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County staff warn dam removals would change flood timing; officials push land-management steps to reduce impacts
Summary
Staff told the Board that removing dams would make floodwaters rise and fall more quickly, affecting landowners; they recommended farmer-led watershed practices and partnerships to mitigate impacts and noted some landowners will be unhappy.
Supervisors pressed staff on what decommissioning would mean for flooding in local communities. Supv Henry asked specifically about potential impacts in Coon Valley; Wojahn replied that without the dams "the water will come up quicker, and it will go down quicker," and that land management to hold water on the land is the best mitigation strategy.
Supv Slack asked how staff would persuade upstream landowners to adopt new practices; Wojahn said farmer-led watershed groups are effective because "it is farmers teaching farmers" and that increasing department capacity would allow staff to leverage more federal funding to support on-the-ground practices. Staff acknowledged some landowners will be unhappy and that the county will lose some flood-reduction capacity if dams are removed.
County staff described existing partnerships with DATCP, the DNR, NRCS and newly forming watershed groups as part of a mitigation strategy, and stressed that adopting the preferred alternative would begin, not end, a multi-step process of engineering, funding and outreach.
