Happy New Year from the Wisconsin Coastal Resilience Team!

This month's newsletter contains:

• Collaboration Classifieds
• Annual Survey of Local Governments’ Needs in the Great Lakes
• Share Your Policy and Planning Projects
• Lake Michigan Water Level Update
• Events: Save-the-Date - Winter 2023 CALM Network Meeting
• Resource of the Month: Implementing NOAA's Steps to Resilience
• Around the Great Lakes: Oak Creek Shoreline Resilience, Habitat, & Access
• Profile: Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources
• Funding: Five Star and Urban Waters Restoration Grant Program
• Training: Inclusive Coasts Initiative: Designing Your Program

Annual Survey of Local Gov't Needs in the Great Lakes

Survey Purpose: The Great Lakes & St. Lawrence Cities Initiative and its partners are assessing needs facing U.S. and Canadian local and tribal governments in the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence River region. We hope to learn more about priorities, investments, and needs related to coastal management, climate resilience, water quality, and other pressing environmental concerns. The survey results will guide efforts to help communities safeguard resources and access support.

Who Should Complete the Survey: The survey is intended for elected officials and/or staff in local units of government with jurisdiction and/or access rights along the Great Lakes and the St. Lawrence River in the United States and Canada. This includes cities, villages, counties, townships, regions, upper-tier municipalities, regional planning agencies, First Nations, Sovereign Nations, port authorities, park districts or other relevant entities. We encourage jurisdictions to work together to submit just one response to the survey on behalf of their jurisdiction, coordinating as necessary among government units to locate the requested information. 

Time Commitment: The survey will likely take at least 30 minutes to complete. You do not need to complete it in one sitting.

EXTENDED DEADLINE: January 31, 2023

If you have questions, please contact Bridget Brown, Chief Operations and Programs Officer at the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Cities Initiative: bridget.brown@glslcities.org 

Background: CALM is supporting community-to-community learning by developing case studies of policy-change and planning projects in Wisconsin's Lake Michigan region.

Request: CALM is looking for communities interested in sharing policy-change and/or planning projects with the rest of the network. Information about the projects will be compiled into a case study and shared on the Wisconsin Coastal Resilience website as a resource for the network.

If you interested in sharing a policy-change or planning project with the CALM network, please reach out to Lydia Salus at lydia.salus@wisconsin.gov. 

Lake Michigan water levels continued their seasonal decline, decreasing 2 inches from December to January. Though Lake Michigan is now about 33 inches below the highest monthly water level recorded for January 2020, the Lake is still about 4 inches above the long-term average water level for the month. Water levels are expected to continue to decline throughout the next month.

SAVE THE DATE

Winter 2023 CALM Network Meeting

This network meeting will bring the CALM community together to talk about climate change adaptation. The meeting will feature case studies of projects that have incorporated changing climate conditions, funding opportunities leveraged for coastal resilience projects, and an opportunity for discussion with others in the CALM community.

Thursday, February 2nd, 2023

12:00 - 2:00 PM Central Time

Stay tuned for registration information!

Implementing the Steps to Resilience: A Practitioner’s Guide

Implementing the Steps to Resilience: A Practitioner’s Guide is a handbook for national climate resilience created by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Climate Program Office and their partners.

The Guide, along with accompanying online resources, is designed to help climate adaptation practitioners work with local governments and community organizations to incorporate climate risk into equitable, long-term decision-making. Specifically, the Guide helps resilience and adaptation professionals learn to implement the U.S. Climate Resilience Toolkit’s Steps to Resilience. 

The City of Oak Creek wanted to slow erosion at coastal bluff on the Peter-Cooper brownfield site. Slowing bluff erosion is a critical step in the site’s transformation into a public park.

This project created the final design and engineering for bluff toe protection, bluff slope revegetation, and new public access at the site. With final design documents complete, the City is now seeking funding for construction.

Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources

Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR) is a state agency in charge of managing and conserving the State’s natural resources. They oversee development and administration of regulations related to wildlife, fish, forests, endangered resources, air, water, waste, and more.

Within this large profile of responsibilities, the DNR has several programs that address Great Lakes coastal hazard issues like erosion and flooding for Wisconsin’s communities and residents including the Office of Great Waters, Great Lakes erosion control and permitting, coastal funding, floodplain management, and state wetland mapping programs.

The Five Star and Urban Waters Restoration nationwide grant program seeks to develop community capacity to sustain local natural resources for future generations by providing financial assistance to diverse local partnerships focused on improving water quality, watersheds and the species and habitats they support. 

This program is administered by the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF) and the Wildlife Habitat Council (WHC), in cooperation with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), USDA Forest Service (USFS), U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), and FedEx and Southern Company.

Ecological improvements may include one or more of the following: wetland, riparian, forest and coastal habitat restoration; wildlife conservation, community tree canopy enhancement, habitat, water quality and wildlife monitoring and green infrastructure best management practices for managing run-off. 

Applicant Webinar Recording

Full Proposal Due Date: January 31, 2023, by 11:59 PM Eastern Time

Inclusive Coasts Initiative: Designing Your Program

Restore America’s Estuaries and the National Science Foundation aim to improve diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice (DEIJ) in grantmaking, project design, and implementation in the coastal sector through The Inclusive Coasts Initiative.

This initiative provides opportunities for grant makers, project implementers, educators, and members of the coastal community to engage in two series of workshops: one geared towards grant-makers and a second geared towards project implementers. 

This virtual, interactive workshop will focus on creating inclusive program designs and program planning methods 

Date: Wednesday, January 25, 2023

Time: 1:00 PM - 02:30 PM

For more information, visit the Wisconsin Coastal Resilience website.

University of Wisconsin Sea Grant Institute | (608) 262-0905 | 1975 Willow Drive, 2nd Floor, Madison, WI 53706