Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Habitat Management topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
DNR unveils first biennial habitat work plan, warns funding constraints will limit scope
Summary
The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources presented its inaugural biennial habitat work plan to the Natural Resources Board, describing statewide priorities, treatment types and reporting plans while noting funding and staffing shortfalls that will limit implementation.
The Department of Natural Resources presented its first biennial habitat work plan to the Natural Resources Board on Aug. 13 in Madison, laying out statewide and ecological-landscape priorities for habitat work while flagging funding shortfalls and staffing uncertainty.
The plan compiles existing habitat planning across fisheries, wildlife, natural heritage conservation and forestry into a single document intended to standardize reporting and to make the department’s habitat priorities and proposed treatments more transparent. "The department owns approximately 1,600,000 acres of the 35,000,000 acres of total land in Wisconsin," Tim Lazotte, land and habitat conservation supervisor, told the board, noting that state-managed lands can include the only remaining habitat for some priority species.
Board members were shown how the plan organizes work by ecological landscape and treatment type — from bio-log installation for trout streams to prescribed fire for grassland rejuvenation and reforestation plantings. Lazotte said the plan is a compilation of existing program priorities and not a new master plan; it will be used to report both landscape-level and statewide totals and to coordinate property-level implementation through the department’s annual property implementation process.
Why it matters: the plan is intended to make habitat work more visible to partners and to the public and to allow the department to report measurable targets. "We fully anticipate to overachieve in some areas in the plan and not meet our targets in others due to the vagaries of staffing, weather, and funding," Lazotte said. He identified federal wildlife and sportfish grants and the fish and wildlife account as the primary funding sources for habitat work and noted the fish and wildlife account has a structural deficit.
Board discussion focused on funding, partnerships and monitoring. Members asked how the public can obtain property-level detail; Lazotte pointed to the department’s integrated property planning and annual property implementation web pages, which list planned treatments by property. On monitoring and effectiveness, Lazotte emphasized the department’s intent to evaluate outcomes and to use new technologies and citizen science — for example acoustic monitors and eBird records — to assess whether treatments produce the intended increases in species or habitat quality.
Board members pressed on funding options. Jeff Hastings asked whether user fees such as habitat stamps could be a source of additional funding; Secretary Karen Young and staff noted that hunting, fishing and trapping license fees are set in statute and require legislative action to change. Lazotte and board members also discussed the department’s reliance on partner organizations and volunteers to deliver treatments and supplement staff capacity.
The presentation concluded with Lazotte noting that the plan will be a living product: the department plans to bring annual report-outs to the board and to refine internal systems to better track treatments, outcomes and partner contributions.
Looking ahead: the department will report annual progress against the plan and has invited further board input on improving monitoring and on how to prioritize limited resources.
