Manitowoc County board adopts 10-year land and water resource management plan

Manitowoc County supervisors voted to approve the county’s 2026–2035 Land and Water Resource Management Plan after a presentation by David Wittenkamp, Manitowoc County soil and water director.

Wittenkamp, who led the year-long planning process, told the board the plan compiles local input, technical review and state rules and is needed so the county can apply for grants and staff funding. He said the community and technical advisory committees ranked groundwater protection, surface-water contamination and soil health as top priorities: “They thought the groundwater of Lake Michigan and soil were the most important and they thought that we should focus on groundwater contamination surface water contamination and enforcing existing rules.”

The document, described during the meeting as roughly 150 pages, maps priority watersheds using Department of Natural Resources modeling and local water-quality data and lays out nine program priorities including ordinance work, nutrient-management monitoring and structural best-management practices such as waste-storage facilities, buffers and cover crops. Wittenkamp said the county has about 927 miles of streams and more than 109 lakes, 65 of which are listed as impaired in the most recent datasets, and that the county’s agricultural profile includes about 193,000 acres of cropland and 32 livestock facility licenses, “which is the most in the state.”

Wittenkamp told supervisors the plan’s estimated annual implementation need is about 11,940 staff hours and about $600,000 per year. He said the department currently has 5.5 full-time staff and that roughly 40–45% of the projected cost would come from state staffing dollars, with the remainder covered by levy funds. Wittenkamp said staff will produce annual work plans and report progress to the Land Conservation Committee and state funders.

Supervisor Ryan Phipps moved adoption of the resolution (identified in the meeting as resolution 2025-2026-117) approving the 2026–2035 plan; Supervisor Chisel seconded. The clerk conducted the vote and the resolution was approved.

The plan references state authorities and programs cited during the presentation: county conservation statutes under chapter 92, Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources rule NR 151, and the farmland preservation program and related state standards. Wittenkamp said having the plan on file is required to pursue cost-share grants, staffing dollars and to support local conservation ordinances.

The county will use the plan to prioritize grant applications, technical assistance and on-the-ground projects with an initial focus on the highest modeled phosphorus and erosion priority zones. Wittenkamp noted some staffing and budget shortfalls would slow implementation and recommended steady, incremental work tied to annual work-plan reporting.

The board approved the plan without recorded roll-call tallies in the transcript. The plan and supporting materials were circulated to the local advisory committee, the Land Conservation Committee and county board members for review prior to the vote.

The county will continue annual monitoring and produce yearly updates describing why goals were or were not met, citing weather, staffing or changing resource priorities as potential causes of deviations.