Water Resources Working Group

The WICCI Water Resources Working Group assesses and synthesizes climate change impacts to Wisconsin’s water resources and assists in the development of adaptation strategies for dealing with those impacts. The group focuses on inland waters, including lakes, reservoirs, streams, rivers, wetlands, and groundwater.

Near-term goals

• Gather Water Resources Working Group to establish leadership, membership, and goals moving forward
• Synthesize updated climate change impacts and adaptation strategies for Wisconsin’s water resources. This synthesis could be in a full report form, or in smaller, mini-reports focused on different areas of interest. (e.g. groundwater, streams, etc.)
• Facilitate a workshop for professionals focused on topics of interest. Possibilities:
  • Mississippi River ecosystem and flooding management
  • AIS – specific climate adaptations
  • Groundwater supply
  • wetland restoration and management for climate resiliency
  • Lake management
  • Stream
• Develop a climate adaptation menu that can be shared with local lake groups and other interested parties. This menu would be similar to the forestry adaptation menu that the forest working group put together.
• Facilitate a workshop(s) for stakeholders on the climate adaptation menu for lakes. Facilitation of this workshop would be coordinated with the Wisconsin Lakes Partnership, possibly at their annual conference.

Stakeholders and partners

• Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources
• University of Wisconsin Extension
• Northern Institute of Applied Climate Science (NIACS)

Members

• Tim Asplund, Program Manager, Water Quality Assessment, Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources
• Steve Elmore, Program Director, Drinking Water and Groundwater, Wisconsin Department of Natural Resource
• Jen Hauxwell, Associate Director, Wisconsin Sea Grant
• Katie Hein, Lake Monitoring Lead, Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources
• Madeline Magee, Monitoring Program Coordinator, Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources