The Crystal River in the City of Waupaca is a valuable natural resource enjoyed by paddlers seeking adventurous and relaxing outings on the water as well as anglers fishing for trout. But a section of the river is considered impaired by the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources.
About 150 miles away in the Village of Mount Pleasant, a 70-acre site that includes the village’s compost site and land leased to a radio-controlled model aircraft club presents opportunities to restore wetlands and forests and create a native prairie landscape.
What these projects – addressing the ecological health of the Crystal River and developing a conservation plan for the Mount Pleasant site – have in common are graduate students in the Nelson Institute’s Environmental Conservation MS program. The students were connected to Waupaca and Mount Pleasant through UniverCity Alliance, which is a network of interdisciplinary leaders dedicated to fostering innovation in Wisconsin communities of all sizes.
“Just as local communities in Wisconsin support the university, I firmly believe that the university should be equally accountable to Wisconsin communities, and that we owe them our care, time, and expertise,” said Hilary Habeck Hunt, the teaching assistant for the course. “Furthermore, many of our students are interested in remaining in Wisconsin and working with local government, which makes these partnerships excellent training for their future careers.”
This is the mission of UniverCity: to be the front door to the University of Wisconsin–Madison for Wisconsin local governments, connect local leaders with the resources needed to support thriving communities, and provide students enriched learning experiences.
Now in its 10th year, UniverCity has partnered with 43 communities, including Waupaca and Mount Pleasant.
“We have learned through experience that we can make a major impact in communities when we show up and ask what communities want to work on,” said Gavin Luter, who was the managing director of UniverCity Alliance when these partnerships began. “Mt. Pleasant and Waupaca wanted to work on issues related to conservation, and we were able to get them assistance from the Nelson Institute. At the same time, our students have learned from people in those places about conditions on the ground. This is the Wisconsin Idea come to life.”
Students in the Environmental Conservation program have been collaborating with UniverCity Alliance since 2017. Arlyne Johnson, Conservation Planning adjunct professor, said these students have supported 10 different Wisconsin communities to design conservation plans for a variety of natural areas managed at the village, city, and county level.
Hunt said she hopes the final conservation plans provide “specialized guidance to our busy community partners.”
“In local government, staff often wear many hats, meaning that there is little time for deep dives into locally specific conservation scenarios,” Hunt said. “Our students spent ten weeks zoomed in on these detailed scenarios, gathering information and providing actionable recommendations based on their classroom learning.
Waupaca’s Crystal River in focus
In both projects, Hunt said the students were like conservation planning contractors.
“Our students greatly benefitted from the opportunity to forge professional relationships with city staff from Waupaca and Mount Pleasant, and subsequently gained valuable experience through their involvement in local government operation, communication, and accountability,” Hunt said.
Waupaca’s goal is to enhance recreational opportunities along the Crystal River and promote sustainable use while preserving the area’s natural beauty. But a local dam and its aging infrastructure is creating a risk for flooding and negatively affecting the aesthetic appeal of a pond located upstream from the dam.
Aaron Jenson, city administrator for Waupaca during the partnership, said the project was a good fit for the students because it prompted questions on a range of issues like conservation, engineering specifics, budget impacts, and property ownership. He said he was impressed with the students’ work and the value the UniverCity partnerships has brought Waupaca.
“Ultimately, it’s preparing future staff to deal with things that we know are going to come up, but there’s also things that came out of it that we can do right now,” he said, specifically mentioning directing some funding into river maintenance and invasive species control. “The partnership has allowed us to look at the things that we wish we could get to but never are able to.”
The conservation plan that the students created evaluates the river’s current conditions, identifies existing threats, and outlines effective strategies with an action plan.
“Our plan mostly focused on long-term strategies that would create better working conditions for the city to continue its restoration of the Crystal River,” Induja Gandhiprasad said.
Central to the plan was a focus on improving the health of the river, supporting recreation activities, and addressing the quality of life of Waupaca’s residents. Xia Lowery emphasized that the plan includes strategies that “not only benefit the river but also the community.” These include a river health awareness initiative and an ordinance to define boundaries for riparian habitats.
In addition to learning technical concepts like conservation standards, the students said they learned how to tackle a large project in a short amount of time with multiple team members and narrow in on a community partner’s needs.
Jake Mikic credited his group with deftly navigating group dynamics, balancing accountability, cooperation, and leadership. Though the project was challenging, Ellie Sovcik said what made it valuable was the knowledge that a community partner will use their final report.
“We actually want Waupaca to be able to use this,” Sovcik said. “I trust that this work is actually going somewhere compared to a normal academic project. I really appreciate the real world application.”
Mount Pleasant conservation plan
Likewise, the students partnering with Mount Pleasant appreciated that the project provided a practical experience of working with a community before their program ends in August. Two of these students, Lauren Schmelzer and Jenasea Hameister recently graduated with their undergraduate degrees. A third, Anthony Leikip, is switching careers from firefighting to environmental conservation and said the hands-on experience was informative.
“It gave all of us the experience to work on a restoration plan and have that real world experience,” Hameister said.
Anthony Beyer, director of public works for Mount Pleasant, reinforced this perspective and emphasized the importance of the academic and professional connection.
“This experience allows them to focus on real world problems. As a government entity, it’s important we promote that,” Beyer said.
The students were tasked with developing a conservation plan for the area that includes the Mount Pleasant Compost Facility and the Racine Radio Control Flying and Social Club flight field. Community Development Director Samuel Schultz said the students were able to “dial in” to this property and think strategically about its uses.
“They were taking the village’s high range goals and drilling into detail about specific areas and what we can do with them,” Schultz said.
The site presents a number of factors for the students to consider, such as that a large portion of the site is within a floodplain and the site includes forested wetlands, wet meadows, forage grassland, lowland shrubs, crop-rotated lands, and some developed high- and low-intensity areas.
“There’s no rubric for the world,” Schmelzer said. “You create what you think works best, and our plan was what we could imagine would work best in a short-term, like five-year plan.”
Schmelzer said their plan envisions three main habitat areas: forest, wetlands, and prairie and included sustainability goals that the village can strive to achieve. She said there’s an opportunity in the future for the village to consider installing trails or interactive walk-through learning stations.
They proposed several strategies that include creating a native prairie landscape to establish pollinator habitat, prevent erosion, and provide space for recreation and cultural activities; removing invasive species, developing partnerships, and strengthening community engagement and outreach.
“Their report will get the ball rolling on this site,” Beyer said. “That will ultimately protect this property and work with the existing features we have. It pushes the village in the right direction.”
This story was originally published in The Commons, a publication of the Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies. Read the full May edition and view previous editions from the “News” tab on the Nelson Institute website.
–Abigail Becker