Yahara Watershed Improvement Network (Yahara WINS) is a groundbreaking initiative to clean up the local watershed in Madison, Wisconsin. A collaborative strategy called watershed adaptive management, led by Madison Metropolitan Sewage District, brings together various stakeholders in the community and government to reduce phosphorus pollution in the watershed. While an essential nutrient in soil, excess phosphorus runoff into surface waters causes severe algae blooms that can destroy ecosystems. By facilitating projects on the landscape engineered to reduce phosphorus runoff, along with removing legacy sediment, Yahara WINS was able to prevent more than 50,000 pounds of phosphorus from entering local waters in 2019. Yahara WINS, which started as a pilot program, has been successful enough to receive funding for the next 20 years.
Read more here.
Photo Credit: Dane County Land and Water Resources Department.
