How Wetlands, Grasslands and Other Natural Gems are Solving Wisconsin's Biggest Challenges

Nature-based solutions are also known as ecosystem services and green infrastructure. Protecting remaining forests, wetlands and grasslands; using farming practices that safeguard clean water and improve soil health; and replacing concrete-lined streambeds with naturalized channels and native landscaping are all examples of nature-based solutions here in Wisconsin.

To maximize benefits, TNC and partners are developing web-based mapping tools like Wetlands By Design to help show where nature-based solutions can deliver the biggest gains. TNC is also supporting other groups in achieving shared conservation goals and stressing bottom-line benefits, like flood control and soil health, in conversations with local officials and landowners.

“This expanded vision helps advance wildlife and habitat conservation and also recognizes that we need healthy habitats in order for our own families and economy to thrive,” Miller says. “Conserving nature is helping people.”

Glacial Gifts Help Species-rich Area Face and Fight Climate Change

On a bitterly cold Valentine’s Day, Brian Miner walks the trails at Newell and Ann Meyer Nature Preserve near Eagle. He warms to showing how work done here preserves one of Wisconsin’s most species-rich areas in a changing climate and captures more carbon to leave a brighter future for his two young children and their generation.

Receding glaciers 11,000 years ago created kettle lakes, steep ridges, groundwater and springs. That diverse topography, geology and hydrology gave rise to an amazing array of ecosystems and species: oak savanna, woodlands, wetlands, prairie and springs forming the headwaters of the Mukwonago River, southeastern Wisconsin’s cleanest stream and a treasure trove of freshwater mussels and fish.

Regular prescribed burns, invasive species control and the recent restoration of 200 acres of prairie on former ag fields boost reproduction of deep-rooted native plants that anchor soil and clean water soaking into the groundwater and river. A new web-based mapping tool underway will help safeguard groundwater quantity by showing where new wells to supply people will least impact nature.

Growing Healthier Neighborhoods with Green Space

Prairie plants from the Newell and Ann Meyer Nature Preserve are helping grow a community-based effort to re-engage African Americans in Milwaukee with nature and, in so doing, improve their health, well-being and empowerment.

Nearby Nature Milwaukee, an environmental justice and equity initiative, recently visited the preserve to collect seeds for planting this spring on a three-acre natural area along Lincoln Creek. Nearby Nature Milwaukee now manages the land, part of the larger Lincoln Creek greenway created two decades ago when Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District (MMSD) ripped out concrete and naturalized the creek bed to sustainably manage stormwater.

The site, known as Hopkins Hollows along Lincoln Creek, is a remnant of a naturally occurring wetland that was filled in to accommodate the rapid industrialization of Milwaukee in the early 1900s. Today, the predominantly African American neighborhood bears the burden of the loss of industrial jobs; the legacy of social, economic and environmental injustices; and the climate change-driven threats of flooding and heat islands.

“We’re looking to activate the space as a nature/educational space where African Americans can come and have a hands-on experience with nature,” says Steven F. Hunter, program director for Nearby Nature Milwaukee. “Nature provides a lot of lessons: resilience, adaptation, diversity and the empowerment of knowing, ‘Oh, what I do actually matters.’”

Building Flood Resiliency and Community Collaboration

In the Green Bay area, natural solutions are helping reduce flooding and improve water quality in the East River Watershed, where flooding in recent years has forced evacuations, caused millions in damage and rendered dozens of homes uninhabitable.

“People in the community are really ready to not experience this type of flooding and want to see more green infrastructure,” says Kayla Wandsnider, East River Collaborative Coordinator and a TNC Fellow. “They also want to be able to use the river recreationally.”

Seeding Sustainable Farming to Yield Clean Water and Thriving Farms

Planting cover crops and plowing less are among the soil- and water-protective measures Deer Run Dairy LLC has adopted on its 2,500 acres of cropland in Kewaunee County. Now co-owner Duane Ducat is recruiting other farmers to do the same.

Cover crops—like rye grass, clovers and radishes—are planted in harvested fields that would otherwise be bare during winter. “Reduced till” or “no till” methods decrease or eliminate turning over the soil on croplands. Both have a primary purpose of improving soil health.

“It’s hard to change the culture of farms because that’s the way we grew up: Till soil and plant into nice brown dirt,” Ducat says. “We’re trying to do the right thing, and it’s happening.”

He was one of 14 farmers who founded Peninsula Pride Farms (PPF) in 2016 in Kewaunee and southern Door counties to address local concerns about manure contamination in drinking water wells. Today, PPF’s almost 60 members share information, hold demonstrations and recruit farmers to try new practices to protect water quality.

Many partners support the group, including Farmers for Sustainable Food and TNC, which directly provides this and eight other farmer-led groups with technical help and financial assistance. In 2020 and in 2021, PPF used a TNC gift to share the cost with farmers of trying cover crops or increasing the diversity of their cover crop seed mix. Such help boosted cover crop acres 600% to 28,805 and no-till acres to 32,429, a 700% increase, in Door and Kewaunee counties.

“There are producers out there doing great work when it comes to farming sustainably,” says TNC Agricultural Strategy Manager Ricardo Costa. “TNC wants to highlight and support them.”

The cost-share spurred Scott Jeanquart to plant 50 acres of cover crops on the Door County dairy farm he operates with his parents, wife and young sons. “We tripled the acreage of cover crops planted for this year.”

They saved fuel, tractor wear and tear; fed their cows and sold the rest of the cover crop; and improved soil health and reduced runoff in a county reliant on Lake Michigan for its $480 million tourism economy.

“Being in a delicate county with low soil depth and a lot of water around us, we need to hold onto our soil,” Jeanquart says. “I have four sons and I would like to pass this on to them, or at least show them that water quality is a huge important thing for future generations.”