Milwaukee County parkland threatened by gun club’s plan for shooting range

This story was first published (edited and with fewer photos) as a column for Milwaukee Magazine with the title, A Bullseye View: A Milwaukee County park on Lake Michigan may be threatened by a Cudahy gun club’s new shooting range.

A persistent, hollow rat-a-tat-tat echoed from somewhere unseen, deepening the woods. Clearly a woodpecker; seemingly a large one. Then, close by, a lighter tapping drew my eye upwards. Short bursts, like stitching, repeated at irregular intervals. A small black and white downy woodpecker flitted along the tree line next to the trail. Suddenly it was directly overhead, tapping a dead branch. In a moment it was gone. Wildlife enthusiasts live for such ephemeral moments.

I had come to Warnimont Park in early April with my friend Karen Johnson, a birder who—unlike me—can tell a downy woodpecker from a red-bellied one just by the sound it makes. We continued along the bike path, listening, looking for movement amongst the trees, bright with morning sun but still gray and leafless in the lingering Wisconsin winter. The light, lively chatter, Karen said, was mostly chickadees that have been around all winter. Their bright chirps vary from a high-pitched, serene “sweet-tee” to the occasional, more urgent “chick-a-dee-dee-dee” for which they are named.

Although it is early in the season we were hoping to hear and see a few of the migrating birds that congregate in Warnimont on their annual trek north from distant wintering areas. We have two reasons for coming to this particular park. The relative wildness of the middle section of the park along with a diversity of habitats make it one of the premier locations in Milwaukee County for birders. For my part, I wanted to see what might be lost if a controversial plan to create a shooting range in the middle of it is approved.

At its north end, next to Warnimont Golf Course, the park currently has a shooting range that is slated to close. Operated by the 83-year old Cudahy Sportsmen’s Club (CSC), the range has been used for decades by gun-owners and, occasionally, by local law-enforcement. It also has been a magnet for controversy. Its bluff-top location causes lead shot to be deposited into Lake Michigan, a serious hazard to aquatic wildlife as well as a violation of both the federal Clean Water Act and Resource Conservation Recovery Act. As a result, the Milwaukee County Parks Department finally terminated the CSC’s lease in November, 2014.

When it faced identical circumstances, the Milwaukee Gun Club, once located on the lakeshore at the north end of Lincoln Memorial Drive, was compelled to close in 1992. At Warnimont, the Parks Dept. granted the club a one-year extension, allowing operations to continue with the stipulation that steel be used instead of lead shot. But a new controversy looms over the club’s plan to relocate.

Karen and I continued to walk along the winding Oak Leaf Trail. She abruptly raised her binoculars to identify a small, yellowish shape that shot across our path. A golden-crowned kinglet, she tells me with relish, an early migrant. The woodland thins and opens into a broad meadow dotted with low shrubs. Joggers and cyclists swerve around us on the trail.

We head off into the meadow on a dirt path, following a stuttering call that Karen identifies as a song sparrow. Before long we are doubly rewarded. We spot the song sparrow among brambles and then farther along a dark-eyed junco perched atop a leafless bush.

Individually, the woodland and the meadow provide excellent cover and distinct habitats for a wide variety of local and migrating birds. Together, however, they create a remarkably diverse ecosystem, one that’s hard to match in Milwaukee County. The convergence of two habitats, such as the woods and the meadow, creates what naturalists call an ecotone or a point of transition. The mingling of species that occurs in an ecotone makes for a particularly rich environment for wildlife. This is what draws so many birders to Warnimont.

The Cudahy Sportsmen’s Club would like to create its new shooting range smack in the center of this county park’s exquisite and irreplaceable natural area. According to CSC president Tom Ahmad, the design of the range would include six trap and skeet machines, a tall shot curtain and an earth berm between the range and the bluff. Also, unlike the current range, a chain-link fence would surround the new one. The curtain and berm are necessary to protect off-road cyclists, hikers and dog-walkers who frequent the bluff-top path. They also would facilitate clean up of plastic shot wads and broken clay targets, which has been another point of contention at the current site. Bright, often toxic fragments of targets litter the steep, deeply eroded escarpment and plastic wads drift onto popular beaches below.

To the untrained or utilitarian eye, a meadow in a park might seem like the ideal place to develop—unruly grass in an already open space. That’s one of the reasons upland meadows and prairies are among the most endangered habitats in the country. But many bird species require precisely those conditions. Its proximity to the Lake Michigan flyway makes Warnimont Park especially attractive to seasonal migrants. The prospect of bulldozing this exceptional landscape—a jewel in Milwaukee County’s park system—has ignited passionate opposition.

Members of the local chapter of the Audubon Society are incensed. The chapter has posted a petition online opposing the proposed location of the shooting range, addressed to County Supervisor Jursik, whose jurisdiction includes Cudahy. The petition has over 500 signatures. And birders are not the only vocal opponents.

Jursik says that she has received calls from people opposed to the proposal “for all kinds of reasons.” Park neighbors are alarmed that the already disturbing noise of shooting would be moved closer to homes near S. Lake Dr. Aurora St. Luke’s South Shore Hospital on S. Lake Dr. is “very concerned” about it, Jursik says.

The gun club proposal, which has not yet been formally submitted, would clear cut a very sensitive ecological area of mixed conifers, hardwoods, and meadow—and one of the highest points on the western shore of Lake Michigan. It also would move the heavily used Oak Leaf Trail away from the rugged scenery along the bluff to a new route adjacent to S. Lake Dr. thus diminishing the recreational experience. The vast majority of those users have not heard of the proposal and therefore have not weighed in on the controversy.

Gun club members have framed their position as a gun rights issue. “This is totally false,” says Jursik. “It has nothing to do with second amendment rights.” The issue is appropriate land use in a beautiful public park.

When the plan was first announced the club mounted a highly visible public relations campaign to muster support, enlisting the aid of talk radio. After an initial flurry of calls from club supporters, says Jursik, “in the last 2-3 months, all of my calls have been in opposition.”

Milwaukee County is under no obligation to provide a place for the gun club, according to Guy Smith, chief of operations for Milwaukee County Parks. The club has other options on private land. Jursik says the Winchester Gun Club in Racine is willing to accommodate them.

Parks Director John Dargle expects a decision to be made by June, 2016, once a detailed proposal is submitted and after engineering and environmental impact studies and public hearings are completed.

Although I’ve cycled through Warnimont on the Oak Leaf Trail many times, I had never stopped to explore it until I learned of this issue. In the past month I’ve returned several times. I’ve seen the snow melt away and the first blush of spring buds begin to green the woodlands. Thanks to several members of the Audubon Society I’ve seen a wider variety of birds than I knew existed—and heard many more that went unseen. I’m looking forward to May when the buds will have opened, grasses will have greened, and a full array of migratory birds will arrive. 

For more photos (along with captions) from Warnimont Park, click here.

Earth Day: A community cleans up the KK

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Which do you think is the more powerful metaphor?

A) While picking up trash along the concrete-lined Kinnickinnic River I found a framed print of exotic waterfowl discarded in riverside bushes.

B) Two hundred community members turned out last Saturday to pick up trash along a stretch of their river that has been little more than a drainage ditch for over 40 years.

The irony of the sentimental wildlife print discarded near the degraded river is good for a chuckle, but I choose B as the more important metaphor. The KK River Neighbors Association and the 16th St. Community Health Center turned people out in force to join in the annual Earth Day cleanup sponsored by Milwaukee Riverkeeper. The symbolism is clear: the community cares about its environment and is hopeful about the future of its maligned waterway.

The reason for that hope is as concrete as the river channel: The Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District has begun a multi-year project to remove said concrete channel and restore a more natural flow to the Kinnickinnic River. Judging from the enthusiastic comments I heard repeatedly on Saturday, the community is thrilled at the prospect.

Acres of cleared land between Harrison Street (background) and the KK River (behind me) are evidence of progress on MMSD’s rehabilitation project. After houses in the flood-prone area are purchased and demolished the concrete channel will be removed and the river reconfigured within a landscaped park.

After two hours of picking up trash near the river and throughout the neighborhood on either side everyone gathered at another concrete symbol of the river’s revitalization. The concrete channel, which until recently extended east to the I-94 overpass, now ends just shy of the 6^th St. Bridge. The first phase of the MMSD project was completed in 2011. In addition to removing the concrete channel a newly dedicated KK River Trail was created alongside the rehabilitated stream.

A huge crowd that included cleanup teams from several sites on the KK gathered along the 6^th St segment of the KK River Trail for a “Trash Bash” organized by the event sponsors. Free pizza and burritos were available to all. There were family-friendly interactive displays related to water and the river. A team of scientists from UW—Madison were on hand to help folks learn more about their river.

The UW team provided hip waders for the public to borrow so that they could physically immerse themselves in the river. “Having kids and adults connect with the river in that way is huge,” said Iris Gonzalez, one of the organizers from the 16^th St. Community Health Center. “Most of them were very hesitant to try but, after watching others (in some cases their own children), they were convinced. It is experiences like feeling the pressure of the water against your body, or the waders suck onto your legs when you step in and seeing fish and fish eggs up close that foment a spirit of stewardship.”

Local children spray water onto a watershed model that illustrates how water flows are affected by varying slopes, soils and vegetation conditions.

The success of the “Trash Bash” in bringing the community down to the river, to activate the new trail and to celebrate the transformation that is underway was a major achievement. Many in the neighborhood had not ventured there before, according to Gonzalez. However, she told me proudly, “I know they will be back!”

The event culminated in a spectacular demonstration of hydraulic flows and river dynamics. Peter Levi, the UW limnologist heading the team of scientists, poured red dye into the river just east of the 6^th St. Bridge. At first the dye turned the water bright scarlet and then expanded to fill the width of the river. The dye gradually dissipated as it swirled downstream, around rocks and settled into pools. It was a crowd pleaser and a lovely end to the Earth Day river cleanup.

A brief series of photos from the day follows.

To see even more photos from this event go to my flickr album.

Full disclosure: I am substantially connected to many of the organizations responsible for the cleanup and KK River Project because the work they are doing is dear to my soul. As a former board member of Milwaukee Riverkeeper I have participated in most (if not all—I don’t quite recall) of their 20 annual river cleanups. I am working with the MMSD to document the current phase of the KK River Project. On top of that until recently my daughter, Chelsea, was employed by the 16^th St. Community Health Center. And Chelsea brought my only (so far) granddaughter to help out with the cleanup. She’s only 3 years old, so she mostly played on the Cleveland Park playground and ate pizza at the Trash Bash. Hey, I said “full disclosure!” Oh, and Chelsea took my picture with this funny-looking fish.

More photos on flickr.

The Milwaukee County Grounds: A visual meditation

Two brief photo meditations, actually. The first is an update on construction progress for the Eschelon Apartments project at Innovation Park. Following that, signs of spring in Wil-O-Way Woods include early wildflowers and a concrete recycling operation on the future site of the Forestry Exploration Center.

Eschelon Apartments rising at Innovation Park

The Monarch Trail

Wil-O-Way Woods

You can help WI DNR designate the monarch as our state butterfly

Wisconsin has a Conservation Congress that holds annual public hearings so that the public can provide input "on how to responsibly manage Wisconsin's natural resources for present and future generations."  That’s the good news, if you didn’t know about it already. The bad news is that you must attend in person to provide input. But you can. I have. It’s quite an education. And you get to vote on a wide variety of issues. This year there are two questions related to the monarch butterfly. 

I want to thank the Friends of the Monarch Trail for the following info:

DNR spring wildlife hearing and annual Conservation Congress county meetings
on
April 13, 2015 - 7:00 pm

Please go to your county’s Conservation Congress meeting location and cast your vote to encourage the DNR to designate and protect the monarch butterfly. (You do not need to vote on all items on the questionnaire. go to page 47 and vote on items 19, and 20.)

Locations:

·       Milwaukee:  Nathan Hale High School, 11601 W Lincoln Avenue, West Allis, WI 5322

·       Waukesha: Waukesha Co. Tech. College, Richard Anderson Center, 800 Main Street, Pewaukee, WI 53072

·       For all other Wisconsin County locations: http://dnr.wi.gov/About/WCC/Documents/spring_hearing/2015/2015locations.pdf

LAND USE COMMITTEE ADVISORY QUESTIONS

QUESTION 19.  Saving the monarch butterfly (450114)

Wisconsin’s monarch butterfly population is at historic lows. The major reason for the monarch population reduction is that female monarchs only lay their eggs in/on milkweed plants and there has been a widespread loss of milkweed plants in Wisconsin resulting in the migration of fewer monarchs.

19. Would you support DNR efforts to institute a public awareness campaign aimed at restoring more milkweed vegetation in Wisconsin?   

Please vote YES!

QUESTION 20. Designation of the monarch butterfly as Wisconsin’s state butterfly (450114)

Twenty-seven other states already have a designated state butterfly. Designating the monarch butterfly as Wisconsin’s state butterfly could support and enhance efforts to save the monarch butterfly in Wisconsin.

20. Would you support legislation to designate the monarch butterfly as Wisconsin’s state butterfly? 

Please vote YES!