As we move toward spring and warmer weather, I am grateful to live in a community that pulls together to help one another cope with an especially severe winter. Climate change is clearly part of our future. Neighbors helping neighbors, along with public employees who plow snow, repair water main breaks and attend to our children in frigid temperatures, are all to be commended.

Dane County plays a key role when it comes to environmental protection, enhancing green space and protecting our waterways. The 2019 budget includes a variety of initiatives to fit the theme of this issue. As you might expect, one area of special focus has been on flooding. This includes $75,000 to conduct real time modeling of various lake level scenarios and $1 million in the capital budget for park and trail repair. In order to reduce water run-off and enhance water quality, $8 million has been set aside for potential land acquisitions to accomplish this goal. In total $18 million has been designated in a wide variety of ways to respond to the unprecedented flooding of summer 2018.

The board is also creating Chapter 49 Agricultural Performance Standards and Manure Management. This 20-page ordinance is designed to balance the need to protect our lakes that enhance quality of life for all, while keeping agriculture vibrant in rural Dane County. Farmers are required to have winter manure spreading plans along with the proper and safe storage and handling of manure and other agricultural waste material. The ordinance incorporates recommendations from the Healthy Farms Healthy Lakes Task Force.

The county will soon purchase 25.1 acres along Token Creek Park in the Town of Burke using dollars from the Graff Living Trust. Additional publicly owned lands are a critical component of our collective environmental future. 

Supervisor Rusk can be reached at 249-9667 or rusk@countyofdane.com.