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Sugar River group plans Saturday event

BRODHEAD — A $10,000 state river planning grant has boosted the efforts of a committee working to start a Lower Sugar River Watershed Association.

The group is working to create a healthy watershed, and the grant will fund an ecological assessment that will help the group recommend future projects, said Susan Lehnhardt, a founding member of the board of directors.

A “work session” and dairy operation tour Saturday will reconnect attendees from the group’s first meeting in spring.

“Our event on Saturday is to bring more people from the community into the project, to get them interested in participating,” said Lehnhardt, an ecologist with Applied Ecological Services, the Brodhead-based company that works worldwide as ecological consultants and land restoration specialists.

Corporate sponsorship from Applied Ecological Services and other volunteers are matching the $10,000 state Department of Natural Resources grant.

Committees will form, and “citizen scientists” will be trained to take samplings and recognize characteristics of a healthy and unhealthy watershed, Lehnhardt said. The data gathered over the next year will be available on the group’s website.

After the work session Saturday, the group will tour Williams Bedrock Bovines, a 900-head confined dairy operation near Brodhead, to learn about their cropping, nutrient management and conservation compliance program.

The group is in the process of becoming a nonprofit, tax-exempt organization and forming a board. Soon it will start a membership program.

If you go

What: Lower Sugar River Watershed group’s work session

When: 9 a.m. to noon Saturday

Where: Brodhead Memorial Public Library, 1207 25th St., Brodhead

For more information: Call Susan Lehnhardt at (608) 897-8641, Ext. 20, email info@lsrwa.org or visit lsrwa.org.