Chapter 26 GIS Prioritization Plan

The prioritization plan was developed to aid in the inspection process to ensure compliance with Sauk County Chapter 26 and state performance standards. To remove personal, political, and social biases when selecting parcels, it is important to seek environmentally sensitive areas with the greatest need for protection and areas with the greatest potential for resource concerns.

Objectives

• To ensure effective implementation of the Sauk County Land Resources and Environment Department (LRE) Land and Water Resource Management Plan.
• Strategically conduct inspections to ensure compliance with Sauk County Chapter 26 Agricultural Performance Standards and Manure Management Ordinance.
• Install best management practices on priority parcels and cropland to improve the natural resources and public health of Sauk County.

Prioritization

Several levels of prioritization have been developed to help the LRE Department be most effective at implementing Chapter 26.

Voluntary Participation

Regardless of location in the county, landowners with noncompliant sites that voluntarily seek compliance without previous designation by the LRE Department will acquire priority status and will receive priority attention through available technical assistance and cost sharing. Cost-share funds will not be provided to landowners previously designated as compliant.

Complaints

Regardless of location in the county, when the LRE Department receives complaints, the complaint will receive priority status and attention through available technical assistance and cost sharing. Cost-share funds will not be provided to landowners previously designated as compliant.

Preceding Compliance Requirements

Regardless of location in the county, participants in the Farmland Preservation Program, sites with manure storages, sites with active operation and maintenance agreements, etc. will receive priority attention after voluntary participation and complaints.

Geographic Prioritization

After working through the previously stated priorities, the LRE Department will execute geographically prioritized implementation throughout the county. 

• The Erosion Vulnerability Assessment for Agricultural Lands (EVAAL) model was used as the basis for this assessment because it captures the soil loss potential of agricultural lands. It starts by hydrologically conditioning a Digital Elevation Model (DEM) to fill artificial sinks and break digital dams.  It then identifies internally drained areas and removes those from the analysis. Then, it downloads precipitation data (at the county level) for a 10 year, 24 hour rain event. It then draws on soil data and crop cover data to estimate soil loss using the Universal Soil Loss Equation (USLE). It also estimates Stream Power Index (SPI). The USLE and SPI layers are then combined to create the Erosion Vulnerability Index (EVI) layer. This is a raster layer in which each cell of the raster is ranked relative to every other cell in the area the EVAAL analysis was completed on. In this case, each HUC12 watershed of Sauk County had an EVAAL analysis performed.
• A score is given to each agriculture parcel through the EVAAL process. Each parcel is assigned a EVI score from 1-10. Next, each parcel is awarded 1 point for the presence of a variety of factors including: presence of livestock, presence of restricted soils (1 point for 1 category, 2 points for 2 categories), presence of a Surface Water Quality Management Area (SWQMA) within the parcel, if the parcel is located within a watershed containing 303(d) listed waters, if a 303(d) listed waterway runs through a parcel, and if the parcel is in noncompliance with the FPP program. These factors were multiplied by 0.1 and added to the EVI score to rank the parcels within each EVI value.
• A score of 1 means that parcel is in the lowest 10% of EVI scores in that watershed, meaning that parcel is at or near the lowest risk in its particular watershed. Conversely, a score of 10 means that parcel is in the highest percentile category and at the highest risk in its watershed.

Implementation

Over the next several years, the LRE Department will be conducting site visits to evaluate compliance with Chapter 26. In 2026, the department will visit the watershed identified as most vulnerable to resource concerns and will visit the remaining watersheds in subsequent years. Annual stakeholder meetings will be held to provide updates on implementation progress.

Landowners interested in receiving updates and being informed of future meetings should sign up for email notifications and select the “Crops and Soils” topic.

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