Assessment Tool

The assessment tool provides a simple, easy-to-use approach for assessing the condition or "health" of the “loss of fish and wildlife habitat” beneficial use impairment (BUI) in the Lower Green Bay and Fox River Area of Concern (LGBFR AOC). In order to use this tool, one must assess the condition of one, several, or all 18 priority habitats that have been identified in the LGBFR AOC by conducting field work.   

The UW-Green Bay project team established a weighting system in order to identify those priority habitats that are most critical to and would have the largest impact on the LGBFR AOC if improved in terms of quality (e.g., restoration or enhancement project). Using this weighting system and the newly assessed conditions of each priority habitat, the tool then calculates a weighted average score ranging from 0 (maximally degraded) to 10 (minimally degraded) that describes the “health” or “ecological condition” of fish and wildlife habitats in the LGBFR AOC (i.e., the “loss of fish and wildlife habitat” BUI). Improvements made to priority habitats with higher weights will have a greater impact on overall condition.

A weighted average is similar to a mathematical average, except that instead of treating each of the values equally, it allows some values to contribute more or less to the overall average than others.

Click photo to download the interactive LGBFR AOC Fish & Wildlife Habitat Assessment Tool. Additional metadata provided in the file.

This tool was originally developed by Dr. Robert Howe, Dr. Amy Wolf, and Erin Giese from the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay in November 2016.