Walworth County, WI Landscaping Rules: Native Plants (2026)

Walworth County's conservation standards for vegetation management, Sec. 26-73, apply whenever the Zoning Division regulates vegetation removal in the shoreland under Chapter 74. Subsection (a) requires that any approved vegetation removal be offset with replacement vegetation that is equally effective at minimizing runoff and erosion and at preserving or improving natural shore beauty and wildlife habitat. Subsection (b) goes further for vegetated buffers established as a shoreland mitigation measure: the Zoning Division approves the buffer's location, dimensions and composition, and it may determine that the buffer must consist of native plant species rather than ornamental or non-native landscaping.

A landowner who needs a buffer or vegetation-removal conservation plan must submit it to the Land Conservation Division under Sec. 26-74, describing the purpose of any removal, the existing plant species by scientific name, the treatment method, and, for a required buffer, a planting plan listing the replacement species by scientific and common name, density, maturity, planting methods, mulching, and a watering and maintenance schedule. The conservation plan itself must comply with the technical standards in Subchapter V of Wis. Adm. Code ch. NR 151 and the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service's Field Office Technical Guide, among other approved sources listed in Sec. 26-73(c).

Sec. 26-75 makes approval a precondition: vegetation removal the Zoning Division regulates cannot start, and a mitigation buffer cannot be installed, until the Land Conservation Division approves the conservation plan alongside the underlying zoning permit application. There is no general county rule letting homeowners maintain unmowed native meadows outside the shoreland mitigation context; this provision reaches only buffers and removals the Zoning Division has already brought under its permitting authority.