The Bay-Lake RPC treated over 970 acres of invasive Phragmites in 2016, followed by mowing of nearly 550 acres, as part of its GLRI-funded  Phragmites management project.   Last week, Bay-Lake RPC had their contractor out treating an estimated 600 acres to conclude our 2017 chemical treatments. 

With a smaller budget remaining for follow-up treatments, the project area was narrowed a bit and treatment areas were prioritized. The treatment areas included sites along Lower Green Bay including the Duck Creek delta, Renard Island, and Bay Beach; along both sides of the Fox River in Green Bay, Allouez, Ashwaubenon, and De Pere; and along the East River in Green Bay, Allouez, and Bellevue.  Sites include a mix of coastal wetlands, shoreline and riparian areas, parks and trails, private residences, and commercial and industrial properties. 

This project has been funded under a Great Lakes Restoration Initiative (GLRI) grant, which will conclude in December 2017. No further Phragmites management efforts are planned by the Bay-Lake RPC in Brown County.

The Commission is partnering with New North to assist with the Gold Shovel Certification Program. The program is being developed to highlight and promote "shovel ready" development sites in the New North region. Below is a description from the New North website:

 

The goal of this program is to gather uniform site information to increase the quality of  site documentation, as well as the overall number of sites that are ready for development. New North will actively market these sites to regional, national and international site selectors. 

The Gold Shovel Ready designation will identify your property to developers, site selectors and companies looking for suitable expansion locations. Knowing this information up front helps brokers, site selectors, developers and companies expedite their search, allowing these particular sites to stand out against the competition.

 

The Commission will serve as an independent third party and review applications for completeness for any sites that are located within the eight-county Bay-Lake Region. The rest of the New North Region is covered by East Central Wisconsin RPC and they will conduct the reviews for their counties. After the applications are completed and reviewed, they will be loaded onto the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation (WEDC)   Locate In Wisconsin website.

 

For more information about the Gold Shovel Program and to download application materials please visit the New North website or contact Jeci Casperson, New North, at (920) 336-3860; or Josh Schedler, Bay-Lake RPC, at (920) 448-2820.