2003 MEETING HIGHLIGHTS

​27th Annual Meeting - "Gathering of the Waters"

Meeting Information
February 27 - 28, 2003 at Lake of the Torches Hotel and Conference Center, Lac du Flambeau, Wisconsin.

Download the Program

Download the Abstracts

Meeting Highlights
The Wisconsin Section of the AWRA held its 27th annual meeting on February 27 and 28 of 2003 at the Lake of the Torches Hotel and Conference Center in Lac du Flambeau, Wisconsin. The theme for the meeting was "Gathering of the Waters". Lac du Flambeau is a Native American community centered within the Indian Reservation of the Lac du Flambeau Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians.

The plenary session titled "Waters of Wisconsin Initiative: Update, Results and Next Steps" was presented by:

• Bruce Baker, Deputy Water Division Administrator, Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources;
• George Kraft, Director, Center for Watershed Science and Education, UW-Stevens Point;
• Pat Leavenworth, State Conservationist, Natural Resources Conservation Service, USDA; and
• Curt Meine, Director of Conservation Programs, Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts and Letters.

The banquet dinner presentation described the natural resource base of the Lac du Flambeau Indian Reservation, highlighting programs to protect and conserve its resources for present and future generations. This presentation was made by Larry Wawronowicz, Deputy Administrator of Natural Resources, Lac du Flambeau Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians and Brian Ganthier, a tribal member employed with the UW Extension at Flambeau.

Concurrent sessions of the two days included paper presentations by water resource professionals. Several awards were given to student presenters. The winner of the top student Poster Presentation went to Jeffrey D. Wilcox of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Department of Geology and Geophysics for a poster titled "Spatial and Temporal Variability of Groundwater Chemistry Beneath Agricultural Land: Implications for Assessing Environmental Impacts of a New Unsewered Subdivision". Two awards were presented for the best student paper. These were presented to: Lori E. Schmidt of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee for a paper titled "Delineation of High Salinity Conditions in the Cambro-Ordovician Aquifer of Eastern Wisconsin;" and Ingrid L. Ekstrom of the University of Wisconsin-Madison for a paper titled "Response of Redox Conditions to Air Sparging in a Geochemically Heterogeneous Groundwater System."

The 2003 Distinguished Service Award was presented to Ron Hennings (pictured above with colleague Ken Bradbury) of the Wisconsin Geological and Natural History Survey and University of Wisconsin - Extension. Ron has been an advocate for groundwater education and protection in Wisconsin since the early 1980s, and he has been involved in a number of important projects related to these issues, including: the development of the sand tank groundwater flow model, the development of Wisconsin's "Groundwater Study Guide", the development of Wisconsin's comprehensive Groundwater Law, and the establishment of the Central Wisconsin Groundwater Center at UW-Stevens Point campus. Ron has also worked with the Groundwater Coordinating Council since its inception, having served on each of the five subcommittees during the past 18 years. There is virtually no area pertaining to Wisconsin's groundwater resources where Ron has not played some role during his career, and for this dedication he is a deserving recipient of the 2003 Distinguished Service Award.

New officers were elected, including Mike Penn of UW-Platteville as President-Elect, Paul McGinley of UW-Stevens Point as Vice-President, Brent Brown of CH2M Hill as Secretary, and Douglas Cherkauer of UW-Milwaukee as a Director-at-Large. See Officers page for contact information. Rick Stoll of Wisconsin DNR assumed the role of President for 2003-2004.

The complete meeting program along with abstracts is available on the Water Resources Institute (WRI) web site. Thanks to Paulette Homant of the USGS for her work as local arrangements chair, and Chris Carlson of the Wisconsin DNR for putting together the technical program.

Next year's meeting is anticipated to be held in the Stevens Point area of Wisconsin during the first week of March 2004.