POTATOES AND TROUT: USING MODELING AND OPTIMIZATION TO EXPLORE CONNECTIONS BETWEEN AGRICULTURE AND ECOLOGICAL FLOWS IN THE LITTLE PLOVER RIVER, WISCONSIN

The Little Plover River in Wisconsin, a small baseflow-fed stream in an area of intense groundwater irrigation, has been the subject of a long history of groundwater/surface water interactions studies over a half century. Perhaps the most iconic work resulted in a classic (and still relevant) film led by the USGS in 1963 that remains a classic of science communication as well as a veritable fashion show of various crew cuts, lab coats, and cigarette smoking styles.

In 2013-2015, the authors were co-PIs, leading a multi-agency team on a revisit of the region to focus on modeling the interaction between agricultural production and groundwater available to supply the Little Plover River. A public rights flow rate in the river provided a hard, quantitative objective to serve as a target in constrained optimization to explore options for managing water use to the benefit of society while honoring commitments to the ecosystem. It was a contentious time and environment for this work to take place and the team spent many hours with stakeholders in formal meetings and in the field, working together to build trust in the model development process. In the end, we learned important lessons on the technical side, about incorporating stakeholders into the modeling process, and on science communication.