This wisconsin sea grant omnibus proposal responds to our 2024-27 wisconsin sea grant strategic plan, developed with our coastal stakeholders, to respond to challenges in lakes superior and michigan…

This wisconsin sea grant omnibus proposal responds to our 2024-27 wisconsin sea grant strategic plan, developed with our coastal stakeholders, to respond to challenges in lakes superior and michigan and our coastal communities. Our overall proposal responds directly to the needs of coastal partners including researchers, resource managers, policymakers, industry and non-governmental agency leaders, educators, students, and the general public. Wisconsin sea grant truly embraces the wisconsin idea in that the borders of our UW program are those of the state and beyond. While supporting targeted research at wisconsin universities, we equally value coupled outreach and educational programming. Our outreach staff are post-graduate scientific specialists, strategically hired to address issues that affect wisconsins coast (i.e., coastal engineering, habitat restoration, water quality, coastal tourism, fisheries, aquac invasive species, aquaculture). Our communications staff respond to stakeholder priories and work directly to deliver products and services to specific audiences. We use emerging technology including podcasts and videos to reach our broad audiences. Our K-12 education efforts are centered on a teach the trainer approach to maximize the outcomes. We have also recently expanded from supporting mainly graduate research, to provide innovative programming for undergraduate students and have built relationships with state and federal agencies to provide postgraduate training opportunities. Our investment also includes programming intended to ensure that we respond to wisconsins needs for a diverse workforce. IT is important to train scientists who can nimbly respond to issues affecting the great lakes and our coastal communities. Outreach, education, and communications efforts address goals and priorities within four strategic focus areas determined by the national sea grant college program - - healthy coastal ecosystems, resilient communities and economies, sustainable fisheries and aquaculture, and environmental literacy and workforce development. Our program will be evaluated based on how we respond to the multiple objectives within each of these focus areas. We will reevaluate progress after two years and make course corrections to address current and emerging priorities. The following proposal reflects our alignment with strategic priorities and outreach communications and education. A second, coupled proposal focuses on competed research and program development that also aligns with our 2024 -27 strategic plan. Together the two phases of our omnibus provide a cohesive, sound, and stakeholder-driven response to challenges affecting our great lakes and coasts. Wisconsin sea grant land and water acknowledgment statement wisconsin sea grants work takes place in the great lakes of michigan and superior and the state of wisconsin. We acknowledge we are guests on the traditional homelands of the anishinaabe, HO-chunk, menominee and potawatomi peoples. We are an organization working for diverse, thriving coastal ecosystems and communities. We embrace the value of both western scientific approaches and local indigenous knowledge to strengthen our relationships with the waters, land and peoples of wisconsin. This water and land acknowledgment is a reminder of elements of our setting that have been overlooked, ignored or misrepresented by the dominant stories and teachings of american history. We must face the outcomes of unjust treaties and land granting systems, dispossession and harm caused by our universitys past complicity with policies of cultural and physical genocide as we seek reconciliation with the 12 first nations of wisconsin. With humility and openness, we pledge to do the hard work of reflection and truth-telling to move toward a more just future.