ORAL AND POSTER PRESENTER POSTER: http://tinyurl.com/2024WSC-Carrozzino-Lyon POSTER TITLE: Restoring manoomin on the Green Bay west shore through conservation partnerships & community outreach POSTER ABSTRACT: Manoomin (wild rice) is an ecologically and culturally important native emergent wetland plant believed lost from Lower Green Bay and its tributaries during post-colonial intensive land use and environmental degradation. UWGB, Ducks Unlimited, WDNR, USF&WS, and other conservation partners are working to restore wild rice and enhance fish and wildlife habitat in Green Bay west shore coastal wetlands. Since 2017, sites have been hand-seeded in late fall to allow overwintering in the sediment and stimulate germination in the spring. Monitoring efforts led by UWGB during the growing season have helped partners to understand factors impacting establishment and have informed adaptive management. Mid-bay sites responded immediately after the first seeding, while Lower Bay sites experienced initial challenges but have since improved with recent declining lake levels. Preliminary observations suggest that exposure to high energy wave action, carp disturbance, and persistent water clarity and turbidity issues are likely factors influencing establishment. The team established a "Wild Rice in the Classroom" outreach program in 2020 to engage regional K-12 educators and students in restoration through growing wild rice in their classrooms or greenhouses as a placed-based learning experience. A collaborative approach to management and monitoring among conservation partners, along with effective community engagement and outreach focused on youth, serves to enhance the restoration effort and broaden its impacts. PRESENTATION TITLE: Enhancing wetland vegetation on the Green Bay west shore through restoration, monitoring, and outreach PRESENTATION ABSTRACT: For nearly a decade, UWGB and conservation partners have collaborated to enhance aquatic vegetation along the Green Bay west shore, one of the last strongholds of Wisconsin’s coastal wetland habitat within the Lake Michigan basin. Management activities include reintroducing manoomin (wild rice) to suitable wetland habitats, enhancing impounded wetlands to promote fish and wildlife habitat, and managing non-local (invasive) wetland plants such as Phragmites and European frog-bit to support native wetland plants. Focusing on long-term, coordinated management at priority coastal wetlands concentrates the team’s efforts and allows for site-specific adaptive management. Ongoing monitoring contributes to understanding important environmental or ecological factors at play and documents changes over time. This approach assists with response to challenges such as fluctuating water levels and localized invasive plant impacts on priority wetlands. Local site information, in combination with a geographically broader context of adjacent sites, influences decision-making as part of an adaptive management feedback loop. Building partnerships beyond traditional conservation groups enhances restoration goals and works toward rebuilding community connections with the bay of Green Bay. For example, more than 1,200 local students grew wild rice in their school classrooms or greenhouse since 2020 as a learning opportunity to connect with a culturally-important wetland plant and participate in restoration. A combination of effective long-term conservation partnerships, adaptive management flexibility in response to environmental conditions, and continued monitoring and outreach are key components to successful community conservation. BIO: Amy Carrozzino-Lyon (she/her/hers) is a restoration scientist and Green Bay restoration project coordinator at UWGB. In this role, she coordinates with conservation partners, community groups, and local schools on projects working toward ecological restoration of coastal wetland communities.