Wonderful Waters of Wisconsin: Monitoring and Protecting High Quality Waters

Wisconsin’s Wonderful Waters of Wisconsin initiative focuses on identifying and celebrating “already healthy” waterbodies and watersheds that provide ecological, financial, and societal benefits to us all. This initiative is driven by the Healthy Watersheds, High-Quality Waters modeling and assessment effort, which requires lots and lots of DATA! This presentation will explore what qualifies as a high-quality water, how monitoring efforts inform this assessment, and how CLMN/WAV lake and stream monitoring volunteers can support this groundbreaking initiative to keep these wonderful waters healthy! We will also demonstrate new tools you can use to find and learn about high-quality waters and healthy watersheds near you.
Lauren Haydon is a Watershed Protection Coordinator at the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources. In this role, she provides technical assistance and outreach to partners around the state to ensure long-term water resources protection and supports the Healthy Watersheds, High-Quality Waters program. Prior to joining the DNR in 2023, Lauren worked at several local government agencies in Minnesota and Wisconsin where she helped to promote and design conservation best practices, led a water resources education program, and administered cost-share programs for landowners.
Wisconsin DNR Healthy Watersheds High-Quality Waters: dnr.wisconsin....
Watershed Restoration and Protection Viewer: dnrmaps.wi.gov...
Wisconsin Water Explorer (WEx): dnr.wisconsin....