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Golden Sands RC&D has been bringing together science and community for over 50 years to help grow Wisconsin’s economy and protect its natural resources. With our long history of acting as a community resource that is able to work across county lines to address large-scale environmental issues in Central Wisconsin, we continue to look toward our future to ensure we are sowing the seeds of today that will grow a strong, healthy organization that can create positive changes for conservation that works in Central Wisconsin for many years to come.
This publication highlights many of our projects and accomplishments, but there are so many more. Our resilience and conservation work continues to have long lasting impacts on our environment and our community as we continue to focus our efforts on projects that support sustainable agriculture, healthy forests, abundant wildlife, and clean water.
We are incredibly proud of our long-standing partnerships with local and regional nonprofit organizations, as well as our state and federal conservation partners. Partnerships are essential to our work and allow us to do more boots-on-the ground conservation work and community engagement. There are so many partners
and collaborators that we are incredibly grateful for.
In 2024, the Golden Sands RC&D family suffered a loss of one of our longtime leaders
and most fervent supporters. It is impossible to consider the history of Golden Sands
RC&D without considering the significant impact that Bill Ebert had on this
organization. Bill's dedication and passion for natural resources helped build this
organization up to be what it is today. Many of the projects that Bill started decades
ago are still active, such as the Demonstration Forest Network and the Stevens Point
Area Neighborhood Gardens.
We hope you will join us to make a better future for all of Central Wisconsin! Please
consider donating, volunteering, or collaborating with us.
Sincerely,
Jennifer Glad
Jennifer Glad
Executive Director
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2024 HIGHLIGHTS
A Letter from the Executive Director
WE PROMOTE
CLEAN WATER
In 2024, we hired 2 new full-time Regional Aquatic Invasive Species Coordinators to help cover our 12 county work area, which allowed us to focus work at a more local level. Staff attended the Upper Midwest Invasive Species Conference where Chris Hamerla gave a presentation on engaging unique audiences. Our professional staff also offer services beyond the scope of our grant work. This contracted work can include point intercept aquatic plant (PI) surveys, invasive species surveys/mapping, and aquatic plant management plan development. All work is consistent with WI DNR protocols and management needs.
SOME OF OUR EVENTS
Hover over the images to learn more!
Tap Talks
We've reintroduced our Tap Talk series! This series serves as a public outreach initiative showcasing the work we’re doing, promoting conservation practices, and highlighting community efforts that individuals can participate in to support environmental preservation. The sessions are held monthly on Sundays at 4pm at the Central Waters Brewing Company (Amherst, WI). Our first Tap Talk was held in November and provided an introduction to Golden Sands RC&D. In December, we focused on our native plant restoration efforts, which is an on-going project in collaboration with our partners at the US Fish & Wildlife Service. The series will continue into 2025 and we hope you will join us.
Soil Health
This year was packed with soil health workshops! In April, we started strong with a workshop that featured a live biochar demonstration. In early September, we partnered with the Wisconsin Farmers Union, to host a field day which focused on the production and use of biochar and compost in farm systems. In late September, we partnered with FoxRAP, Green Lake Conservancy, Prairie Nursery, and American Farmland Trust to host an event which focused on a variety of land management practices, including: biochar production, plans for grazing a restored prairie, and protection through easements.
Solar Grazing
Agrivoltaics, which is the dual-use of land for solar energy and agriculture, was a big focus for us this year. Integrating managed grazing with solar energy production provides unique opportunities for graziers, as well as a useful tool for maintaining solar energy facilities. Solar development is expanding rapidly across the rural landscape. To facilitate the opportunities this means for conservation and the grazing community, Golden Sands RC&D hosted a Solar Grazing workshop at the Midwest Renewable Energy Association’s annual Energy Fair in June. We also planned and networked for events, which focused on this topic, for the upcoming year.
CWIP/NEWIP
We held four steering committee meetings for both the Central Wisconsin Invasives Partnership (CWIP) and the Northeast Wisconsin Invasives Partnership (NEWIP) in 2024. These included guest speakers and were open to the community to attend. Attendance was notable at both events. Our coordinators were able to network with other CISMA coordinators by attending the 2024 Upper Midwest Invasive Species Conference (UMISC) in Duluth, MN and the 2024 annual CISMA meeting in Stevens Point. We also hosted two volunteer workdays, one in Marquette County and the other in Portage County. These workdays taught the community how to identify invasive plants and management techniques for controlling them.
WE OFFER
Aquatic Services
Golden Sands RC&D and Brekke Lake Association have partnered in the creation of an aquatic plant management plan. This plan will include updated plant, fishery, water quality, and stakeholder data. It will make the association eligible for grant funding for plant management options in the future, as well as educate on the past and current health of the lake. In 2024, a whole lake point-intercept survey looked at the entire plant community as a whole. A Eurasian Watermilfoil bed-mapping survey was also completed to monitor the current EWM population, which has been a nuisance AIS in past years.
OUTSTANDING MEMBER
A special thank you goes out to Reesa Evans! We are very grateful for Reesa's skills and guidance that she has offered us over the past two decades! Her hard work and dedication in helping us to enhance conservation practices in Central Wisconsin has been invaluable. Reesa retired from her position as the Secretary for Golden Sands RC&D, but has decided to continue her involvement with us as an At-Large member. We appreciate her continued participation with our organization.
Click on the button below to see a list of our current council members.
WE WELCOME YOUR SUPPORT
Thank you to our 2024 partners, sponsors, and donors for your generosity! Please click on the donate button below if you support our mission to manage natural and human resources, in ways that are consistent with sound conservation principles, by working across county lines to address local concerns.
2024 INCOME SOURCES
