In the News

The Yahara Watershed Improvement Network (Yahara WINS) has released its 2025 annual report, marking the program’s ninth full year of phosphorus reduction progress across the Yahara River watershed.

The Yahara Watershed Improvement Network (Yahara WINS) has released its 2025 annual report, marking the program’s ninth full year of phosphorus reduction progress across the Yahara River watershed.

The Yahara WINS Watershed Carbon Project has become the first in the nation to generate verified carbon credits under a new, science-based methodology for avoiding emissions by choosing watershed conservation over water infrastructure.

Already twice recognized by Events Industry Council as a Platinum level by EIC Sustainable Event Standards, Water Environment Federation is expanding its sustainability impact through the purchase of an initial 1,000 carbon credits offered by the Yahara WINS project.

The Madison Metropolitan Sewerage District (MMSD) in Wisconsin has made history by becoming the first organization in the United States to generate verified carbon credits linked to watershed-scale water quality compliance.

New phosphorus regulations enacted in 2010 have resulted in a collaborative project that has continually exceeded its own expectations for cleaning up Dane County’s waterways.

As communities around the world grapple with climate change, water quality, and soil health, a growing number are turning to integrated, systems-based approaches to restore environmental balance. One such model has been unfolding in south-central Wisconsin since 2012, when the Madison Metropolitan Sewerage District launched the Yahara Watershed Improvement Network (Yahara WINS).

Every day, more than 2.5 million gallons of freshwater flows from the springs of Pheasant Branch into Lake Mendota. For this reason, the conservancy has been a focal point of environmental restoration efforts for nearly three decades.

There’s no better way to cool off and celebrate the Fourth of July than at the Madison beaches, and people can more safely enjoy Wisconsin’s waters thanks to a group effort keeping algae at bay.

Wisconsin adopted revisions to its phosphorus water quality standards in 2010, including maximum phosphorus thresholds for the state’s surface waters. The Phosphorus Rule also included a provision for a new regulatory compliance strategy for phosphorus called the watershed adaptive management option in section NR 217.18 of the Wisconsin Administrative Code. This option was intended to provide point and nonpoint sources a collaborative, watershed based approach to reduce phosphorus loads to meet water quality criteria in an economical manner.