Grant County, WI Right to Farm: Agricultural Zoning Protection (2026)

Section 316-14 lists the uses the Shoreland Protection Ordinance for Grant County, Wisconsin allows in the Shoreland-Wetland District, which covers shorelands designated as wetlands on the Wisconsin Wetland Inventory (§ 316-12). The uses are allowed subject to the general shoreland regulations in Ch. 316, Chs. 30 and 31 and § 281.36 of the Wisconsin Statutes, and other applicable local, state and federal law. Subsection A covers uses that need no zoning permit and must be carried out without any filling, flooding, draining, dredging, ditching, tilling or excavating: hiking, fishing, trapping, hunting, swimming and boating; harvesting wild crops such as marsh hay, ferns, moss, wild rice, berries, tree fruits and tree seeds; the pasturing of livestock; the cultivation of agricultural crops; silviculture, including planting, thinning and harvesting timber; and duck blinds.

Subsection B covers uses that need no zoning permit and allow limited filling, flooding, draining, dredging, ditching, tilling or excavating, only to the extent specifically provided: temporary water level stabilization for silvicultural activities, cranberry cultivation including flooding, dike and dam construction or ditching, maintenance and repair of existing agricultural drainage systems, and construction or maintenance of fences for the pasturing of livestock. Subsection C requires a zoning permit for roads necessary to conduct silvicultural activities or agricultural cultivation, and only if the road cannot as a practical matter be located outside the wetland, is built with the minimum cross-sectional area practical, and is constructed in the immediate area of the roadbed only.

Farming in the floodplain is handled separately: § 290-22A allows agricultural uses such as farming, outdoor plant nurseries, horticulture, viticulture and wild crop harvesting in the Floodway District if the standards in §§ 290-23 and 290-24 and the permits under § 290-36 are satisfied. Under § 316-5E the chapter does not apply to lands adjacent to farm drainage ditches that meet the conditions listed there.