Conservation Calendar

Stormwater ponds were constructed en masse several years ago, requiring only annual inspections and minor maintenance since. But they were put in place with the understanding sediment would need to be removed in a 15 to 20-year cycle, and many ponds have reached that point. Because of the long cycle, it’s not uncommon for municipal […]

The United States Geological Survey (USGS) has been evaluating the water quality and quantity benefits of permeable pavements at a site in Madison, Wisconsin since 2014.  USGS monitoring efforts have provided valuable insights regarding how permeable pavements perform as a storm water management practice.  This information has been used to develop and update Wisconsin Department […]

The United States Geological Survey (USGS) has been evaluating the water quality and quantity benefits of permeable pavements at a site in Madison, Wisconsin since 2014. USGS monitoring efforts have provided valuable insights regarding how permeable pavements perform as a storm water management practice. This information has been used to develop and update Wisconsin Department […]

To appropriately size infrastructure, stormwater managers use estimates of precipitation amount over a range of durations and recurrence intervals (e.g., 100-year 24-hour storms). These estimates are created for every location in the United States by NOAA in their Atlas-14 publication. While Atlas-14 is an important guidance document, a limitation is that it does not account […]

Reduce maintenance and improve the health and beauty of your lawn and landscape by implementing stormwater-friendly strategies. We’ll cover steps to help capture rainwater by improving the soil, utilizing rain barrels and planting rain gardens. Adding trees, growing more native plants, and improving the health of your lawn also help keep water on your property […]

This two-morning webinar offers stormwater professionals a chance to hear experts from around the state share their experiences in: Separating basements from groundwater; TMDL compliance plans; Leaf management; Road salt minimization; BMP cost estimate; Dewatering; BMP inspection; Designing green infrastructure. Also, included are some updates to DNR stormwater BMP technical standards, Endangered Resources review, streambank […]

Nature-based Solutions apply ecological design to address societal challenges. Climate change has aggravated extreme hazard events such as floods, droughts, extreme heat, and fires that threaten livelihood of communities, especially for vulnerable populations, in addition to the sustainability of urban water systems. Conventional urbanization patterns and urban water infrastructure systems are designed based on past […]

Join us to Build Your Own Rain Barrel on Saturday, April 23rd to promote the use of green infrastructure and to improve the health of the Rock River watershed. The average American family directly consumes nearly 110,000 gallons of water each year, and if you include water used for producing food, energy, and consumer goods, that […]

As rainfall events become more frequent and intense, watershed management becomes paramount. Elevated bacteria levels in the nation’s surface waters are a public health issue–leading to sick pets, beach closures, and posing immediate health risks to anyone who recreates in or consumes the water. Until now, there have been limited, cost-effective ways to reduce bacteria […]

Stormwater green infrastructure (GI) provides many benefits to our society and helps to protect our precious ecosystems Being passive and natural systems, GI exhibit natural variability in their performance. As such, significant effort has been dedicated to reducing this variability, and improving performance through optimised design; e.g. careful plant and media selection and the inclusion […]