Watershed Sustainability and Climate Project, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Series: The Yahara Watershed

The Yahara River is relatively short in length and small in volume, but it plays an outsized role in Wisconsin given its location and status as the subject of detailed scientific research. A tributary of the Rock River, which in turn flows into the Mississippi, the Yahara is defined by the chain of lakes that are home to Madison and its suburbs, which are growing rapidly. Dominated for many decades by agriculture, the watershed drained by the river is increasingly becoming urbanized as its population increases. The region's water faces challenges in terms of quality and quantity that development and climate change are intensifying over the long term. University of Wisconsin scientists have long studied the lakes and how the surrounding landscape affects their condition, establishing the watershed and Madison area as a model for better understanding interactions between cities and the natural world around them.
 
The year 2070 may sound like an impossibly distant date from the vantage point of 2016, but it's as near into the future as John Glenn's first orbit of the Earth is in the past.
The Yahara 2070 research project uses science to project potential changes in the watershed surrounding Madison. Monica Turner, an ecology professor at UW-Madison and one of the project's principal investigators, discusses the research.