 Hello, everybody, and welcome to the Sustainable Sheboygan Spotlight. My name is Heather Cleveland. I'm a member of the Sustainable Sheboygan Task Force and your host for today's show. And today we'll be talking about natural resources as it relates to water, water quality, wetlands and land conservation. And our guest here to help us talk about this today is Sarah Majaris. Sarah and I know each other from our previous lives working at AEcom. Sarah was part of the Natural Resources Group, and she currently is an environmental scientist with Miller engineers and scientists here in Sheboygan. She's also on the land team and was a former board member of Glacier Lakes Conservancy. Thank you so much for joining us, Sarah. Thanks for having me. Could you tell us a little bit about your background and your education and get folks up to speed on what brought you here today? Sure, sure. I guess I come from a childhood of lots of time in the outdoors and did my undergraduate work at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where I've had multiple professors and classes that inspired me to pursue wetland science and conservation. And from there I ended up doing some environmental education work. Worked for DNR for a few months, rather, and ended up in the environmental consulting field where I am today. And at Miller Engineers we do a lot of field surveys, sort of baseline environmental work, and then from that work we design solutions for stormwater management and water quality, a lot of what we're talking about today. Awesome, thank you. So another reason why we have this program today is because the city of Sheboygan does have a sustainability plan. You can find it on the website. And they have a natural resources section that cites waterway protections, stormwater management and flood control, and also native landscaping. So I just want to point that out and folks can find that on the city's website. So to relate it back to everybody at home, it's summertime, it's summertime right now, and everybody wants to jump in the lake. And most likely they have seen the water quality signs. What do these signs tell us about water quality? Well, these signs came from legislation that was passed in 2000 by U.S. Congress as part of the Clean Water Act. It's an amendment to the Clean Water Act called the Beach Act. And it's an acronym, and I'm not exactly sure what it stands for. But basically it requires all coastal counties to, or states rather, to adopt standards, water quality standards at their beaches and monitor for those. And the main indicator that they test for is E.coli, which we've all heard a lot about in present day. And that's what they use as the indicator to put up the signs. And what E.coli is basically is it's used to, well, high quantities of E.coli suggest that there's fecal matter and other disease-causing bacteria in the water. Could be caused by algae, could be caused by wildlife dropping, stormwater inputs, high water temperatures, sewage spills, all kinds of different things contribute. So if E.coli levels are high at your beaches, you will see the red signs that are shown on the slide presentation. And you should probably stay away. There's also a website which we'll post at the end of this that you can check. Check in on your local beaches before you head out with sunscreen in hand. And maybe you'll want to choose another place to go. So that helps tie into why people should care about wetlands and what we're talking about today. So are there any other ways, I guess, how that bacteria or E.coli can get in the water? You touched on a few. Are there any other ways? Yeah. Any transport that carries stormwater into our waterways can deliver contaminants. So we need to be careful about what we're doing on land as well as what's happening in the water because every time it rains, it washes off into our waterways. Stormwater inputs like sewers, gutters, any overland flows, swales, things of that nature, especially those that are channelized in concrete. If there's trash in those ditches or anything, cars every day, all the roads, cars produce chemicals that are on the roads every day. So every time it rains, those elements are washed into our gutters and storm sewers. So stormwater treatment is very important. So literally, like I said, pets, your pets can be a big contributor. So we always want to make sure we're picking up after them. Agricultural runoff, also very high contributor to water contamination, water quality. Nitrates, obviously, from spreading a manure and phosphorus inputs from fertilizers. And then there's always your sewage overflows you need to be careful about. So lots of different contributors. Right. So in Sheboygan, our stormwater system discharges directly into Lake Michigan. So we can probably easily say that the highest risk would be after a rainstorm. So that's the time that you should probably make sure to check, like you said, on the website. Yes, yes, absolutely. So what can be done to keep contaminates and bacteria from polluting our waterways? Well, there are lots of different things we can do. And anything from land conservation to creating engineered solutions for stormwater. Wetlands natural buffers can be a huge improving factor on water quality. If there is a natural buffer, which would allow for sediments to settle out and contaminates to biodegrade naturally within these wetland systems, you'll have the output or the water quality coming out would be much improved. And similar to that, engineers have been using those natural systems as examples for what are called biofilters or bioswales, rain gardens, which tend to be a little more aesthetically pleasing. Utilize a lot of native plantings, and by native I say, I mean plants that are indigenous to Wisconsin. Many of which thrive in our soils and our environment can handle the cold and hot cycles that we have here in Wisconsin. And now that we have legislation, the city of Sheboygan has pretty high stormwater management requirements for any new projects. We can use these natural land conservation examples or wetland examples to engineer solutions. And they are being used today. A lot of which you'll see on the slides that are being presented. So it sounds like there's options to treat it at a micro level, like a residential or a company for that matter can do bioswales on the property. That's right. Or have things like that, or can have impervious pavement. So pavement is another thing that is another place rather than being absorbed in the bacteria, taking care of the bacteria, it will wash away. So things that people can do, I think, on their own property. But then another part is how the city looks at it. So a client of yours may be a city or a county or a state for that matter where they would build it on the output of it. So yeah, you can treat it at the source or you can treat it later. Absolutely, anywhere along the line, actually. Right, yeah, yep. So what are some examples of land conservation projects that aim toward improving water quality? Well, something that I can think of specifically and back to our talking about beaches, Miller engineers and scientists has been working with the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh to improve water quality at beaches through stormwater management. So we've been working on beach nourishment projects, which essentially tries to minimize the amount of stagnant water that is sitting on the sand beaches, which encourages waterfowl, geese, seagulls, etc., to congregate in these areas and go through their natural cycles. And then that fecal matter can contribute to the bacteria counts at the beaches. So a lot of it involves grading of the sand and then implementing those natural plantings. One example is Red Arrow and Manitowoc. I believe it's just south of their power plant. There are some before and after pictures here on these slides that might be kind of impressive when you look at them. They've been installing boardwalks and these native plantings and they're actually micro rain gardens all along this area to still maintain that stormwater function. So they are allowing for water to drain there and for the sediment to settle out and then for it to drain into Lake Michigan. So Selner Park in Two Rivers is another example of a beach nourishment project and then Egg Harbor in Door County as well. So another example might be that I can think of in my experience with Glacial Lakes Conservancy on a larger scale. We've been working to preserve properties that contribute or have a potential to contribute to better water quality. Our new mission is to focus on water basically. And so we will be selecting and on the land team what we do is lots of baseline survey work. And so we go and we meet with property owners and we look at all of the different functions that that piece of property might offer to the environment. And we're putting a high priority on waterways and properties that are adjacent to waterways. Because in preserving these plots of land, we will essentially be creating a natural buffer without any engineering. We're just preserving it and letting it do its thing. And it's a great, great habitat for wildlife, local wildlife and encourages floral diversity. There are so many benefits though. Just land conservation in general is very important. Excellent, so how does that work? So you say land conservation or land protection. What's the technical process a little bit of Glacial Lakes Conservancy and how they operate to protect the land? Well, what Glacial Lakes Conservancy does is we will protect land through easements and we'll also protect land by actually purchasing a preserve and managing it ourselves. And easement is something that is still owned by the property owner and managed by the property owner. But there's a legal document associated with the deed called an easement that protects essentially the property into perpetuity. So that legal language carries on to the next property owner and future generations. So it's a bit of a restriction? Yes. So when you go to pull a permit they might say, no. Yeah, yeah, there are certain requirements within the easement that dictate what you can or cannot do on that property. Some will limit development. Some will allow development but only at a certain scale, it just depends. It's great. Yeah, yeah, it's a fantastic opportunity for people to make sure that their land is protected into the future. So if you could tell us a little bit about the technical piece of a wetland. So what is a wetland and why should people care about wetlands? Sure, well I brought with me the official definition of a wetland for Wisconsin. A wetland is an area where water is at, near, or above the land surface long enough to support hydrophic vegetation, which is any vegetation that thrives and will grow in water, and has soils indicative of wet conditions. So when we look at soils, we look at usually the top two feet and will either have very high organic matter or they will be depleted of their nutrients, and then there are certain reactions that we can look for in different colors and things. But I'll let us know that there's a water table there, at least for a certain portion of the year. Okay, and it has to do with the drainage of the land around it and the topography. Exactly, exactly. And what are the values of wetlands? Between the Wisconsin DNR and the Wisconsin Wetlands Association, they've come up with a list of wetland functional values. And these values are different for every single wetland. It's just a list that some wetlands will qualify for some and some won't. But I have the list here in front of me. Floral diversity is a big value. We need to have a diversity to support our insects, our pollinators. We need to have a diversity to inhabit different levels and different zones within a wetland. You have wet meadow wetlands that tend to be a little drier, can be ephemeral, when we only see them in the spring, they may appear like a dry prairie in the fall, or you never know. So we need to have that diversity to take on all of those different zones. You also have a shallow marsh, and you may only see cat tails and burred reeds and different species in there. Wildlife habitat, they provide muskrat homes, which we may love or hate. Fish spawning, all kinds of insects, invertebrates. The list goes on and on. Songbirds, migrating birds, all kinds of different animals. Flood protection, we're back to our stormwater. They're storage basins for when we have these excess amounts of water. Big sponge. Big sponge, exactly. In a place where it's a chill out for a while before the rest of the environment can kind of catch up. Water quality protection, like we've been talking about. Shoreline protection, wetlands along the edges of lakes and rivers, for example, can catch some of the wave action. And some of the, from large rain events or power boats, whatever it happens to be, and reduces erosion. Groundwater recharge and discharge. We always have the, we have to think about our groundwater. That's what we're drinking, back to the water quality issue. And then to think about, wetlands are beautiful. You can look at pictures of wetlands and see the multitude of species, plant and animal. Open water versus sedge meadow, marsh areas. So they're beautiful to recreate in. Even if you don't have waiters, you can still look at them from uplands. Some people don't like the mosquitoes aspect of it, but they have to go somewhere. And then education and science, wetlands can offer us, like I said, in stormwater treatment. They can offer us a lot of examples of what we need to be doing in our urban areas, in our rural areas to help treat stormwater before it gets into our waterways and our drinking water, so research and science. Very cool, that's a good stuff. So they are important, I think we've established that. Can you give us an overview of the current regulations regarding wetlands? Sure, there are a lot of things happening right now, especially in Wisconsin and recently. Basically the Clean Water Act seeks to protect waterways and wetlands. And section 404 is what requires a permit for any impact on a wetland. Any dredged material or a fill that would impact a wetland. And then further, the Wisconsin NR103 establishes water quality standards, upon which our permit system has been established. So for any wetland impact, you need to have a wetland water quality certification and prove that there is no better alternative for your project or something that would be less impactful to your environment and your waterways. So on the federal level, wetlands are protected if they're contiguous with a navigable waterway. So they're connected to another system. And Wisconsin takes that a step further, which is pretty neat, and they protect isolated pothole wetlands. So in the spring, when your ephemerals are blooming and you see skunk cabbage and marsh marigolds blooming in the woods, sometimes the water that they're growing in is only there for a couple of weeks or a month out of the year. That wetland is, most of the time those wetlands are isolated, but they're important areas for salamanders to breed and different amphibians. So Wisconsin protects those, which is great, which is great. And then in 2012, Wisconsin passed legislature that allowed for general permits to be granted for any fill less than 10,000 square feet. And maybe I'm getting too technical here. Oh no, that's great. And we still need to go through the water quality certification process and alternatives analysis is what it's called to prove that there is no other option. And we need to do this project. For example, putting in a road to a house or most of these are commercial agricultural projects. Sure. Farm expansions, things like that. Today, when you want to impact greater than 10,000 square feet of wetland, you're required to either compensate for that on your own property. You can purchase credits in a bank so that wetlands will be restored elsewhere in the state. And this is the mitigation piece. And this is the mitigation piece. Or you can buy credits in an actual, well there's a mitigation bank and there's an in-loop fee program. The bank is you're buying credits in an existing wetland conservation project. The in-loop fee program, you're buying credits in a fund that is going to go towards future restoration. So that our wetland area is the same. That's right, ideally. And ideally in the same watershed so that we're still getting that filtering buffering. So everybody has equal protection. Exactly, filtering buffering in the same watershed. Yeah, great, go Wisconsin. So kind of complicated, but all good. I mean, it's good to know these are important. They're people like you doing things about it. And I also, I know that you recently obtained, and I might mess this up, but there was the wetland science certification. Yes. Could you explain that a little bit more and what it took to get that and what it's about? Sure, the Society for Wetland Scientists is an international organization that supports wetland scientists and their research. It's a great group of researchers, wetland practitioners, regulators, from all over the world that work to protect these large areas of wetlands that have these functional values that we were talking about. And their certification program is something that just requires a certain amount of years of experience, level of education, and it's basically a club of like-minded folks who can share ideas and work towards protecting wetlands into the future. So in your job, you are often tasked with defining wetlands. So you walk onto a property, what are just some common indicators of wetlands just to let people know like if they have a wetland on their property? Yeah, you can look for, the first thing that I always look for are plants. Plants and whether or not your feet are wet. Your feet are wet, you're probably in a wetland. And you can look for soil, some of the soils in wetlands can be rather spongy. And then, you know, cattails, the common plants that people know grow in wetlands. Sedges are grass-like species, but they have three different angles on their stems. Those are most likely wetland, but there are some upland species. There's a great book out there that's wetland plants of Minnesota and Wisconsin, and there are a lot of common wetland species in this publication. I think the Army Corps of Engineers published it a number of years ago, and there are a lot of the go-to manual. Yes, and Wisconsin DNR website, which will be posted at the end of this interview, is a nice resource for wetland plants as well. Okay, very cool. If a young person would like to go to school with this, or have a, you know, go to school for something like this, or have a job similar to yours, what steps should they take? Say they're in high school and they're thinking about what they wanna do. Yeah, my recommendation to the younger generations would be to get out and volunteer. We have so many opportunities in Sheboygan County where you can get out and volunteer. We have Maywood Environmental Center where there are both educational opportunities to get out into the woods and into your wetlands and literally get your feet wet. There are the multiple nonprofit organizations, Glacial Lakes Conservancy, has multiple opportunities to volunteer on our preserves. We have land walks where naturalists will give tours of our natural areas that we're protecting. And there's always work days where we can work on invasive species and different, which is a different concept, but, and the Sheboygan River Basin Partnership also has beach cleanups every year and different opportunities for volunteerism. So I would start there if I were a young person. And through that, you network with people and get to know what your local community is doing and hopefully establish some mentorship. You can always call me. I'm a new engineer. I'm happy to help. And then what sort of classes should they be thinking about in high school? And then if they're in college, what sort of classes did you have to take when you were in school? Well, I think your basic biology courses find a course that you do some field work, field trips. Get out into the woods and get your hands dirty and learn about what's surrounding us. Spend as much time outside as you can. So biology, zoology, high school. A lot of the agricultural programs where they spend a lot of time in those systems and learning about crops and soil science, those are important. And then in university setting, I would recommend taking as many field courses again as you can. My inspiration was a wetland ecology course that I took at UW-Madison. And the professor, his name was Quinton Carpenter, was fantastic. And he's the reason I'm sitting here today. Isn't that wild? Yeah, one person. Yeah, yeah. And it's interesting too that you could, with experience like yours, you could work for a consulting firm like you do, or you could work for the state. Or you could work for a private firm who does a lot of development. Telecommunications or roads or things like that. Yes, yes. Fortunately, the legislation in Wisconsin and our municipalities has really come around to being conscious of. And proactive. And proactive of stormwater. And what the impacts of development might be to the environment. So, yeah. Right, so everybody seems to be working together, in my opinion, to just make sure they do the right thing in the design phase, even looking out here, having people go out in the field and sketch that out. And then we'll decide where it goes. Absolutely. Yeah, which, yay Wisconsin again. Yes, yay Wisconsin. And I know you mentioned a little bit about how people can learn more. Or I guess you mentioned how people can be involved. How can they learn more about wetlands? Yeah. Here I have links to Sustainable Sheboygan. Your group is doing a great job, public and educating the public. And if you would like to check out your beaches, the status of your bacterial levels at the beaches, check out the Wisconsin Beach Health website. And they'll show, there are three different signs. There's a green, a yellow and a red. And they'll let you know kind of where bacterial levels are at. The Wisconsin Wetland Association is a great nonprofit group in Wisconsin. They're very active in which legislation has passed and provide a lot of education for landowners who are interested in protecting and restoring wetlands on their properties. And then like I said, the DNR Wetland link here is an excellent resource. They have a lot of information about plants and animals and wetlands. And I would recommend checking that site out as well. Excellent. And you did mention native plants. I know you are very passionate about those also. Can you just touch on the importance, I guess, just quickly as we wrap up the importance of native plants and kind of how this relates to this? Yeah. Well, native plants are designed, their genetics are specifically designed to grow in Wisconsin and to grow in Wisconsin landscapes. They tend to be hardy and they colonize in areas where it's very tough to grow other species, from Europe. And they each have their own niche or specific community type that they prefer to grow in. Be it soil, shade, things like that. Exactly. Different environmental conditions. And so they, and they oftentimes, because they're so happy here, they have deeper root systems, they improve the quality of the soils, they, you know, they're perfect. And the deeper root systems help break up the soils and they have lots of interactions with fungi in the soils and relationships. There's a lot of compatible relationships between plant species, insect species, soils, the whole ecosystem, it all works together. And the alternative to that is an invasive species, which is something that may have been brought over from Europe or another country and can come into Wisconsin and basically create a monoculture and take over these large swathes of wetland or prairie and eliminate some of the native species. So higher diversity of plants means higher diversity of insects and so on. And if you have these invasive species moving in, you're kind of eliminating that. So it's important to keep control of those invasives if you do have them in your personal yard and landscape or if they're on a larger scale, we have to control them so we can bring back our Wisconsin species because they're beautiful and they work. And I know you can go to your local garden center and ask for native species of plants and, you know, help us, I guess, bring back the native plants. We could do a whole topic just on that. But thank you everybody for coming and tuning in to the Sustainable Shibling and Spotlight. Thank you, Sarah, for joining us.