Sessions & Presenters

Most of the problems we face today are based on a mismatch between how we think the world works and how it actually works, that is, we have a thinking problem. Systems thinking is a tool and a strategy to help improve our thinking and communication. An introduction to systems thinking and some tools and strategies to use to improve our own thinking and to better communicate with and educate others will be shared. Systems thinking will be a tool utilized throughout the conference.

Jeremy Solin is an educator, community organizer, gardener, woods-wanderer, father and husband.  He’s worked in the environmental and sustainability education fields for the past 20 years.  Water, community engagement, sense of place, and environmentally-focused behaviors have been consistent themes in his work. Currently, Jeremy is the Assistant Dean for Southern Wisconsin at UW-Madison, Division of Extension. He also owns Tapped Maple Syrup, based on land his family has been stewarding for over 100 years. He has a bachelor’s degree in water resources from UW-Stevens Point, a master’s degree in environmental education from the University of Minnesota, Duluth, and a PhD in sustainability education from Prescott College. 

The Red Cedar Watershed is an amenity-rich region with many desirable recreational, cultural, and economic opportunities. While there are many great assets to build on there are also threats to community vibrancy such as water quality concerns, lack of affordable housing and childcare, and climate impacts. To ensure community well-being in the Red Cedar Watershed going forward it will be essential to engage in strategic planning. In our breakout sessions, we will seek to identify desired futures and begin to map out strategic pathways for obtaining desired outcomes.

DNR Healthy Lakes Grant Program

The WI DNR Healthy Lakes & Rivers grant program offers funding for 5 simple and inexpensive best practices that improve habitat and water quality on your shoreland property. Come learn about the Healthy Lakes grant program and how the Chetek Lakes Protection Association is using grant funds to implement projects around the Chetek Chain of Lakes.

Presenter:
Patrick Anderson, Environmental Grants Specialist for the Healthy Lakes & Rivers (HLR) grant program at the Wisconsin DNR

The Latest Agriculture Water Quality and Soil Health Research in the Red Cedar Watershed
In this session, hear some of the latest agriculture water quality research happening in the Red Cedar Watershed. This work is inspired by a need to address local water quality impairments while supporting productive agriculture. Dr. Ellen Albright will begin the session with an overview of Discovery Farms, a farmer-led research program that has been conducting water quality research on private farms across the state for over 20 years. She will present findings on the timing and driving mechanisms of phosphorus losses from row crop fields, which inspired a local look into on-farm phosphorus stratification. Kelsey Hyland, Northwest Agriculture Water Quality Outreach Specialist, will then present results from a local Phosphorus Stratification Project that engaged three farmer-led watershed groups in the Red Cedar Watershed. This project explored questions about phosphorus movement in soil health systems, dissolved phosphorus losses, and water quality risk. She will present aggregated data from this local project, watershed implications, and plans for moving forward. 

The realm of soil health testing is rapidly evolving to empower farmers & agronomists with new tools that can help guide nutrient crediting and aid in the creation of crop fertilizer plans. With an emphasis on measuring various aspects of soil biology, these platforms open up new ways to consider how row crops, cover crops, microbes, and other processes make previously unmeasurable nutrient sources available to future crops, thereby reducing the need for synthetic fertilizers.  This presentation will discuss two such platforms: the Haney Soil Health Test and the Cover Crop Biomass Test. 

Presenters:
Dr. Ellen Albright, UW Discovery Farms Researcher 
Kelsey Hyland, Agriculture Water Quality Outreach Specialist, Northwest WI 
Joe Ailts, Independent Agronomist

Local Food to Support Sustainability and Water Quality: A Panel Discussion
Developing a market for locally grown and raised food that is produced in ways that benefit soil health, water quality, sustainability, and economic development is an important aspect of making the Red Cedar River watershed an attractive place to live and work. Local producers, local retailers, and local consumers can benefit themselves and the greater community through the production, sale, and purchasing of local food products. This session will offer more information on the logistics, benefits, and hurdles in the production and sale of sustainably produced local food. Three panelists will talk about their role in local food and be open for questions.

Presenters:
Logan Dwyer, Farmer
Crystal Halvorson, General Manager, Menomonie Market Food Co-Op
Sarah Lloyd, Value Chain Coordinator - Dept. of Plant & Agroecosystems Sciences and UMN Forever Green Initiative for Grassland 2.0

The LAKES Research Experience for Undergraduates Program: A Reflection on a Decade of Community-Based Water Quality Research

The Linking Applied Knowledge in Environmental Sustainability Research Experience for Undergraduates, or LAKES REU, program started in 2014 with its first summer research cohort and completed its most recent summer research season in 2024. Over that time, nearly a hundred students from around the country have spent a summer in Menomonie working with community partners, learning how to do high-quality research, and contributing important insights about water quality issues and how to address them in the Red Cedar Watershed. In this session, key takeaways from the work will be shared. 

Presenter:
Tina Lee, Professor of Anthropology and Co-Director LAKES REU, University of Wisconsin-Stout

What future do you want for the Red Cedar Watershed?  

In the Red Cedar Learning Hub project (a UW-Stout and Grassland 2.0 collaboration), we have heard many aspired for futures for the Red Cedar Watershed. We haven’t heard your vision for it yet. This is your chance to share your vision for the Red Cedar and further build upon prior perspectives shared by your fellow community members.

What farming and land management systems obtain water quality goals?

The current EPA-approved plan for the Red Cedar Watershed provides targets we need to reach to attain meaningful water quality improvements. Currently, it is estimated that we will need to reduce phosphorus pollution by an additional 49% based on data from the last study of the watershed completed in 2018. Obtaining these goals will likely require a strategic vision and the development of societal support and market structures that help people manage land in a way conducive to obtaining shared goals. We will use SmartScape to map out potential landscape configurations to obtain the TMDL goals. Then we will discuss the institutional and market supports (and potential tradeoffs) that will be necessary for supporting those landscape transformations. 

What is the role of water in health for the Red Cedar?

In the recent Dunn County Community Health Assessment having clean water was identified as a primary community health need. What does a healthy Red Cedar mean to you and what is the role of water in that vision?

What markets and supply chains do we need to support clean water?

In ongoing Red Cedar Learning Hub efforts, we used the Grassland 2.0 SmartScape tool to model various landscape scenarios needed to  meet the water quality goals. The next step is to plan how to build and support markets and supply chains for the agricultural products from these new landscape configurations. In this breakout session we will look at the scope and scale of potential production systems changes (i.e. shifting acres from row crops to row crops with cover crops or to perennial pasture) and then imagine together what supply chains and markets would be needed to support the changes. We will map supply chain relationships from farm to processor, storage, market channels and consumer demand, using grass-fed beef, small-ruminants, dairy heifer grazing, and other possible products from these new landscapes as examples.