Wisconsin began a long-term collaborative natural resource management experiment in the late 1960s by bringing together the state government, the university, and local lake advocates under a shared umbrella: the Wisconsin Lakes Partnership. This effort has directed tremendous time and money towards understanding lakes and fostering their protection and rehabilitation. In this presentation, we will share the “mental model” that places local lake organization capacity as a critical leverage point in a system aimed at protecting and restoring thousands of inland lakes. We will share results of a recent survey of Wisconsin lake organizations that asked their leaders to self-assess their group’s capacity, and describe a new program that engages the community development expertise of the UW Madison Division of Extension to help lake organization boards take their efforts to the next level. These ideas have broad applicability to lake groups throughout the Midwest and we hope to inspire Michigan lake advocates to participate and share their capacity-building success stories.
Presented by Eric Olson and Sara Windjue, University of Wisconsin at Stevens Point. Part of the 2020 Michigan Inland Lakes Convention
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