Freshwater Collaborative Water Policy Network Meeting – Case Study and Methods Presentation Topic: Wisconsin Healthy Lakes and Rivers Program

Eric Olson presented on the Wisconsin Healthy Lakes and Rivers Program, a multi-year effort to encourage shoreland property owners to engage in behavior changes that protect water quality and provide native habitat around lakes and rivers. The collaborative team behind Healthy Lakes and Rivers includes Extension educators, UW-Madison researchers, Wisconsin DNR managers, and other state and local partners. Since 2015, the effort has been successful in 33 Wisconsin counties, with practices installed on 942 shoreland properties. This represents a $1.53 million state investment over that time. Last year, the team began deploying a property owner self-evaluation tool to help steer interested landowners to practices suitable to their specific situations. To increase uptake of the tool and wider awareness of the program, they are exploring the potential value of using digital marketing to reach shoreland property owners in a more targeted fashion.

This presentation summarized some of their pilot attempts to create custom audiences in Google Ads and discuss their use of shoreland property owner data in developing the audiences. This work is being supported by an undergraduate intern funded by the UW-Stevens Point Pathways Internship Program. In the discussion, they developed new ideas for using digital marketing to motivate behavior change.

Tune in to the full meeting here.