VERNON COUNTY - At their first meeting with newly-seated watershed council members, the Vernon County Flood Mitigation Alliance found that good progress has been made, but there remains more to do. The group met in the Vernon County Board Room on Thursday, Nov. 21.

Voting members of the Alliance include Cassie Hanan, County Administrative Coordinator; Matt Allbright, Zoning Director and Interim County Conservation Director; Amy Oliver, Community Development; Brandon Larsen, Emergency Management Director (not present); Monique Hassman, Land Information Officer; Phil Hewitt, Highway Commissioner; Justin Olson, USDA-NRCS; Nancy Wedwick, Coon Creek Community Watershed Council; Kent McClurg, Bad Axe Stewards Watershed Council; Chad Erickson, Rush Creek Stewards Watershed Council (not present); and Mary Henry, Wayde Lawler, and Nathan Slack, county board supervisors.

Also attending were Beth Summers, Valley Stewardship Network; Berent Froiland, Tainter Creek Watershed Council; Marcy West, Valley resident and southern region representative to the Natural Resources Board; Stephanie from Wisconsin Wetlands Association; a precision agriculture specialist; representatives from Coulee Region Trout Unlimited; Loren Oldenburg, 96th Assembly Representative; Tara Johnson, 96th Assembly Representative elect; Brad Pfaff, State Senator; and Mollie from U.S. Representative Derrick Van Orden’s office.

Overview of efforts

Representatives of Vernon County departments gave an overview of flood mitigation efforts accomplished or ongoing that they have been involved in.

Monique Hassman discussed the assets available on the Vernon County website for those seeking flood mitigation efforts. Those assets include information about partnerships, and an archive of information about past efforts, including newspaper articles about the Alliance, the Monroe County Climate Change Task Force, and more.

“We are currently upgrading our website, so we hope to take the information and enhance it further,” Cassie Hanan observed.

“We never stopped our efforts, and have been pursuing flood mitigation in the county through different programs,” Matt Allbright explained. “Those programs and partnerships include Wisconsin Land+Water, Environmental Quality Incentive Program (EQIP) funding, our partnership with USDA-NRCS, DATCP Soil and Water Resource Management (SWRM) grants, nutrient management training and plan development funding, Water Quality Trading programs to help our municipalities with their needed sewer plant upgrades, our Conservation Aids grant from DNR, facilitating DATCP Producer-Led Watershed Council grants, field days, and school presentations.”

Allbright explained that in the zoning area, the county had promoted sustainable building practices, administered and enforced shoreland and floodplain zoning, contributed to the county’s Comprehensive Plan, helped to pursue a Pre-Disaster Flood Resilience grant through Wisconsin Emergency Management (WEM), worked with Valley Stewardship Network on a ‘Nine Key Element Plan’ for the Coon Creek Watershed, and taken part in implementing projects funded through Fishers & Farmers and FEMA Building Resilient Infrastucture and Communities (BRIC) grants.

“We are also just wrapping up the re-mapping of the Middle Kickapoo Watershed,” Allbright shared. “This was a project that involved Vernon, Richland and Crawford counties, and all three counties have recently signed off on the updated maps, which unfornately do not take into account the potential future loss of the flood control dams in the West Fork Kickapoo Watershed.”

Supervisor Wayde Lawler asked what the grand purpose of the BRIC grant funding had been?

“There were several initiatives accomplished with that funding,” Hassman explained. “Those included development of a more robust data set on a GIS-mapping platform of repeated damages in disasters dating back to 2007, which provides spatial and temporal dimensions to quantify impacts, development of the county’s ACPS tool to provide landowners with modeling for the impact of conservation practices at the field level, and acquisition of an updated digital elevation model.”

Amy Oliver reported that in her role, she had written and managed millions of dollars in grant funding. This has included FEMA grants to remove homes and businesses from harms way in the floodplain, and working with municipalities following the 2018 and 2019 floods to secure disaster recovery funding through DNR Municipal Flood Control grants.

Most recently, Oliver reported work on the application for a WEM Pre-Disaster Flood Resilience grant for $400,000. If awarded, this grant will fund Hydrology & Hydraulic assessments of the Coon Creek and West Fork Kickapoo watersheds, and completion of the county’s culvert inventory. She has also helped to apply for a Hazard Mitigation grant in the amount of $696,931. If awarded, this grant will fund replacement of county back-up generators, and installation of six generators in municipalities.

Lawler asked what a ‘Hydrology and Hydraulic’ assessment is?

“A hydrology study documents how much water travels through a watershed, and a hydraulic study documents the impact of that water on structures and infrastructure in the watershed,” Allbright explained. “We want to study the bridges and culverts in the area of the dams that may be decommissioned to ensure they are adequately sized to survive flood events, and configured so that they won’t contribute to flood damages.”

“Asking for $400,000 in a Pre-Disaster Flood Resilience grant is a big ask,” Rep. Loren Oldenburg observed. “In your application, you need to be sure to emphasize the history of flooding in the watersheds. Also, reach out to my and Senator Pfaff’s offices, and we will  write letters of support for your grant application.”

The group decided to wait until the next meeting for an in-depth review of Emergency Management Director Brandon Larsen’s activities since he was not present at the meeting. Briefly, Hanan said his office had overseen the update of the county’s Hazard Mitigation Plan, and had historically helped to develop a county flood resiliency scorecard and the ‘Survey 1-2-3’ tool and dashboard for online disaster damage reporting.

Review goals

After hearing reports from department heads, the group moved on to review of the ‘Flood Mitigation Alliance Goals’ document created by the earlier iteration of the Alliance. The listing of goals includes nine goals in the ‘Mitigation’ category, eight goals in the ‘Public Education’ category, and eight goals in the ‘Technology’ category.

Mitigation goals

After discussion, the group agreed the following mitigation goals were “ongoing,” and should be left as-is:

• Enforce floodplain ordinance

• Seek and secure funding for flood mitigation

• Identify high risk areas

• Address agricultural practices to reduce erosion and flooding

• Create and increase capacity for mitigation projects (eg. cost-share program)

• Encourage best-management practices (BMPs), nutrient management, managed grazing, woodland management, CREP, etc.

There was discussion about two goals regarding “securing” funding for flood mitigation and “raising awareness” for flood mitigation funding, and whether they were two separate goals.

“I see securing and raising awareness as two separate goals,” Nancy Wedwick contributed. Hanan said that perhaps a goal should be added to “work with watershed groups to raise awareness about flood mitigation funding.”

The group agreed that the mitigation goal, “Operate and maintain PL-566 structures” should be its own topic for a meeting.

“These goals are all written at a pretty high level,” Lawler observed. “At some point, we need to talk about ‘how’ and ‘when.’”

“Regarding the townships and zoning, the towns don’t have the manpower to enforce zoning,” Rep. Oldenburg said. “I’d like to see encouraging participation in the Farmland Preservation program added.”

“It would really help the towns if the county had countywide zoning,” Hanan responded.

“This seems like a good list, and can be customized to fit individual landscapes,” Senator Pfaff observed. “This list is very forward looking.”

Hanan asked the group if there were any mitigation goals that should be added?

“I hope you will consider adding a goal about building practices, similar to the kinds of things you see in areas that are prone to hurricanes,” Marcy West contributed. “I am also very frustrated with the FEMA practice of replacing flood-damaged infrastructure exactly like it was before the flood.”

Public education

After discussion, the group agreed the following public education goals were “ongoing,” and should be left as-is:

• Outreach and educational meetings, notices, flood mitigation demonstrations

• Create, update and disseminate informational materials

• Encourage and assist public participation in councils and watershed groups

• Seek and implement public comment/input

• Prioritize centralized location for public information and resources

• Create and disseminate flood preparedness/recovery guidance

• Provide flood preparation/response checklists and contact information

• Establish and train a volunteer network to respond to flood events and provide consistent messages to local communities

“For the last few years, our watershed council has had great success in building working relationships with people in county government,” Wedwick said. “I just want to thank all of you for your incredible work, and for being willing to attend our meetings and educate our members.”

As far as the ‘creating and disseminating flood preparedness/recovery guidance’ goal, Hassman pointed out that this is an area where EM Director Brandon Larsen has done a lot of work. She pointed out that Larsen is convening a ‘media workshop’ in December to help make plans for how local media can be a partner to the county in emergency situations.

Regarding the ‘establish and train a volunteer network’ goal, Hassman explained this had arisen after a variety of help sites had spontaneously formed after the 2018 flood. She said the idea is to coordinate citizen response efforts and resources.

“The county could facilitate recruitment and training of geographic point people across the county,” Lawler contributed.

“This actually makes me think of the training that FEMA volunteers receive,” Slack shared.

“Another option is that what might be needed is to develop a public communication plan,” 96th Assembly Representative elect Tara Johnson said.

Technology

After discussion, the group agreed the following technology goals were “ongoing,” and should be left as-is:

• Increase capacity for BMP installation (equipment and related software)

• Centralize records and make available to staff and community

• Use GIS software and tools to seek grant opportunities

• Collect data and perform mapping and modeling

• Revise contour and surface elevation using updated technology (eg. LiDAR)

Several goals under this section were considered to be complete, or at least partially complete:

• Develop and implement damage reporting software

• Develop and implement project and permit tracking software

“What about installing monitoring devices on flood prone tributaries like Monroe County has done?” Supervisor Mary Henry asked.

Allbright explained that Vernon County has devices like that placed only on the dams. NRCS’s Justin Olson pointed out that some licensing agreements NRCS has can be shared with partners without the need to use county resources.

“There are some stations in the Kickapoo River water shed, north of Ontario and in LaFarge, maintained by U.S. Geological Survey, that report on flow levels,” Marcy West pointed out. “I’d like to see a discussion of connecting monitoring technology to an emergency alert system, especially to warn recreationists on the river – the Kickapoo Valley Reserve needs an alert system.”

“I believe that Monroe County has implemented signs along roads and crossings which flash when there is a high water situation,” Henry said.

“It could be as simple as hooking up game cameras in flood prone areas,” Slack said.

“If you decide to move forward with monitoring stations, and identify funding opportunities, please let my office know,” Senator Pfaff said.

Next meeting

The group agreed they would not meet in December, with their next regular monthly meeting to take place in January. Amy Oliver will use an online poll to identify the best date and time for regular monthly meetings.