Clean Water Coalition

MADISON – A coalition of conservation and water protection groups hailed the adoption of a resolution to phase-in vegetative buffers into the state’s rules to prevent polluted runoff. In a unanimous vote, the Natural Resources Board adopted a resolution directing the staff of the DNR to develop a science-based standard to require vegetative buffer strips for agricultural land along high quality and impaired waters throughout the state. The new standard will be developed after scientific research is conducted to determine the most effective buffers for Wisconsin.

"The Natural Resources Board has taken a huge step forward for our 44,000 miles of streams, 15,000 lakes, $11 billion tourism industry and overall quality of life,” stated River Alliance of Wisconsin executive director Todd Ambs. “With this vote the DNR has made a firm commitment to make Wisconsin the national leader in controlling polluted runoff from agricultural sources—our number one water quality problem,” Ambs concluded.

The new standard will require buffers on agricultural land along all high quality and impaired waters in Wisconsin when cost share dollars are available. The standard will be based on the results of scientific research to be conducted by the Wisconsin Agricultural Stewardship Initiative with input from the University of Wisconsin College of Agricultural Life Sciences. The report is to be concluded by no later than the end of 2005. If the research is not completed by that time, the new standard will mirror the current buffer guidelines for Wisconsin that have been developed by the Natural Resource Conservation Service.

"This is a victory for Wisconsin's lakes, rivers and streams. We applaud the Natural Resources Board for their action," said Kerry Schumann, WISPIRG Director. However, she cautioned, "It is now necessary that we pay close attention to the research being conducted on buffers to ensure that the study is scientific and fair and not influenced by special interests."

"Buffers along our shorelines do much more than prevent polluted runoff from contaminating our waters. Roots of trees, shrubs and grasses hold shorelines in place. The natural shoreline vegetation provides habitat for frogs, turtles, salamanders, shore birds and all the other species that depend on this critical zone for their life cycles. The Clean Water Act defines water quality to include fish and wildlife as part of a healthy aquatic ecosystem. A healthy shoreline buffer zone is an essential element in reaching this goal," said Donna Sefton, executive director of Wisconsin Association of Lakes.

By passing the resolution to require a buffer standard, the Natural Resources Board has successfully found a solution to one of the final sticking points holding up passage of the polluted runoff rules. These rules have been in the making for nearly four years. Vegetative buffer strips have been a key practice in the rules—for both agriculture and urban standards—until they were removed from the agricultural standards late last year. In March, the Senate Environmental Resources committee sent the polluted runoff rules back to the Department of Natural Resources requesting action on the buffer standard.

Twenty-nine Clean Water Coalition groups* support this resolution for a buffer standard. The Coalition will now work to make sure that no one loses track of the steps necessary to bring the goals of this resolution to fruition over the next few years. One concern is that the research committee is adequately represented by both water quality and agriculture academics. The Coalition will request that an oversight committee is established to ensure the research is not co-opted by one perspective.

“We already have plenty of research saying that buffers clean water and that wider buffers are better. This study will not determine ifbuffers are good practices for Wisconsin. Instead, this study will help us determine the most effective buffer designs for our limited cost-sharing dollars,” said Bill Pielsticker, agronomist, former farmer, and president of the Southern Wisconsin Trout Unlimited.

The new buffer standard will be implemented by a future date that will be chosen so as not to affect the eligibility of Wisconsin landowners who participate in the Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program (CREP). Vegetative buffers have been stalled largely because the state worried that a mandatory standard would render landowners ineligible for CREP, which provides generous federal funding for conservation practices. However, the Farm Services Agency sent a letter this week stating that a mandatory buffer requirement, with a future compliance date, will not conflict with CREP. The latest federal Farm Bill extended CREP until 2008.

“The Sierra Club is pleased that vegetative buffers are included in the DNR’s action to adopt the polluted runoff rules,” said Caryl Terrell, Chapter Director of the Sierra Club-John Muir Chapter. “Farmers will install vegetative buffers between their crop fields and streams using federal Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program dollars as long as that program exists. DNR has agreed that University research on farmers’ experiences using these ‘real world’ buffers will be the basis for adopting mandatory buffer regulations no later than 2008.”

* Audubon Council of Wisconsin, Citizens for a Better Environment, Citizens to Save Neenah Wetlands, Concerned Citizens of Newport, Dane County Conservation League, Douglas County Association of Lakes and Streams, ECCOLA, Fox River Trout Unlimited, Fox-Wolf Basin 2000, Friends of Branch River, Friends of the Jump River, Friends of Milwaukee Rivers, Harry and Laura Nohr Trout Unlimited, Great River Council Federation of Fly Fishers, 1000 Friends of Wisconsin, Plover River Alliance, River Alliance of Wisconsin, Save Our Unique Lands, Sierra Club--John Muir Chapter, Sierra Club--River Touring Section, Southern Wisconsin Trout Unlimited, Sustainable Racine, Whitefish Lake Conservancy, Wisconsin Association of Lakes, Wisconsin’s Environmental Decade, WISPIRG, Wisconsin Wetlands Association, Yahara Fishing Club.

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