Clean Lakes 101: Overcoming Barriers to Local Water Quality Progress

ABOUT THIS TALK
What is needed to make substantial progress on improving water quality in the Yahara Watershed? Many amazing people and partnerships are working hard on this immense challenge. Eric will focus this talk on two aspects that are starting to enter more into the water quality conversation and how they can be implemented: 1) balancing the watershed phosphorus budget and 2) increasing perennial agroecosystems. Reducing the supply of phosphorus that is available for transport from land to water is critical for long-term success. Recent progress in dairy nutrition and manure export are helping but we still have room for improvement. As a complementary approach, increasing the number of acres devoted to perennial agroecosystems – such as well-managed, rotational grazing of dairy heifers – can prevent existing phosphorus in watershed soils from being transported downstream while providing many other benefits.

ABOUT OUR SPEAKER
Eric Booth is an associate research scientist at UW-Madison in the Departments of Plant & Agroecosystem Sciences and Civil & Environmental Engineering. He holds a BS in environmental engineering from UW-Madison (2004), MS in hydrologic science from UC- Davis (2006), and PhD in limnology from UW-Madison (2011). His disciplinary background has water as a centerpiece and includes topics such as hydroecology, impacts of climate and land-use change, urban stormwater management, wetland/stream restoration, water quality, groundwater hydrology, fluvial geomorphology, environmental history, agroecology, remote sensing, and numerical modeling. In addition, Eric also served as an official delegate to Clean Lakes Alliance’s Yahara CLEAN Compact that produced 

RENEW THE BLUE: A Community Guide for Cleaner Lakes & Beaches in the Yahara Watershed and has contributed to many State of the Lakes reports for the organization. 

EVENT DETAILS
This event will be held at The Edgewater hotel – grand ballroom level 5 (1001 Wisconsin Pl, Madison, WI 53703). Doors open at 7:30 a.m. The program runs from 8 – 9 a.m. A Q/A session will follow the presentation as time allows. Complimentary event parking will be available at The Edgewater parking ramp. Parking spots fill up quickly and may be limited depending on hotel capacity. A Zoom link will be sent to all registrants via the Eventbrite confirmation email.

CLEAN LAKES 101 LECTURE SERIES
Clean Lakes 101 is a series of educational events open to the public and a great chance to learn more about the science behind the issues that affect our lakes. Each month we feature a different expert to make the science accessible and interesting to non-technical audiences. The series is produced in partnership with the UW-Madison Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies and UW-Extension Lakes, with presenting sponsor First Weber Foundation, hosting sponsor The Edgewater, supporting sponsors National Guardian Life Insurance Company and Alliant Energy, and media sponsor WKOW.

Event Website