Since 2011, Kevin has conducted 15 voluntary well water testing events in Sheboygan County towns, including the most recent in the Town of Rhine. Over 130 of the Town’s households picked up test kits on September 29th and returned them on October 2nd. Kevin then transported the samples to the lab at UW-Stevens Point the next morning. Many of the participants had either never had their water tested or couldn’t remember the last time they had. Reaching this need was made possible in part by a subsidy from Sheboygan County that allowed most of the tests to be offered at a discount.
As part of a team assisting the Village of Cascade, Kevin was asked to locate existing ponds in the Sheboygan County area that meet specific criteria: 3-4 acres in size; no surface inlet such as a stream; buffered with native vegetation to prevent run-off from farm fields, roads, and lawns. After using the County’s GIS to search across 500 square miles of orthophotography and measure the approximate size of dozens of possible candidates, he was able to find three ponds that could serve as models for how the deteriorating Cascade mill pond might be reconstructed in the future if Nichols Creek were to be disconnected from the pond to once again become a free-flowing trout stream.
An EEO/AA employer, University of Wisconsin-Madison Division of Extension provides equal opportunities in employment and programming, including Title VI, Title IX, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act requirements.
