Rebecca Power, Interim Director North Central Region Water Network

University of Wisconsin-Extension Environmental Resources Center

and Richard Klemme, Dean and Director

University of Wisconsin Cooperative Extension

Zeitoun 2011

Watershed Scale Projects

Regional Coordination

Projects

National Facilitation

Projects

National Water Network

Research, Education, Extension

NRI/AFRI Extension Education

North Central Region

WesternRegion

Southern Region

NortheastRegion

Scope: North Central Region Conversations among the Heartland, Great Lakes

leadership teams and North and South Dakota water leaders

Central questions: Is multi-state water collaboration worth doing (even

without $)? What interests do we have across the 12 states? How do we accommodate sub-regional issues?

September 2012 - Regional water leaders developed and presented concept paper to Extension directors and program leaders. Proposed: A regional planning process Development of a white paper a new model for

Extension-led water programming in the North Central Region

Associated funding

November 2012 • State delegates

selected by Extension Directors

December 2012 • North Central

Region Water Planning Meeting

April 2013 • White

paper to Extension Directors

North Central Region Director vote – July 2013 Unanimous $250,000 annually

Substantial portion invested by University of Wisconsin-Extension and University of Nebraska-Lincoln Extension

3-year pilot Partners and effective integration with federal agencies

will be critical

Increase connectivity and learning between university professionals and partners across a diversity of water-related disciplines and roles

Strengthen networking and communication between university professionals with Extension appointments and those with exclusively research appointments

Build capacity of universities to address multi-state issues and opportunities

Generate measurable economic, environmental, and social impacts in the short and long-term

Network Staff

Regional Administrative

Council

State Points of Contact

Regional Initiatives • Regional

Director

• Administrative support

• Marketing

• Evaluator

• Extension Directors

• Agencies

• Industry

• NGOs

• Water experts

• Seed funding - $90K annually

December 2013 – Convene state contacts February 2014 – Launch website March 2014

Host first “speed networking” presentations Begin selection of Regional Administrative Council

May 2014 - Seed grants available July 2014 - North Central Region water conference

Illinois - Richard Cooke, George Czapar Indiana - Jane Frankenberger Iowa - Rick Cruse, Chad Ingels, John Lawrence*, Gary Taylor, Lois Wright-Morton* Kansas - Dan Devlin Michigan - Tom Coon, Marilyn Thelen, Lois Wolfson Minnesota - Brent Hales, Faye Sleeper

Missouri - Bob Broz, Beverly Maltsberger Nebraska - Tom Franti, Chuck Hibberd North Dakota - Tom Scherer, Kathy Tweeten* Ohio - Joe Bonnell, Eugene Braig, Greg LaBarge South Dakota - Christopher Hay, Jeppe Kjaersgaard, Dennis Todey Wisconsin - Tom Blewett*, Ken Genskow, Victoria Harris, Rebecca Power*, Rick Klemme. Jenna Klink

*Steering Team members

Illinois – Brian Miller, Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant

Indiana - Jane Frankenberger, Purdue

Iowa – Jamie Benning, Iowa State

Kansas - Dan Devlin, K-State

Michigan - Lois Wolfson, Michigan State

Minnesota - Faye Sleeper, University of Minnesota

Missouri – Dan Downing, University of Missouri

Nebraska – Richard Koelsch, University of Nebraska

North Dakota - Tom Scherer, North

Dakota State Ohio - Joe Bonnell, The Ohio State

South Dakota - Christopher Hay,

South Dakota State

Wisconsin - Ken Genskow, University of Wisconsin

Water resource management is complex Flexible bridging and boundary-spanning

organizations are necessary for successful water resource management States Scales Disciplines Diverse partners Research and community engagement/education

Research needs to be tightly coupled with high quality community engagement and education

Network Contact: Rebecca Power University of Wisconsin-Extension Environmental Resources Center 608-263-3425 rlpower@wisc.edu

Acknowledgements

Tom Blewett – CRD Program Director, WI

John Lawrence – ANR Program Director, IA

Kathy Tweeten – CRD Program Director, ND

Lois Wright-Morton – Professor, IA

Rick Klemme –Extension Director, WI

Chuck Hibberd – Extension Director, NE

North Central Region Extension Directors

North Central Region state delegates