Greater Blufflands Forum Planning Meeting

 

You are invited to attend the second planning meeting for the Greater Blufflands Forum on April 18-19, 2002 in Holland, Wisconsin. We encourage you to attend and participate in an ongoing discussion of land use and resource management issues pertinent to the area known as the Driftless, Karst or Blufflands Region. This area includes SE Minnesota, SW Wisconsin, NE Iowa and part of NW Illinois. 

This Forum will give you an opportunity to receive and share information pertinent to the Driftless Area/Blufflands Region you live or work in.  With your participation this group will overcome the political fragmentation of this landscape by bringing together individuals from across state boundaries to identify common goals and find a unified voice with which to speak about this landscape with its unique opportunities and challenges. We expect this to lead to the development of synergies among different groups in the region.  We are also hoping it will generate proposals specific to this region that can be included in plans and initiatives that are getting underway in the Upper Mississippi River Basin.

The agenda for the meeting and a map of the meeting place are enclosed.  This second planning meeting will again include an exchange of information among participants, and the development of mission, vision, and values to guide future discussions.

 

In an effort to help the forum discussion move forward, we have enclosed the following items for you to review before the meeting. 

 

Maps of the potential project areas – There is still some discussion on how to delineate the proposed area.  Input from the last meeting suggested we develop some maps of the options.  You will find maps of the two main options –

·         Greater Blufflands Forum Area Choice A - This option includes all of MLRA (Major Land Resource Area) 105 and MLRA 104.  The area as delineated has historic data, collected by NRCS.  This area also includes some small headwaters of watersheds that never drain to 105.

·         Greater Blufflands Forum Area Choice B - This option includes all of 105 (What we think of as the Blufflands or Driftless Region) and most of 104.  This area does not include the small portions of watersheds that never drain to MLRA 105.  The area, defined in this manner, has never been studied as a system.

 

Notes from the January 2002 Blufflands Forum Meeting – These notes will refresh your memory of our January activities so we can move forward.  They may be particularly helpful for those of you that could not attend the first meeting.

 

Request for posters or information on your activities in the project area – Although we would like to hear from everyone as soon as possible we understand that there are too many of us to accomplish that and maintain our sanity.  We also recognize that we can move forward faster if we understand each other better.  Please bring a poster or other printed material to hang up in the meeting room for all to review.

If you are planning on attending please RSVP to Lora Friest at lora.friest@ia.usda.gov

or call 563-864-7112.  If you can not attend please send another representative from your organization.

 

 

 

Greater Blufflands Forum Request for Posters

 

We would like everyone attending the April meeting to bring a poster, or other written information, about his or her activities in the area.

 

 Although we would like to hear presentations from everyone as soon as possible, we understand that there are too many of us to accomplish that in the first few meetings.  We also recognize that we can move forward faster if we understand each other better.  Please bring a poster or other printed material to hang up in the meeting room for all to review.  This doesn’t have to be anything elaborate.  Everyone will have different presentations.  Please try to include information about:

 

 

Your Location – Where you concentrate your efforts.

 

Your Scale –The size or scale of your work area.

 

Your Focus –The types of work you concentrate on- wildlife, fisheries, water quality, forestry, geology, soil conservation, planning, coordination, watershed planning etc.

 

Your Communication – Who you communicate with on a regular basis- landowners, agency personnel, Congressmen, etc.

 

 

 

 

You will notice that we have placed time in the agenda for informal poster sessions. 

 

 

Thanks for participating.  This will help us move forward.