Forest has met in person with Gregg Stangl, LaCrosse Co Con (2/20), and Bob Micheel, the county conservationist from Monroe Co (3/16). Both were supportive of the idea and had some good ideas for further partnering. The merits of doing this as a regional study have been mentioned by both folks Forest spoke with. Costs are lower for each county, the project would be more attractive to finance, USGS is more likely to take on the project (they like larger projects), and it makes more sense scientifically to have one study done at one time under the same criteria looking at the same features across the region than a piecemeal study.
We need more people on board pushing for this important information!