| "What we're trying to do is stabilize and improve water quality, provide habitat for wildlife, and maintain scenic beauty." | |
| Dave Ferris, Burnett County Land and Water Conservation Department |
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What would inspire a property owner to maintain or restore waterside vegetative buffers? Resource managers in Wisconsin say the best incentive is cash. Tax breaks work well, too.
The Burnett County Natural Shoreline Program offers lakeside property owners these incentives, as well as technical assistance and educational information in an effort to enhance shoreline buffers with native vegetation, says Dave Ferris, conservationist for the Burnett County Land and Water Conservation Department, one of the partnering organizations that developed the program as part of the county's land use plan.
"What we're trying to do is stabilize and improve water quality, provide habitat for wildlife, and maintain scenic beauty," Ferris says. "This is a low cost solution to nonpoint source pollution."
Using a grant from the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, Burnett County pays landowners up to 70 percent of the costs to replant native vegetation along lake and river shorelines, up to $1,200 per site. The county also provides information to landowners on site planning and preparation, plant selection, and planting.
"One of the most important things we can do for water quality is to teach people," Ferris says. "We're finding that even people who consider themselves environmentalists may not understand how to translate their thoughts onto the ground."
To protect existing buffer zones, the county gives participants a one-time payment of $250 and an annual $50 property tax credit in exchange for the landowner's agreement to maintain a minimum 35-foot vegetation buffer next to the water's edge. Participants are required to sign a deed covenant that guarantees the zone will continue to be protected with each new owner of the property, and are asked to install a small sign indicating their participation. As an added bonus, Ferris notes, landowners receive a free shirt with a program logo.
When the program began in April 2000, Ferris says they anticipated receiving 20 to 40 applications the first year and 40 to 50 the second. "By the time we got through accepting applications [for 2000], we had 200 landowners with 250 parcels of land." By the first of October 2000, they already had another 75 landowners signed up for 2001.
One of the reasons the program has been so successful, says Jim Bloms, community natural resources and economic development agent for the University of Wisconsin Extension, was having the landowners be "part of the process" from day one.
When the idea for the program first arose, the university conducted a needs assessment, which included a survey of all waterside property owners in the county. "From the beginning, we made them stakeholders," Bloms says. "The program was easy to sell because they had been a part of it, and we incorporated many of their ideas."
While an evaluation of the program is being conducted, Ferris notes that "the fallout [from doing the program] has been that we're speaking everywhere, getting coverage everywhere, and they're looking at doing it on a statewide basis. I think everyone's been very happy with the results."
For more information on the Burnett County Natural Shoreline Program, point your browser to www.mwd.com/burnett/. You may contact Dave Ferris at (715) 349-2186 or bclwcd@win.bright.net, or Jim Bloms at (715) 349-2151 or jim.bloms@ces.uwex.edu.
