 Welcome to Sheboygan County government working for you. My name's Adam Payne, the Sheboygan County Administrative Coordinator and co-host of this program. Chairman Bill Gehring could not be with us today, but we are pleased that Pat Miles, the county conservationist is here. Many of you, I'm sure, are aware that Sheboygan County has the 12th largest population in the state, where the 12th largest of 72 counties. And we have about 329,000 acres of land in this county, two-thirds of which, around 200,000 acres, are under agricultural use. Well, today, as I said, we're fortunate to have Pat Miles with us to talk a little bit about his roles and responsibilities, providing services to landowners, again, land and water conservation type activities. So Pat, thanks for joining us. Thank you. Why don't you start by telling our viewers a little bit about yourself and your background. You can. I was born and raised in Grant County, which, as you know, is in the southwest part of the state near a little town called Lancaster, Tended School Fox Valley Technical College, and I've been with Sheboygan County for 27 years. And how long with the Land and Water Conservation Department? All 27 years. All 27. And I don't imagine you've been the county conservationist that whole time? Since probably by 1986. I'll be darned. Very good. Well, what's the primary roles and responsibilities of the Land and Water Conservation Department? Okay, I'll start off first with our mission statement. And that mission statement is to provide sound technical and education assistance for natural resource protection for all land users in Sheboygan County. That includes our urban friends as well. And when you say provide sound technical assistance, what types of programs and services do you provide? We're talking a variety of programs and services. We have many state programs that we administer, such as the Farmer Preservation Program. There are some water quality programs. In addition, we have some services such as some surveying, services we provide for layout of conservation practices, engineering, those types of things, tree cell, et cetera, as we'll get into as we move down. And providing services like this don't just happen. You have to have good staff to implement. Talk about your staff a little bit. You have to have highly educated staff as well. When we talk engineering, we're talking basically engineering type practices that go on the land. And those do require some engineering background so that they do meet state requirements and regulations. Many times, many of these practices are financed partly through state cost share dollars so that landowners have less of a burden in installing these practices, which benefits the public as a whole. So how many staff do you have? I have a total of six. I have a secretary and there's five of us, men left. I do some field work, but not as much as I would like to. The other four, we have basically a lot of field responsibility. That could be conservation planning. That could be some GIS survey work. Engineering, things of that nature. Now you mentioned, again, the Farmland Preservation Program, working with both urban and rural landowners and being a land and water conservation department. A lot of it really boils down to maintaining and improving water quality. That's right. Why don't you talk about that a little bit? Maintaining and improving water quality is important because as you know, here in Sheboygan, for instance, the city of Sheboygan, city of Sheboygan Falls, village of Kohler, all three get their water from Lake Michigan. As a result, you want pretty improved water quality if you're going to be drinking that water. Another aspect is tourism. As you saw in the paper the other day, the amount of tourism dollars that come into this county, golfing is part of it, but we have a marina out here on the lake. We have blue harbor that was placed right on the lake for the benefit of the water. We have a lot of fishing going on in the county, so water quality kind of affects all of us. And if it's being improved all the time, that's a good thing. I think so many of us take it for granted that we can go to the tap and have nice sparkling water come out, whether it's from Lake Michigan or from our individual wells, but a lot of work and best management type practices goes into maintaining and improving that. Why don't you share with our viewers a little bit, some of the practices that you recommend or work with landowners on to, to in fact improve and protect our water quality resource. As far as our work with landowners, one of the big things that we do is do a lot of conservation planning. And what that entails is deciding what particular crop can be grown on a particular field due to the slopeness of the field, the particular type of soil, so that we can maintain that soil loss at a reasonable level. You're gonna have soil loss regardless of what you have in that field. So if you maintain that at an adequate level, that would be proper. Other things that we do is a nutrient management. The more that we can incorporate the animal waste and nutrients into the soil rather than having to run off and affecting our water, that's for the better as well. A third thing is buffer strips. That's one of the things that we recently got into as a county since, I believe it was the year 2000. We had our first water quality improvement program and that was the establishment of a buffer strip program. So you work and you're talking primarily rural landowners at this point. You work with them to develop a comprehensive plan. And then that plan will have different practices that can be implemented. And you mentioned nutrient management and buffers. When you say buffers to people, what does that entail? Buffer strips are simply, if you could envision a strip of grass or vegetation along either side of a navigable stream. Depending on the slopeness or the slope of the land, the steeper the slope, the wider the buffer you want. So in Sheboygan County, we have buffers that run anywhere from 20 feet wide on each side to a maximum of 100 feet. And what these grass buffers do is actually filter out the runoff that does come off the field as well as the nutrients in herbicides and pesticides so that they aren't able to reach the stream or the creek, but rather are filtered and settled into the buffer strip where they're deposited. So when people drive in the countryside or they're coming and going and they look out on a farm field, often if they see a stream or even a ditch that leads to a stream, if you've got that buffer of, again, 20 feet or more, that's going to improve water quality because it slows down that runoff. It gives that runoff a chance to be incorporated into the soil rather than just deposited into the water. Now I understand that's one of our more cost-effective type best practices. Yes, it is. We also work with landowners to put in some pretty expensive improvements. And you mentioned earlier that there's sometimes this cost sharing available from the state and federal government. Why don't you give an example to our viewers of a practice you might work with a farmer to put in to control manure or something along those lines? Many times through our watershed projects, which I haven't mentioned yet, we will do a comprehensive plan for the farmstead. And many times that incorporates not only the barnyard or the feedlot, the holding area, but it entails a animal waste holding facility as well. So when you engineer those two practices and install them, we're talking thousands and thousands of dollars. And many times it's a burden for the landowners to absorb these costs totally. So therefore the state has decided that because of the public benefit of these practices that the state should pick up an amount up to 70% of the total cost. But many times it's not unusual to have systems costing 50 to $100,000 and the landowners still putting in a substantial share at 30%. Sure. Sure. They're quite costly. Given some good examples working with some rural landowners whether again it's a cost-effective practice such as a buffer strip or an expensive type, focused improvements such as a barnyard runoff improvement or something along a manure pit. What about urban landowners? You said you also work with people who live in the cities. What are some of the things that you do with them or that you advise them on? Many times because of our growth in the way it's spread out, we have many situations in the newer subdivisions where we have water problems just because of the nature, it's a new development. Many times we'll provide some surveying and some methods for getting rid of that water because they get leaky basements, that type of thing where it's washing out the driveway, things of that nature. Other times we get ahead of the ball game and we can work with the local unit of government and through our subdivision ordinance in Sheboygan County, my department is responsible for evaluating the stormwater management of that development before it even goes in, before the ground is broke. So we have a chance to assess what the plans are and to make sure that it's adequate, that we don't run into the problems that I had mentioned before. And that means retaining stormwater, making sure that there's enough runoff that no one's being affected entirely by themselves. I'm sure you've noticed in our viewers, certainly, when you drive through Sheboygan or other communities, you will see some of the most well-kept manicured lawns. You know, a lot of pride goes in that, there's not a weed in that lawn and many of us look at that and think to ourselves, wow, how did they accomplish that? How did they take the time to do that? But there is a caution as they're not in using too much pesticide or too much fertilizer. Yes, there is. That's one of the problems we have in urban areas is the runoff from the lawns. People don't realize that. And we have studies that show people applying lawns or fertilizer, excuse me, to their lawns are probably applying five times more than a regular agricultural producer would apply to his crop field. Just because that small 40-pound bag of fertilizer for a residential lot doesn't look like a lot. So they lay it on and you put that much on and we get the rain that's going to run off. And again, that contains a lot of phosphorus, a lot of nitrogen, and those are the things that once they get in the water, we have the algae blooms and the clarity and such. So again, that's a caution that many of us may be over fertilizing our lawns. Something to be real careful about. That's right. And as you're aware, many of the golf courses today have lawn maintenance programs where that's carefully monitored now as well. So they realize that they do have an effect as well. Earlier, you mentioned working with land owners to develop a conservation plan. And we've talked about some of the practices that one might implement. Stepping back from that in the bigger picture for a moment, it was about five years or so that under your department's leadership, and I know you played a key role in that, you developed a county land and water comprehensive plan, a locally developed plan. Paul, why don't you share with our viewers a little bit? Well, what is that plan and how was it developed? Okay, that's what we refer to as a land and water resource management plan. And that was something that in cooperation with the state, the Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection, we developed a plan to identify local issues and concerns in Sheboyton County, natural resource issues and concerns. At that time, we formulated a 37-member Citizens Advisory Committee. We had a broad spectrum of people from all walks of life on that committee. And we identified many issues and concerns in the county and we narrowed it down to the top 10. Urban sprawl was towards the top, preserving agriculture, farmland, water quality was at the top. So as a result of that plan, that is one reason our water quality improvement program came about, our buffer strip program, because that was identified as a concern as an issue in Sheboyton County. So that's where that was born. So it was really a grassroots initiative. People from the community came together. I mean, 37, that's a large citizens group to work with. They all provided input from a number of walks of life, as you said, developed a priority list. And then that top 10 gave you as a department some direction, some focus. And as you said, the buffer strip program garnered support from the county board as a whole coming from that. So it sounds to me as though that a planning process like that is pretty important. If I could add to that, currently are undergoing a revision. The draft has been sent in, it's been looked at, it's been readily accepted. We have some minor refinements. But for that revision, we scaled back a bit. We had a revision team with 11 members. And again, we tried to get a cross-section. And the issues pretty much stayed the same. And one of the concerns was a water quality improvement program, the buffer strip program. The feeling was that we should retain that if at all possible, because all could see the benefits of it. Sure. And so that's where we are now. And we expect to have that approved in August by the state. So it's not a plan that's developed and put on a shelf. It's a plan that continues to be updated and refined and really provides some focus for where we're headed. We try to pull together programs at all levels, local, state and federal and try to incorporate them into one streamlined program. That's the idea, it doesn't always work that way. But we identify those programs and identify the dollars where we can get from those programs to get some of our goals and objectives accomplished. And you just touched on it a minute ago, but could you repeat again, what were some of the top priorities that were identified by the citizens group? Preservation of quality farmland, smart growth land use planning, soil erosion, stormwater management, water quality, large farm expansions, residential development of woodlands, which is, you know, nutrient management and funding of resource programs. So, since establishing these priorities and implementing some of the programs that you do to tackle and address those priorities, what kind of progress have we made? Are we doing? We've made tremendous progress. Now, just give you an example that we've been talking about, a buffer strip program. Since 2000, when we initiated the program, we have 40 landowners that have entered into contracts with Sheboygan County for a maintenance period of 10 to 15 years. And those 40 contracts cover 86,895 linear feet on navigable streams in Sheboygan County. And that translates into 16 and a half miles of buffer strips that the county has put in since the 2000, which I think is remarkable. And you had one point that shared with me an example, I think maybe more people could relate to, just how much soil has been kept on the land and kept from running off. You mentioned that one point in analogy with dump trucks, I think. I calculated this morning, briefly, about 325 tons annually. And that would equal 25, 13 ton dump trucks. 25, 13 ton dump trucks. Can you vision 25 dump trucks at the lakefront dumping their soil into the water? That's what we're keeping out. And some of you may be wondering, well, what does this program cost us? And I think we've put about $50,000 a year into the program. And which, again, in the big picture, really is not a large investment. We're putting a $50 million investment out on the lakefront. And what I find rather interesting is, we talk about blue harbor and the importance of that investment and the water quality. And of course, that's going to attract people to the marina and our lakefront. And it's people like Pat Miles and his staff and the landowners that they work with, because it really boils down to the people working the land, the property owners, participating in programs like the buffer strip program and protecting our resource. So I certainly tip my hat to you. And though most people don't recognize it, you've done a tremendous amount of good for the community as a whole. You talked a little bit about our progress earlier just before we started the program. You were mentioning some real interesting facts, agricultural facts. Why don't you share some of that? Sure, when we were revising our land water plan, we were revising some of the agricultural statistics. In 1997, Sheboygan County had 597 farms. And of those 597 farms, 232 were classified as dairy farms. And those dairy farms contain 26,000 cows, dairy cows. Sheboygan County has 515 square miles in its land area, entire county. That translates into 51 cows per square mile. For every square mile in Sheboygan County, we have 51 cows, which gives us a concentration rate of the 10th heaviest in the state. Believe it or not, little Sheboygan County. The reason I bring that up is because we are now starting to see some conflict out there with many people moving out to the countryside for their 40 acres in their home and such. And we do have some conflicts with odor tracking on the road and such. So that's something just to keep in mind with the heavy concentration of livestock we have that it's out there in the country. And people are reading about that in the paper more and more everyday conflicts of folks who move out into the country or they live there and then the farmer wants to expand. And they're concerned about odor, traffic and all the things that go along with the farm operation. Another fact is that I found interesting was from 1992 to 1997, Sheboygan County lost a 120 farms. And that translates into 25,000 acres. Now, that doesn't mean we lost 120 farms per se. They could have been incorporated by other farms. The land use could have changed. It could have been agriculture to recreation and all that type of thing. But I thought that was interesting, urban sprawl. That's quite a bit of acreage in five years. We're really continuing to see the farms as a whole continue to decrease, are we not? And the size is increasing and that's a matter of economy. It's a marketplace. And some of the things that we do to assist the larger farms and we're involved in many of them because they come under elimination discharge permit from the state is that they need a nutrient management plan. And many times you have a high number of dairy cattle you need a pretty extensive animal waste handling system. So therefore again, we can provide the services of the surveying, the design and installation at a cost for these landowners to ensure that we're doing things right, that they're doing things right, that they're complying with all regulations and such. Any other facts that you wanted to share? That's all I have for the ag facts. Well, that's excellent. You alluded to it earlier, the cost sharing. And I know you work closely with the Department of Natural Resources, the Department of Ag, Trade and Consumer Protection. You're in a facility that has extension and the Natural Resource Conservation Service, FSA, if it's still called FSA, Farm Service Agency. What's your relationship with these other agencies? We work very closely hand in hand with all of them. And as some examples with UW Extension we could be involved in some workshops that are being co-sponsored by both of us maybe dealing with nutrient management for landowners, writing their own plans. As far as NRCS and Department of Ag, we are involved in the Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program, where the county has some certain responsibilities as far as contracting as such for these landowners. With the USDA, the Farm Service Agency and NRCS, we work hand in hand with some of the federal programs. Many times the federal cost sharing can be piggyback with state or local. So that gets us in a situation where we have to work cooperatively together to make sure the job gets done right. And the personnel are all great to work with. So it's really a one-stop shop there in Sheboygan Falls. Someone wants to stop in, whether it's the Land and Water Conservation Department, UW Extension, FSA or NRCS. Correct. Being one parking lot and see all those staff and get the information they need, which is obviously a wonderful service to the people of this community. I'd like to finish a little bit in the time we have remaining to talk a little bit about the tree sale, the tree shrub sale you just had. I know that your department really all gears up and pitches in to make this happen. You've had it what, two or three years now? Actually, I think this has been our fifth year. Your fifth year? My goodness, my good, time does fly. Why don't you very briefly share with our viewers what it's all about and how many trees and shrubs that you sold? Okay, this is past month, end of April. We had about 120,000 trees and shrubs that we delivered either through pre-orders or one day tree sale, which was on a Saturday this year. Generally, the order forms go out in fall, early fall, and people have until about March 15th, following spring to order. The very reasonable price for trees are usually bundled to 25, no restrictions on planting. And as I said, we had a little over 700 orders this year. So we had three days of pickup and it was quite busy to say the least. One thing I would like to mention is I would love to come back in 50 years and be over Sheboygan County and just try to see what kind of difference we've made as far as the landscape because 120,000 trees over 10 years is just an astronomical number of trees. Yeah, and it's really, again, show the creativity of your department. Revenue continues to be a- That's an important part of it. Revenue streams for every department is a challenge and to Pat and his staff's credit and the Land and Water Conservation Committee that works with his department, you're providing a service at a very affordable rate and in a period of three or four days, what 700 different orders were picked up and it's a good thing for the county as a whole. Well, I certainly want to thank Pat Miles, our county conservationist for being here today. He touched on a lot of information that the Land and Water Conservation Department, which many of you may be surprised to hear the county has the Land and Water Conservation Department. I think, frankly, they're one of our best kept secrets. They have a facility in Sheboygan Falls. They're one of 23 departments and they provide a very, very important service to the people of this community. As Pat mentioned, water quality, we so often take it for granted, but it's critical. We all rely on it every day and the work that his staff does and all the landowners that work with them certainly benefits us all. So it was good to hear Pat touch on that a little bit. I know they also provide services with non-metallic minds and there's some other things he didn't even have time to touch on today. In fact, Pat, if anyone has questions, is there a general number that you could provide, especially some of our Sheboygan residents who may watch this and wonder, next time they put fertilizer on the lawn, they might want to get some advice. What number can they call? They can call 467-5746. 467-5746. All right, I encourage you to check in if you have any questions from this program or any other matters that deal with land and water conservation and improvement. Next month, our guest is gonna be Dave Such. Pat's good friend and coworker also in the Agricultural Building in Sheboygan Falls. Pat, I'm sorry, Mr. Such, Dave Such works with UW Extension. Some of you certainly may know him because he has been employed with us for a number of years, works with a lot of communities on land use planning, water quality improvement, certainly works with staff that interact with our 4-H and other services. So we're looking forward to having Dave Such in to talk about the roles and responsibilities of the Extension office. So until then, again, my name's Adam Payne, Sheboygan County Administrative Coordinator. It was a pleasure to have you with us today. I'm sure Chairman Bill Gearing will be back with us next month and thanks for joining us. Between a grape and a raisin, is time spent in the sun. Ever wonder what the sun is doing to you? I'll keep trucking. Truckers beware. Carry protection. Stop the spread of AIDS.