Fox River Summit 9th Annual

Description

This year’s 9^th Annual Fox River Summit will be held on Thursday, March 11 in conjunction with Wisconsin Water Week. The summit will be held virtually alongside events from nine other watersheds. It costs just $20 to join in each day of Wisconsin Water Week programming from Monday, March 8 through Friday, March 12. View the agendas for all days and register at https://wisconsinwaterweek.swoogo.com/wisconsinwaterweek/begin
 
Thursday’s Fox River Summit will begin at 8:15 am with a kickoff of rapid three-minute reports on the work underway by partner organizations working both north and south of the Wisconsin-Illinois border. The author and journalist Judith Schwartz will provide the keynote presentation for the day. Schawrtz has traveled the world documenting both traditional and innovative ways that agricultural communities protect water quality. 
 
Illinois Department of Natural Resources (IDNR) Deputy Director John Rogner will give a “state partner perspective”. Morning and afternoon concurrent times slots will each have multiple options to choose from, covering recreation on and history of the Fox River, vegetation management, chloride pollution monitoring, wildlife monitoring via Snapshot Wisconsin, promoting soil health best management practices for agriculture to protect water quality, how computer modeling is being used to evaluate options for improving water quality in the southern half of the watershed in Illinois, and an update on ongoing adaptive management efforts and clean-up plan (Total Maximum Daily Load or TMDL) development for the Fox River in Wisconsin. The full day’s agenda can be found at https://wisconsinwaterweek.swoogo.com/wisconsinwaterweek/foxriversummit
 
This content is made possible by staff and volunteers from multiple governmental and organizational partners from both states. Just as in past in-person summits, the day will end with a concluding Breakout Session to continue dialogue, discussion, and actions to protect, restore, and enhance the natural resources of the Fox River basin. The four breakout sessions will focus on recreation, awareness and stewardship; water quality; farmland preservation and soil health; and fish and wildlife.
 
The breakout sessions will discuss:

• Recreation-How to improve & promote the recently developed Fabulous Fox River Water Trail https://fabulousfoxwatertrail.org/ and It’s our Fox River Day https://friendsofthefoxriver.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/IOFRD-Proclamation.pdf to increase awareness and stewardship.
• Water Quality-How to address priority issues like dam management; integrating lake management, flooding, streambank erosion; consolidating Illinois and Wisconsin water quality data access and understanding; Fox River clean-up plan development & implementation in both states; and, adaptive management programs for wastewater treatment facilities.
• Farmland Preservation/Soil Health-How to continue to support efforts that focus on ways to retain high-quality farmland in crop production and assure its long-term viability. These efforts include supporting producer-led groups, demonstrating the value of these programs to the general public, educating more farmers to start soil health management practices, and improving water quality testing.
• Fish and Wildlife-The Fox River basin is home to an extremely diverse array of aquatic organisms. In recognition of this, the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources  in partnership with the Illinois Natural History Survey, IDNR, Universities, and other partner organizations was just awarded a state wildlife grant to implement A Comprehensive Watershed Approach to Identify Distribution and Status of Mussel Species and Conservation Opportunities for Declining Mussel Populations in the Fox River Watershed of Illinois and Wisconsin.