain 12 to 15 individuals. Participants will reflect local, state, tribal, national and global perspectives, and be made up of leaders from the academic, governmental, non-governmental, business and other sectors. They will seek out the views of diverse interests, including research, agriculture, tourism, industry, recreation and environmental protection. The initiative will also draw on a number of institutions and programs devoted to water.

The Wisconsin Academy brings to this rich base of knowledge its capacity for convening and catalyzing expertise in the public interest. The initiative is the debut of a new Wisconsin Academy program called the “Wisconsin Idea at the Academy.”