From Gathering Waters:

There are just a few days left, but I wanted to give you one last chance to help protect land and water and send strong messages urging lawmakers to renew state funding.

Here’s why your help is needed today:

As you read this, Wisconsin's lawmakers are deciding whether to renew state funding for land protection -- or end it.
If lawmakers don’t vote to renew the Knowles Nelson Stewardship Program, it will be much harder to raise funds to protect land in Wisconsin.
Lawmakers need to know that people in Wisconsin want to have protected natural areas in our state.

Take Action!

Please see the text on the right for the latest update and request from Gathering Waters concerning the renewal of the Stewardship Program. Gathering Waters, the state association of land trusts, is the conservation organization leading the effort to renew Stewardship but many more groups are helping. Last week my email was full of many conservation organizations begging their members to contact their legislators. Clearly, the negotiations about Stewardship are at a critical point.

As you read the Gathering Waters report and note the positive report on a few Republicans voicing fairly vague support of Stewardship, PLEASE DO NOT ASSUME that Stewardship is secure. We have not lost but we sure ain't won.

For the program to be a success, it must be authorized for more than a biennium, it must have significant funding, and it must have adequate DNR staff and reasonable rules. The Stewardship program could be authorized for many years and for many millions but if the DNR doesn't have real estate and grant professionals to operate it, nothing happens. If every purchase is subject to legislative review, no transactions will occur with any certainty.

So, Mr. Broken Record here, begs you to contact your and any Republican legislator you know really, really soon.

I was on the Stewardship property the other day and, as that program hangs in the balance, I reflected on what that one property provides to the public.

The property is about 100 acres on the Sugar River, on STH 69 between Paoli and Belleville. Purchased by Dane County with a mix of county and Stewardship funds, it features a mile of the Sugar River, an oak savanna in need of some work, and some pastures and crop fields. Its name is the Basco Unit of the Sugar River Wildlife Area (not pithy but accurate).

In public ownership for about 10 years, lots has happened there. The Southern Wisconsin Chapter of Trout Unlimited (SWTU), Dane County, and the DNR conducted a huge restoration of much of the stream. SWTU raised over $30,000 and the DNR and Dane County contributed 4 times that much in labor and funds. With the assistance of Madison Audubon (a huge shout out to Mark, Maddie, Sarah, and Graham at Goose Pond), SWTU and the County have been restoring a prairie along the river. Dane County is working on the oak savanna and Dane County/UW Extension led by Lisa Johnson, the horticulturist and director of the Master Gardener program, have supported volunteers in returning an apple and pear orchard to health.

Until COVID temporarily suspended their efforts, the 4th graders of Madison's most excellent Lincoln Elementary School made an annual field trip. They had a great time watching the fish of the Sugar River (way to go, Dan Oele DNR fish biologist), planted oak trees and other savanna plants, sowed prairie seed, found grassland bird nests, and spotted monarch caterpillars (and deepest appreciation to Carolyn Byers, Madison Audubon's Director of Education for making those trips possible).

*Lincoln Elementary kids enjoy learning about the river and land on a field trip in 2018 (that’s me in the yellow!) Madison Audubon photo*

So the property is returning to better health all the time. Some evidence of that came up on that last visit when two volunteers working on the prairie saw two blue racers. Not for long—they are well named. All of us got to see four white rumped sandpipers chowing down for at least an hour on a small mud flat. Those four were at the midpoint of one of longest migrations of any North American bird. Bound for Arctic breeding grounds, they have found a bountiful buffet in a place Stewardship preserved and a lot of us have worked to improve.

*Blue racer, photo by Andy Reago & Chrissy McClarren*

In the parking lot, I talked to a long time resident of Belleville who was ecstatic (he really was) over the river's better health and more abundant fish. I'm at that property frequently and his is the typical response. While I enjoy talking to the anglers I often see there, they are not the most common users. I almost always meet individuals, small groups of friends, and families. They love walking the property. They park near the orchard, stop at the savanna that overlooks the river, and then walk along the stream and the nascent prairie. They love the peace and the beauty; they marvel at the bald eagles who show up with some regularity; they speculate on what lives in the river and plan future fishing trips or picnics.

As wonderful as this property is, I bet it's not unique in the annals of Stewardship. Thousands of Wisconsin residents and visitors could tell similar stories about lands and waters they have come to cherish. We'll be a better State and a better people if we keep Stewardship and its capacity to conserve natural resources and create such memories and experiences.

Thanks,

Topf Wells, Madison Audubon board of directors and advocacy committee chair