2020 Watershed Heroes Impact Awards

Congratulations to our 2020 Watershed Hero Impact Awardees. We appreciate all of our 2020 nominations. The Watershed Hero nomination committee had many worthy candidates to select from.

Watershed Hero nominations are open to any group, program, organization, business, or individual located and working on the protection, restoration, and sustainability of the water resources of the Fox-Wolf River Basin in Northeast Wisconsin. The Watershed Heroes Impact Award recognizes individuals and organizations who have lived or worked within the Fox-Wolf watershed communities and who have excelled in any one of the following areas:

Providing leadership in working towards sustainable development of our economies and resources.
Inspiring the work of others, including our youth, to foster the health of the Fox-Wolf watershed’s communities, economies, and cultures.
Extraordinary focus on improving agriculture land use decisions to restore and protect our watershed.
Utilizing innovative strategies or outstanding effort to achieve significant results in furthering sustainable development within the watershed.
Demonstrating a lasting commitment to the health and management of our watershed resources.

Congratulations to our
2020 Watershed Heroes!

Peter Guckenberg

Peter has performed management tasks at Terrell’s Island—1,201 acres of wetland open to the public along Lake Butte des Morts—for the past 15 years. The work he does on the property helps reduce erosion into the lake, removes garbage from the lake and adjacent land, and assists the public in accessing and enjoying the land. Additionally, Peter provides invasive plant removal, installs and removes wooden benches seasonally, maintains and restores wood duck houses, and overall, maintains a property that is enjoyed by students, hikers, cyclists, joggers, photographers, and more. Peter volunteers hundreds of hours of his time annually on these projects and maintenance efforts benefiting Terrell’s Island. He provides a service for free that would otherwise take away from the capacity of the Butte des Morts Conservation Club, the organization that owns the Terrell’s Island property. His work serves the community by maintaining a property that provides outdoor recreation for the public, maintains critical wildlife habitat, provides an environment for people to connect to the water, and overall, his efforts help protect the waters of Lake Butte des Morts. Additionally, Peter has served on the Butte des Morts Conservation Club Board of Directors for the past 15 years. His knowledge of the property provides the BDMCC with first-hand experience for making future management decisions.

Cellcom – Green Gifts Program

The Cellcom Green Gifts program was launched to protect the environment and support conservation in Northeast Wisconsin and Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. Every year, the money received from their cellphone recycling program is used to support many environmental programs throughout northeast Wisconsin. Green Gifts are awarded on an annual basis and $484,373 has been awarded to date. In 2019, Cellcom distributed a total of $37,400 in Green Gifts. Cellcom’s 2019 recipients include thirteen schools, nature preserves and conservation organizations within the Fox-Wolf Basin. Cellcom’s Green Gift program completes the green cycle that starts with consumers being environmentally conscious and donating their devices. Cellcom’s director of public affairs, Cindy Durand states, “By simply recycling old devices our customers are partners in our Green Gifts program. Together we are investing in our communities and contributing to programs and projects that support sustainability and have a positive impact on the environment.” Consumers can contribute to the program by donating their old cell phones for recycling at any Cellcom retail location.

Diederich Farm

Diederich Farm, located near De Pere, Wisconsin, was purchased in 1913 and was passed down through family generations. The farm maintains dairy cows with a rolling herd average of between 25,000-26,000 pounds. Diederich Farm has over 1000 acres, half of which is in permanent pasture to raise heifers. The other 500 acres are planted in a corn, alfalfa, and wheat rotation. Diederich Farm practices no-till farming on most of their acres. Additionally, their fields are planted in 100% cover crops, using winter wheat or winter rye. They have experimented with practices such as inter-seeding, co-planting, manure injection, and rotational grazing as they strive to try new conservation tools to be good stewards of their land. Their conservation practices do not stop with their crops. With the dairy, the Farm has utilized practices such as reusing water, installing high-efficiency fans in the free-stall barn, and converting barn lighting to LEDs. The Diederich Farm truly believes that conservation is a central aspect of their culture and that long term sustainable conservation is a necessity.

Dan Diederich has also been a leader in conservation and water quality improvements off the farm. Dan has served on the planning committee of the Fox Watershed Farmer Roundtable, an annual event that brings farmers together to collective learn from each other about conservation, for four years. He is also a member of the Lower Fox Basin Leadership Council, a group formed in 2018 as a stakeholder advisory group to inspire and guide collective action towards achieving a Clean Water Agenda for the Lower Fox River and Bay of Green Bay. Dan is never shy to share his opinions and keen insights, he is willing to challenge others’ perceptions as well as his own understanding to ultimately improve the watershed and make farming more resilient in the process.

Town of Belle Plaine

The Town of Belle Plaine in southern Shawano County has actively been protecting their local lakes and its residents for years. The town purchased Gibson Island, on the Cloverleaf Lakes, with generous private funds and a major Stewardship grant, to ensure its protection, fulfilling the vision of longtime town Chairman Alvin Bartz. The 25-acre island is the centerpiece of the lakes and will be protected forever as a natural area. They continue to care for the island, successfully receiving grant funding to control invasive species including Japanese Knotweed and installing a native plant shoreline restoration project on the island. The town owns a public boat launch and purchased land to provide boat trailer parking as well as a park picnic shelter nearby. While being proactive on surface water protection, the Town is also working to ensure residents have safe drinking water, recently receiving a grant to provide well-testing for residents to check their well water for nitrate contamination. The Town of Belle Plaine officials and residents are an active group that work alongside the Cloverleaf Lakes Protective Association, the Belle Plaine Sanitary District, as well as the Long Lake Association. These partnerships have allowed them to strengthen their efforts in the area. Dennis Thornton and Joy Krubsack, along with town Chairman Alvin Bartz, have been conservation leaders in the town and a strong voice for the lakes and their residents.

Outagamie County Land Conservation Department

The Outagamie County Land Conservation Department is recognized by conservation professionals as a leader in the Fox-Wolf Basin, throughout the state, and in the Great Lakes Region. Greg Baneck, the County Conservationist leads a team of 11 forward thinking, passionate professionals, all of whom contribute to the success of the department. The Outagamie County Land Conservation Department has led the 9 Key Element Planning effort in the Lower Fox River Watershed, secured millions of dollars through state and federal grants to advance agricultural conservation efforts, and has successfully implemented projects with funding secured from other partners like the Fox-Wolf Watershed Alliance.
While focused on conservation, Outagamie County staff work hard to find the “win-win” in projects for farmers and other landowners. They take the time to build trusted relationships with farmers, landowners, and partners in conservation. This has resulted in many successful projects. We are fortunate to have the leadership of the Outagamie County Land Conservation Department working to advance agricultural conservation in the Fox-Wolf Basin.

The practices HOV installed for water quality trading are reducing an average of 7,978 lbs of sediment year or 3.989 tons a year, generating an average of 2,440 credit year for HOV. Because HOV MSD choose to explore a compliance avenue that was full of unknowns, they aided in advancing a compliance option, making it easier for other permitted entities to do in the future. More importantly, they saved their rate payers money and decreased the overall TSS loading to the Fox River!