UW Extension presentation prompts Oshkosh advisory board to seek resilient native landscaping, zoning updates and a revised ‘low-mow’ outreach

Jacob Klooza, a horticulture specialist with UW Extension, told the Oshkosh City Sustainability Advisory Board on Feb. 3 that Wisconsin is getting warmer and wetter and that local landscaping practices should adapt to more extreme swings between heavy precipitation and drought.

"It's warmer, it's wetter, it's gonna be rougher, and we need to plan different things to really mitigate those," Klooza said during a 45-minute presentation that summarized state climatology data and recommended plant-selection and site-design strategies for homeowners, developers and municipal projects.

Klooza said atmospheric carbon dioxide has risen from preindustrial levels of about 280 parts per million to roughly 420 ppm today and that Wisconsin has averaged about a 3-degree increase since 1950, with the last two decades the warmest on record. He told the board that Oshkosh's plant hardiness mapping shifted toward USDA Zone 5 in recent years and that the state has seen about a 20% increase in average precipitation since 1950, concentrated in winter and spring. Those changes, he said, mean gardeners and landscape planners should favor wider-ranging, drought- and flood-tolerant species and design features such as berms, rain gardens and drip irrigation.

Klooza offered practical recommendations the group discussed after his talk. He recommended:

- Using organic mulches and drip irrigation (he said Winnebago County received a grant to install irrigation at an Extension demonstration site and suggested kits commonly cost on the order of $2,300). - Replacing portions of turf with low-mow grasses, sedges or "bee lawns," and favoring native perennials and grasses (he cited little bluestem, switchgrass and prairie species as resilient examples). - Planting tree diversity rather than large monocultures and placing trees to reduce home energy use. - Choosing later-maturing varieties and avoiding planting into waterlogged soils in spring. - Using slow-release fertilizers when synthetic fertilizer is necessary (Klooza said typical immediate-release fertilizers deliver roughly 40—60% of applied nitrogen to plants, whereas some slow-release products can approach 90% delivery).

Board members and staff used the presentation to discuss two city policy threads: upgrading the city's approved landscaping species list and point system in the zoning/landscaping code, and adjusting public outreach for the city's "No Mow May" messaging. Lisa Moore and other advisory members described a working list of roughly 50 additional native species that are not currently on Oshkosh's landscaping list; Klooza and board members recommended adding resilient native species and increasing incentive point values for higher-resilience natives so developers and property owners will select them. "If you make the native options worth more points, people are more likely to plant them," Klooza said.

Board members noted the city's 2017 code update assigned point values based on a consultant's work and recommended the advisory group formally propose revised point weights and additions to staff and the Plan Commission for zoning-code amendment. A city staff member present confirmed changes to the landscaping list would require Plan Commission review and a zoning amendment.

On mowing policy, Klooza said UW Extension is shifting away from "No Mow May" toward encouraging homeowners to "mow high" in May, June and July (maintain turf near 4 inches) rather than letting grass surge and then scalping lawns later. He said maintaining taller turf increases root mass and drought resilience and provides early-season forage and habitat for ground-nesting pollinators; he cautioned that poorly managed "no-mow" efforts can produce invasive weeds if owners do not follow through with weeding and mowing regimes. Board members discussed aligning outreach, city utility-bill inserts and social-media materials to promote a "High Mow May'June'July" educational campaign and to explain local incentives such as rain-barrel rebates.

Votes at a glance

- Motion to approve the meeting minutes as written — moved/second not specified in the record; all members present voted yes. Outcome: approved.

What the board directed or recommended

- The advisory group agreed to prepare a recommendation to staff and the Plan Commission to add the vetted list of resilient native species to Oshkosh's landscaping list and consider higher point values for higher-resilience natives as part of a zoning-code amendment process. - The board endorsed further development of a public-education push on "high-mow" practices, and requested follow-up materials and a possible spring presentation from UW Extension on outreach content.

Context and next steps

Klooza provided contact information and said UW Extension can supply outreach resources, plant lists and presentations. Board members said the advisory group can recommend zoning-code changes but that any formal change would go through staff review and Plan Commission consideration. Several members asked staff to return with options for adjusting point values, model lists tied to resilience scores and proposed outreach materials ahead of spring public campaigns.

Key quotes

"We don't do No Mow May. We just do Not Mow High in May, June and July," Klooza said, summarizing UW Extension's recommended outreach framing.

"If you make the native options worth more points, people are more likely to plant them," he added when the board discussed incentive changes.

A note on sources

Klooza said much of his climate data came from the Wisconsin state climatology office, NOAA and academic climate institutes; he cited observable local shifts including a move of Oshkosh toward USDA Zone 5a/5b in recent mapping and the county's receipt of an irrigation grant for an extension demonstration site.

Ending

Board members asked staff to draft proposed code edits and outreach materials for review at a future meeting, and they invited UW Extension back for a focused spring presentation and to assist with public-education materials.