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2020 Coastal Management Program Grant
Governor Tony Evers has announced $1.5 million in grants for Wisconsin’s coastal communities through the Wisconsin Coastal Management Program (WCMP). NEW Water is honored to have received a one year, $52,120 grant for the East River Resiliency project, which includes subawards for Sea Grant and The Nature Conservancy. Learn more about the East River Resiliency project below.
Project description:
NEW Water will partner with Sea Grant and The Nature Conservancy to develop an East River Resiliency Plan. The plan will be comprised of three elements, including (1) an East River Flood Study, (2) an East River Watershed Resilience Community of Practice, and (3) a Community-Based Watershed Resilience Framework. Participating partners will include Brown County (Executive, Land & Water Conservation, Planning, and Zoning departments), the cities of Green Bay and De Pere, the villages of Allouez and Bellevue, and the towns of Ledgeview, Rockland, Wrightstown, and Holland, UWGB, and UW-Madison. This project will provide the information and structure to help communities understand the complex flooding and water quality issues along the East River, and plan for solutions at a watershed-scale.
The East River is a significant tributary to lower Green Bay and provides important opportunities for fish and wildlife habitat protection and restoration. Water quality improvements are a known issue and efforts are underway to address nutrient and sediment loading, especially in the upper watershed. Over the last year, project partners have been meeting with East River municipalities and one theme is clear -- flooding and water quality are top community concerns.
There is emerging interest to work outside of municipal boundaries towards a watershed approach and working together to find solutions. This project will provide additional watershed scale information about flood vulnerability and actions that could help increase resiliency, and will establish a collaborative framework to finding solutions.
