Yahara WINS exceeds its annual reduction goals for the sixth consecutive year
MADISON, WI – Local partners prevented 50,563 pounds of phosphorus from entering local waters in 2022 as part of Yahara WINS, a collaborative initiative to achieve clean water goals for the Yahara Watershed by preventing excessive phosphorus from entering waterways.
“Yahara WINS continues to deliver on its goal to keep phosphorus out of beloved local waterways,” says Martye Griffin, Yahara WINS president. “This is all thanks to our partners that remain committed to working together to reduce sources of phosphorus in the watershed.”
Yahara WINS utilizes watershed adaptive management, a strategy in which all sources of phosphorus in a watershed work together to reduce nutrient (phosphorus) runoff over 20 years. Yahara WINS serves as the central point for funding, assistance and reporting for county conservation departments and Yahara Pride Farms, which implement practices, primarily in agricultural settings, to keep phosphorus on the land.
In 2022, Yahara WINS again exceeded its phosphorus reduction goal for the year, even with a change in how partners calculated phosphorus reductions.
“As one of the first and largest adaptive management projects in the state, we have a duty to continually assess our approach, identify opportunities for greater effectiveness and innovate as needed to support the health of the waterways,” Griffin says of the accounting change. “This change creates more confidence and consistency among partners and helps inform the WINS strategy moving forward.”
Also in 2022, Yahara WINS continued its commitment to the Yahara CLEAN Compact through RENEW THE BLUE, a community agreement centered around actions to improve lake health in the Yahara watershed. Yahara WINS also supported work to convert the shoreline of the Wisconsin Executive Residence back to a more natural state, replacing turfgrass with native flowers, grasses, trees and shrubs.
Read more about Yahara WINS’s 2022 accomplishments here.