BECWA founding member Steve Born is being recognized with an Alumni Award from UW-Madison's Nelson Institute. Read his remarkable story of a life devoted to water.

By Michelle Harris & Andy Morton, BECWA Board of Directors On Earth Day, April 22, 2025, BECWA hosted a community Forum on the Health of the Black Earth Creek Watershed at the Wisconsin Heights Middle School Steproom. The Forum was an opportunity to communicate key points of BECWA’s 2024 Watershed Report ( BECWA.org/2024-watershed-report ) as well as to share information on several key watershed-related initiatives and topics. Steve Born The 80+ forum attendees included water

A 480-acre development proposed near Cross Plains has been advancing through approvals, raising concerns about its potential impact on the Festge Springs Complex and the cold-water trout fishery it feeds in Black Earth Creek.

When astronauts return from their first mission to space, they often speak about the wonder and beauty of Earth, and how they have a reinforced sense of responsibility for the planet. While BECWA doesn’t build spaceships, we do foster locally based stewardship for our watershed. That is why BECWA is working to use 21st-century modeling and software technology to bring our own birds’ eye view of the Black Earth Creek Watershed to life! This dual platform project will serve as

A 115-acre Vermont Lutheran Church property hosting a Black Earth Creek tributary is becoming a conservation success story, with invasive species management underway and a DNR electroshocking survey turning up 77 brown trout.

BECWA, the DNR, UW-Madison Biocore, and local librarians are teaming up again to bring kids hands-on creek exploration experiences at watershed libraries throughout 2025.

A Black Earth Creek restoration project combining large wood habitat structures, bank stabilization, and floodplain reconnection with native plantings and improved public access to the water.

BECWA celebrates Johnny Armstrong's five years of service as Treasurer and website manager, whose modernization of our financial and digital infrastructure leaves a lasting mark on the organization.

A lifelong Black Earth Creek resident, former local newspaper editor, and early chronicler of BECWA's founding joins the Board, bringing decades of personal and professional connection to the watershed.

BECWA cosponsored the Wisconsin Neonic Forum at the Institute for Discovery on the UW Madison Campus on October 30, 2024. Topics included: what neonicotinoids are and where they are used in Wisconsin, economic benefits of neonic use, risks to the environment, Wisconsin oversight of neonics and regulatory approaches from other states and countries. Visit cleanwisconsin.org/neonics for helpful info that came out of the Forum. In addition, here is a link to slides from Mike Mill