Headwaters of Red River ● Lower Demlow Lake ● Langlade County Stockbridge-Munsee Community Wetland Study Area Watershed-scale assessment Headwaters of Red River ● Lower Demlow Lake ● Langlade County

WETLAND FUNCTIONAL ASSESSMENT Assessment was completed in partnership with St. Mary’s University of Minnesota Geospatial Services. Project Timeline: Early 2012: Project Planning July 2012-Feburary 2014 start to completion Project outcomes/Products: Describes existing wetlands, historic wetlands, and identifies a set of potential restorable wetland sites recommended for further investigation. Project Outcomes/Products received: The assessment describes characteristics of wetland and based on these characteristics assesses select ecological functions that these wetlands perform in the watershed. The assessment also describes historic wetland conditions using 1930 aerial photography. Identifies a set of potential wetland restoration sites that was procuded through photointerpetation and collateral geospatial layers.

STOCKBRIDGE-MUNSEE WETLAND STUDY AREA 334 square miles or 213,508 acres. Expands across Langlade, Menominee and Shawano Counties of Northeastern Wisconsin Includes 8 12-digit HUCs (National Hydrography Dataset’s hydrological unit codes) including: Silver Creek-West Branch of the Wolf River Pony Creek-North Branch of the Wolf River Red Lakes-Red River Strassburg Creek North Branch of the Embarrass River Mill Creek Miller Creek Neopit Mill Pond Moose Lake-Red River

Stockbridge-Munsee Community Study Area Study Area includes 48,500 acres of wetland (present day) which is 23% of the study area Most of wetland area is also vegetated wetlands (95.5%) and of these vegetated wetlands, 86.4% are forested wetlands Primary land cover within study area is predominantly forest (61.%) and agriculture (23%) with agricultural land uses more prevalent in the southeastern portion of study area. Tribal Land: land cover 83% forested, 17% forested wetland

POTENTIALLY RESTORABLE WETLANDS (PRW) INTERPETED 178 PRW interpreted locations have been identified within the study area Each site identified were intended to represent the general area that was determined to be worthy of further investigation Each points are ranked and have explanation of site. Several geospatial data products were created for this project and intended to provide indications of where wetland restoration opportunties might exist within the study area. I will go into slight detail of to describe the geospatial data layers utilized for identifiying PRW sites within the study area.

PRW RANK 4 NOTES: LARGE AREAS OF HYDRIC SOIL, CONVERT TO AG FIELD, W&E OF ROAD

METHOD PRW INTERPETED STATEWIDE PRW POLYGON LAYER WAS OBTAINED FROM WI DNR LAYER WAS CLIPPED TO THE STUDY AREA NEXT: SSURGO SOILS DATA POLYGONS WERE QUERIED TO FIND HYDRIC SOILS WITH 90% OR MORE HYDROC COMPONENTS OF A GIVEN SOIL POLYGON (MAP UNIT) WETLAND POLYGON DATA WAS INTERSECTED (ESRI ANALYSIS TOOL) WITH THE HYDRIC SOIL POLYGONS TO DETERMINE WHERE HYDRIC SOILS EXIST OUTSIDE THE EXISTING MAPPED WETLANDS. Several geospatial data products were created for this project and intended to provide indications of where restoration opportunties exist within the study area. THOSE ALONE MIGHT BE POTENTIAL RESTORABLE WETLAND AREAS, BUT SOME LAND USES ARE NOT CONDUCTIVE TO RESTORATION.

PRW METHOD INTERPETED RESULTING POLYGON LAYER WAS THEN INTERSECTED WITH A ROADS LAYER AND LAND USE LAYER (NOT SHOWN) TO DETERMINE WHERE HYDRIC SOILS HAVE BEEN PERMENANTLY CONVERTED TO LAND USE. EXAMPLES: NOT PRACTICAL TO REMOVE A ROAD, DEVELOPED CULVERT, URBAND LAND TO WETLANDS Su per FLU US

PRW METHOD INTERPETED RESULTING LAYER: EDITED TO REDUCE ANYTHING SUPERFLUOUS OR ANY ERRONEOUS POLYGONS REMOVED POLYGONS THAT HAD LARGER PERIMETERS THAN AREAS, WHICH WERE REFERRED TO AS “SILVER POLYGONS” SILVER POLYGONS APPEAR TO BE PRIMARILY THE RESULT OF MAPPING DISCREPANCIES BETWEEN WETLAND DATA AND SOILS DATA LAYERS DEVELOPED WITH DIFFERENT MAPPING METHODOLOGIES AND DIFFERENT GEOGRAPHIC SCALES. SLIVER POLYGONS WERE REMOVED AND ALL THE HYDRIC SOIL POLYGONS THAT WERE NOT LOCATED WITHIN EXISTING WETLAND, DID NOT OVERLAP ROADS OR URBAN USE WERE THEN LABELED PRWS

UPDATED PRW POLYGONS PRW DATA OBTAINED FROM WI DNR WAS DEVELOPED USING OLDER VERSION OF THE WWI DATA FROM 1980’S AERIAL PHOTOGRAPHY UPDATED VERSION WAS COMPLETED TO MORE CONTEMPORARY, HIGHER RESOLUTION WETALND DATA 2005 NWI POLYGON DATA (WWI POINTS AND POLYGONS CONVERTED TO NWI POLYGONS)

PRW RANKED PRW RANKED LAYER WAS CREATED AS INPUT LAYER TO BE USED TO CREATE PRELIMINARY DATA, LIST OF POTENTIAL WETLAND RESTORATION SITES THAT WERE DETERMINED THROUGH PHOTO INTERPETATION USING RANKED PRW LAYER, 2005 NAIP ORTHOPHOTOS, TERRAIN ANALYSIS LAYERS (dem_derived product), SOILS DATA AND A “WETLAND LOSS LAYER” THESE GEOSPATIAL LAYERS WERE USED TO CREATE A PRW SITE DATASET AND THE RANKING OF HOW VIABLE THE SITE MIGHT BE IN TERMS OF HYDROLOGY TO SUPPORT WETLAND AND THE PRESENT LAND USE CAMPATABILITY.

UPDATING: ERASED PRW POLYGONS DEVELOPED BY THE WIDNR WITH THE NEW NWI POLYGONS. ROADS LAYER FROM ESRI ONLINE WAS USED TO UPDATE THE ORIGINAL PRW POLYGON LAYER. ROAD BUFFERS WERE USED TO ERASE ANY PRW SITES THAT WERE NOT AVAILABLE FOR RESTORATION ACTIVITIES.

Priority Area Priority Area includes three watersheds within study area upstream from SMC Tribal Land: Moose Lake-Red River Silver Creek-West Branch of the Red River Strassburg Creek-North Branch of the Embarrass River Portions of the Town of Red Springs

PRIORITY AREA SELECTION TOWN OF RED SPRINGS UPPER WATERSHEDS NITRATE-N DRINKING WATER STANDARD WAS EXCEEDED IN 37% OF ALL SAMPLING POINTS, 47% OF HOMEOWNER WELLS AREAS WITH HISTORIC AND ACTIVE AGRICULTURAL LAND USE GENERALY EXHIBITED ELEVATED NITRATE CONCENTRATIONS, ALONG WITH ELEVATED CHLORIDE SUBWATERSHEDS UPSTREAM FROM RESERVATION MORE CONCENTRATED AREAS OF PRW SITES, WITHIN CLOSER PROXIMITY TO SURFACE WATER CONS: RED LAKES-RED RIVER HAS MOST PRW SITES, CLEAN WATER PROGRAM DOES NOT CURRENTLY COLLECT DATA WITHIN MOOSE LAKE-RED RIVER

1938 HISTORIC WETLANDS

GREEN: REMOVED WETLANDS PURPLE: PRW HIGH TRANSPARENT POLYGONS: NWI PLUS/PRESENT DAY WETLANDS

Thank You CONTACT: ANGELA WAUPOCHICK PH: 715-793-4818 EMAIL: ANGELA.WAUPOCHICK@MOHICAN-NSN.GOV