Partnership efforts kept 54,000 pounds of phosphorus on land and out of local waters in 2023
MADISON, WI—In 2023, the Yahara Watershed Improvement Network (Yahara WINS) celebrated its seventh successful year, preventing 54,541 pounds of phosphorus from entering area water bodies in the 536-square-mile Yahara River Watershed. The 20-year plan aims to reduce algae blooms and address other water quality issues linked to excessive phosphorus in the region’s surface waters through low-cost methods and partnerships.
About Yahara WINS:
- Madison Metropolitan Sewerage District leads this collaborative effort, with county conservation departments and Yahara Pride Farms as key partners.
- Grants and cost-share fund projects and methods to reduce phosphorus sources, such as agricultural runoff and urban stormwater, each year.
- The initiative’s key strategy is a watershed adaptive management approach, which is more effective and cost-efficient than individual solutions because it requires all phosphorus sources to work together to reduce their impact.
“Each year, the program has achieved higher-than-expected phosphorus reductions for the watershed, and 2023 proved to be another successful year because of a strong network of committed partners,” says Martye Griffin, Yahara WINS president and Director of Ecosystem Services, Madison Metropolitan Sewerage District. “It’s important work that will continue to deliver on its goal to keep phosphorus out of local waterways, thanks to everyone who sits at the table.”
Yahara WINS began in 2012 as a pilot and transitioned to a full-scale implementation in 2017. 2023 marked the seventh full year of the initiative, which has exceeded its reduction goals every year since its inception.
“Soil health conservation practices are a mainstay on our sixth-generation family farm,” says Luke Laufenberg, owner of Laufenberg Farms and Yahara WINS participant. “Through the Yahara Pride Farms and Yahara WINS partnership, we can implement conservation practices to keep our fields green — with no exposed soil — to prevent erosion to local waters and maintain soil health for future generations on the farm.”
The Yahara River watershed, covering parts of Columbia, Dane, and Rock counties, flows into the Mississippi River and Gulf of Mexico. Excess phosphorus in these waters harms quality, aquatic life, and public health and can reduce property values and recreational use. This buildup worsens problems for communities and ecosystems downstream.
Read more about Yahara WINS’s 2023 accomplishments.
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Project background
The Yahara Watershed Improvement Network, known as Yahara WINS, is a groundbreaking initiative to achieve clean water goals for the Yahara Watershed. In this effort, community partners, led by Madison Metropolitan Sewerage District, are collaborating on a strategy called watershed adaptive management in which all sources of phosphorus in a watershed work together to reduce phosphorus. The effort began in 2012 as a pilot project and transitioned to a full-scale effort in 2017.
The 20-year adaptive management project aims to achieve permit requirements and regional Clean Water Act goals identified through the Rock River Total Maximum Daily Load by 2036. To accomplish these goals, the group facilitates partnerships, conducts outreach, pools resources to fund phosphorus reducing practices in the watershed, analyzes stream samples and works with the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources to address regulatory needs for the project. For more information and to view a copy of the annual report, check out the Yahara WINS website at www.yaharawins.org.
