Two Combined Sessions

Wisconsin Coastal Management Program: An Overview
Speaker: Michael Friis

The Wisconsin Coastal Management Program (WCMP) is dedicated to preserving and improving access to the natural and historic resources of Wisconsin's Great Lakes coasts. Since 1978, the program has worked cooperatively with state, local, and tribal government agencies and non-profit organizations to manage the ecological, economic, and aesthetic assets of the Great Lakes coastal areas.

Living on the Edge: Updating the “Coastal Processes Manual” to Promote Resiliency on Wisconsin’s Great Lakes Shorelines
Speakers: Lydia Salus and Adam Arend

Wisconsin’s Great Lakes shorelines are vulnerable to coastal hazards including erosion, storms, flooding, and changing water levels. Rapidly fluctuating water levels over the past decade have exacerbated these issues, highlighting the importance of resilient and sustainable solutions. To build resiliency in Wisconsin’s Great Lakes coastal communities, the “Coastal Processes Manual” is being updated to provide property owners and technical staff at local governments with usable information that helps them estimate risk to their properties from extreme lake levels, storms, and erosion to prioritize vulnerabilities on their properties and consider appropriate risk-reduction strategies. The ongoing pandemic has only made managing and preparing for these hazards more challenging; however, some projects have successfully adapted to these new difficulties to ensure that Wisconsin’s Great Lakes shoreline continues to become more resilient. While this manual targets Wisconsin’s Great Lakes shorelines, we believe the resilience concepts are applicable to Wisconsin’s inland lakes as well.