Protecting Yahara watershed from runoff

    According to the new watershed expansion guidelines from the city of Madison, my residence falls under the sub-watershed of Willow Creek. I find it interesting how the city publicly announces meetings on expansion and have them open-invite to the public. Yet, so little of us know about watersheds to begin with. I hope to attend a meeting in the near future after researching further into issues in this assignment. 

https://www.cityofmadison.com/news/watershed-studies-expand-3-new-public-meetings-coming-up

    Yahara’s climate has dramatically been shifting since the 1950s. Severe rain, storms, and droughts have become more frequent, which will continually impact the region’s ecosystem. Additionally, the number of very cold days have decreased while the growing season has extended. Climate change and other factors have been contributing to this changing season in the region. A large component of the ecosystem being disrupted is urban and agricultural run off. Excessive amounts of nutrient run off, especially Phosphorus and Nitrogen from agricultural fertilizers and livestock manure have been washing into Yahara’s waters. In terms of urban runoff, household fertilizers also play a small footprint into the water supply. The Nitrogen and Phosphorus runoff contribute to the blooming of blue-green algae in the streams. The cyanobacteria blooms are unsafe and toxic. They reduce the ability of fish and other aquatic life to find food. It often leads to the mortalities of entire populations or lead to migration.

https://www.pca.state.mn.us/water/blue-green-algae-and-harmful-algal-blooms

Madison downtown has extensive infrastructure and various types of land management which all contribute to soil erosion, worsened flooding risks, and increased nutrient runoff. As described in lecture this week, these reason are partly why we observed the flooding of lake Yahara in 2018, mainly due to extreme weather events however. The runoff has contributed to lake Yahara developing weeds, contaminated waters, receiving far fewer birds, and stop producing wild rice. The neurotoxin produced from the cyanobacteria makes not only the area visually unappealing and odored but also dangerous to surrounding wildlife and humans. Exposure to the toxin can lead to sickness: Diarrhea, nausea or vomiting; skin, eye or throat irritation; and allergic reactions or breathing difficulties. Additionally, it can cause not only nerve sickness but also produce hepatotoxins, affecting your liver. What can we do to reduce all these affects on the aquatic ecosystems? We have shown time and time again that we don’t have any regard for aquatic ecosystems. Maybe we could make the change for ourselves, since the algal toxins affects humans and pets too!

    Runoff in lake Yahara is primarily influenced from agricultural usage of Phosphorus and Nitrogen from agricultural fertilizers and livestock manure. The runoff from the soil has been been detrimental to the water quality and ecosystem. Making small changes such as not using fertilizers on your own lawn contribute to the cause. Runoff goes into sewers which circles back to affect the lakes. If we want to contribute to greater change, then advocating for less usage of Phosphorus and Nitrogen would ultimately help the cause. 

I completed option A

Citations:

University of Wisconsin- Madison. (n.d.). The Yahara watershed. Water Sustainability and Climate. Retrieved from https://wsc.limnology.wisc.edu/about/watershed 

Washington State Department of Health. (n.d.). Blue-green algae. Washington State Department of Health. Retrieved from https://doh.wa.gov/community-and-environment/contaminants/blue-green-algae