Left, a view of the Wisconsin River from waterfront property in June 2013. (City-Times photo)

City-Times Staff

Homeowners with waterfront property can get a little help from the county this year protecting their shorelands.

Thanks to a grant from the Wisconsin DNR, the Portage County Land Conservation Department can install lake shoreland habitat restoration projects on Portage County lakes. According to the county’s conservation technician Randy Slagg, about $10,000 is available for these types of projects.

“We’ve been doing a couple projects every year,” Slagg said. “With private landowners, we’ll work within 35 feet of a shoreland, typically we plant from the lawn. We create a buffer with native vegetation.”

He added most waterfront properties in the county have about 100 feet of shoreline.

Using the grant funds, landowners within the county could be eligible for a cost share of up to 75 percent for some of their shoreland projects, Slagg said.

Some of the approved projects include:

• Native plant plugs and seed
• Native shrubs/trees
• Shoreland site planting preparation/ Mulching materials and labor
• Planting labor
• Runoff detention within shoreland zone
• Roof runoff control – materials and labor
• Shoreline erosion control stabilization – materials and labor

Landowners interested in participating in the program must have their lake shoreland property evaluated by county’s Land Conservation Department (LCD) staff to determine project eligibility and ranking. Final selection of project sites will be done by LCD staff.

The deadline for landowner requests for an on-site lake shoreland property evaluation is March 29, though that date could be extended if not enough interest is generated.

Landowners interested in participating in the program should contact Randy Slagg, Conservation Technician at 715-346-1334 or [email protected] as soon as possible.