Keynote speakers from Wisconsin, North Carolina and Minnesota will head the Red Cedar Watershed Conference Thursday, March 12, at UW-Stout.

The fourth annual event, from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., will be at the Memorial Student Center. Early registration ends Sunday, March 1. For more information or to register, go to the conference website at http://www.uwstout.edu/profed/redcedar/.

The conference examines point- and nonpoint-source pollution in watersheds. Blue-green algae blooms caused by an excess of phosphorous have compromised water quality in the Red Cedar River watershed, especially in lakes Menomin and Tainter.

The main speakers each will address a key aspect of the conference: water, land and people.

Water: Rod Olson, co-chair of the conference and representing the Red Cedar River Partnership, worked with neighbors and a DNR Lake Protection Grant to help restore the algae-choked Desair Lake in northwestern Wisconsin. In 2013, he received the Wisconsin Lakes Stewardship Award. He also received a good neighbor award from the Tainter-Menomin Lake Improvement Association. Heis a family doctor and emergency physician in Rice Lake. He will speak at 8:40 a.m.

Land: Ray Archuleta is a conservation agronomist and soil health specialist for the Natural Resource Conservation Service East at the National Technology Center in Greensboro, N.C. He teaches soil health and principles of agroecology across the country and is a certified professional soil scientist. He will speak at 12:45 p.m.

People: Sean Kershaw is executive director of the Citizens League of Minnesota and previously was deputy director for the St. Paul planning and economic development department. He advocates for active citizenship, civic organizing and good public policy. He will speak at 3 p.m.

Breakout sessions will include another 10 speakers, including UW-Stout Associate Professor Nels Paulson, applied social science, who heads the nationally funded LAKES Research Experience for Undergraduates; and Aaron Thompson, assistant professor of natural resource planning at UW-Stevens Point.

Other speakers will be from the Department of Natural Resources, Clean Wisconsin, Clean Lakes Alliance and UW-Extension.

Major sponsors of the conference are UW-Stout and the Tainter-Menomin Lake Improvement Association.

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Red Cedar Watershed Conference set for March 12