Wisconsin project gets federal funding for fish habitat

Partnerships’ progress puts them in funding line

MADISON – The first of what’s hoped to become a steady stream of federal money to restore fish habitat is helping expand a grassroots effort on Bayfield County’s Eau Claire Chain of Lakes.

The $15,000 in federal funding will enable the “Fish Sticks” project partners – the Eau Claire Conservation Club, the Eau Claire Property Owners Association, Bayfield Land and Water Conservation Department and the Department of Natural Resources -- to expand their work with willing landowners to place trees from upland sources in shallow water in front of their properties. The trees will provide important spawning habitat for fish, insects for them, and hiding places in areas where much of this critical habitat had previously been removed.

“This is great news,” says Mike Staggs, fisheries director for the Department of Natural Resources. “We’ve got a project funded and the promise of more.”

Hoping to emulate the success of a long-running partnership to benefit waterfowl and hunters that restores open water wetlands, the Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies has recently launched their North American Fish Habitat Action Plan [fishhabitat.org] (exit DNR).

“The idea is to bring together people at the local and regional levels who want to help improve fish and aquatic habitat,” Staggs says. While government agencies are often important players in the partnerships, the local interest is critical.

Partnerships of public and private entities can apply to a National Fish Habitat Board for formal recognition, which allows them to get in the short line for federal funding from a variety of sources. As of March 2009, there were 10 formally recognized partnerships [www.fishhabitat.org (exit DNR).

So far, Wisconsin is part of two formally recognized partnerships, and part of three more “candidate” partnerships now working toward formal federal recognition, Staggs says.

• The Eau Claire Chain Lakes “Fish Sticks” project is a project under the Glacial Lakes Habitat Restoration Partnership [www.midwestglaciallakes.org] (exit DNR) that was formally recognized earlier this year. The $15,000 in stimulus money going to that project is the first federal money the partnership has received.
• The Midwest Driftless Area Restoration project has been formally recognized as a partnership and has successfully secured more than $1 million in federal funding in recent years, most of it through the federal Natural Resource Conservation Service. [fishhabitat.org] (exit DNR).
• States, tribes, federal agencies and non governmental agencies in the Great Lakes region are working now toward submitting later this summer an application for federal recognition of the Great Lakes Basin Fish Habitat Partnership [fishhabitat.org] (pdf; exit DNR). President Obama has identified $1.5 million in the $475 million Great Lakes Restoration Initiative in his proposed 2010 budget to go to the partnership as seed money for that group.
• Wisconsin is participating in the Fishers and Farmers [fishhabitat.org] (pdf; exit DNR) effort, a partnership to work with landowners to add value to farms while restoring aquatic habitat, both on site and downstream on the Mississippi River. Approved projects are led by landowners, with flexible cost-share funding and technical support provided by conservation partners.
• Wisconsin recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding to participate in a developing national reservoir habitat partnership. Many aging reservoirs (sometimes called “flowages” in Wisconsin) need habitat improvement and Wisconsin hopes to secure additional federal funding through this partnership, which is seeking recognition later this year.

Staggs serves on the steering team for the Glacial Lakes Habitat Restoration and Reservoir partnerships and longtime DNR fisheries management staff are assigned to focus on each of the partnerships.