Programs

Water Quality Monitoring

The Kickapoo Citizen Water Monitors actively record baseline data at 14 sites along the tributaries and the main stem of the Kickapoo River. We follow the statewide guidelines of the Water Action Volunteers. In 2004 we partnered with the Monroe County Land Conservation Department, Vernon County Land and Water Conservation Department and the DNR to begin bacteria sampling in the Kickapoo.

Food and Farm Initiative

The Food and Farm Initiative is a new program being developed by VSN to address the needs and concerns relating to the food and farm system in SW Wisconsin. We intend to address issues of production, processing, marketing and consumption from a local perspective both to determine and positively resolve those issues. The goals of the Food and Farm Initiative are to encourage the development of a sustainable, local food system by:

* Engaging, educating and mobilizing a broad network of area residents;
* Improving access to healthy, locally produced foods;
* Strengthening the economic viability of regional agriculture; and
* Addressing the issue of institutional barriers for local producers.

Know your Food, Know your Farmer!

Do you enjoy fresh fruit and vegetables? Sustainably produced meat? Locally made honey and syrup? Would you
like to meet the farmer that grows your food? Find Vernon County farms that sell directly to consumers in this hand local food in this handy directory.

Don't miss the Community Harvest Dinner, Saturday, September 6! download poster

Biological Inventories

We are currently conducting a survey of rural landowners to collect land use and natural resource data to be compiled into a GIS mapping database that will be accessible for comprehensive planning purposes.

Stewardship and Education

We collaborate with local groups and agencies to promote field days and educational workshops for natural resource management and outreach education. We organized a Kickapoo River Cleanup. Our newsletter, Kickapoo Visions, is published twice a year and is distributed to watershed residents. For new or perspective landowners in the valley, we have recently published Owning Rural Lands. We provide other online resources and many resources available at our office.

Comprehensive Planning

We work to encourage local involvement in planning and creating a vision for the future of the area. As part of these efforts we conducted Kickapoo Conversations, a community wide visioning exercise.
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