Conservation Congress: Help save Rainbow Springs for wildlife!

The results of the balloting in Monday's Conservation Congress are in. Having been there, it comes as no surprise to me that most of the proposals passed, including the controversial ones to expand hunting and trapping in State Parks. To see the tally, go to DNR Summary of Results.

I plan to write up another post with reflections and concerns about the Conservation Congress meeting and process. In fact, I may have to make it a series. There are a number of issues that I think will be of interest. But I feel the need to begin with an appeal.

One of the things I learned about at Monday's meeting was the issue of using funds from the Knowles-Nelson Stewardship Fund to buy golf courses with the intention of converting them to natural areas. It's a complicated issue that may get more complicated and there are controversial aspects. I'll try to explain it as succinctly as I can based on my limited understanding of the issues. I welcome comments that will provide clarification and further information.

Stewardship funds are currently not allowed to be used to purchase golf courses. However, there has been a request for an exception to be made for Rainbow Springs Country Club, which was developed on the Mukwonago River. Environmentalists objected to this at the time, but it was done. Now a plan has been proposed to purchase the golf course using Stewardship funds, designate it as part of the Kettle Moraine State Park, and convert it to wetlands.  This is something the hunting/fishing community that form the majority of those attending the Conservation Congress approve. I.e., hunters/fishermen and conservationists are on the same side of this issue. As I see it, there are two potential problems:

1. Using Stewardship funds to purchase Rainbow Springs would set a precedent.
2. Some people - golfers, presumably - want to keep the golf course.

A group called Friends of the Mukwanago River are advocating for the restoration and protection of the river and this land. They are requesting help and recommend the following:

Take Action

GOLF COURSE PROPOSAL

COMPROMISES RAINBOW SPRINGS

Help us serve as the voice of the Mukwonago River

•   Please contact Senator Lazich’s office and let her or her staff know that you are a Friend of the Mukwonago River. (Senator Lazich represents this area in the state legislature.)

•   Tell Senator Lazich that the protection and restoration of the river is of the utmost importance to you.

•   Urge her NOT to introduce legislation that compromises the future of newly-designated Mukwonago Kettle Moraine Unit. 

•   Senator Lazich can be reached by phone at (608) 266-5400 or toll free at (800) 334-1442. Her email address is sen.lazich@legis.wi.gov. 

A proposal to continue the existence of the Rainbow Springs golf courses could threaten the Mukwonago River and planned restoration.  The construction and operation of these golf courses in the floodplain and wetlands has been a detriment to water quality, aquatic habitat, wetland function, proper water flow through the area, and fish and recreational passage.

The Friends of the Mukwonago River believe that the Mukwonago River Unit’s future should be as has always been the plan: restoration of the Mukwonago River, surrounding wetlands, and the river’s floodplain for the benefit of water quality, fish and wildlife habitat, and nature-based recreation opportunities for the general public.

For more details about this issue check out "Recent News" at www.mukwonagoriver.org.

If you contact Senator Lazich, please report your call at friendsofthemukwonagoriver@yahoo.com.

Reconsidering Aldo Leopold in the Kettle Moraine

One of my favorite passages from Aldo Leopold’s A Sand County Almanac is from a story called “Great Possessions:” He says, “…at daybreak I am the sole owner of all the acres I can walk over. It is not only boundaries that disappear, but also the thought of being bounded.” How often in my explorations of the urban wilderness I have tried to make those boundaries disappear! Leopold left his home in Madison and made his way to his hobby farm in rural Sand County in order to get that experience. Now and then I too feel the need to leave the city for more unbounded spaces.

Lynn and I stayed in a delightful B&B in Eagle. It was situated on 20 acres that the owners had put into conservation easement. 20 acres sounded like plenty of room to roam in until I’d spent the 15 minutes it took to reach the neighbor’s boundary. Like Leopold I could have walked right through, but I’d be walking across the lawns and roads of an exurban subdivision instead of farms. I drove off to the state park.

The sky was just beginning to pale as I pulled into the Ice Age Trail lot off Highway 67. I considered skipping the required day pass. At this hour no ranger was likely to come by and I didn’t relish taking off my gloves to fill out the form. Besides, I reasoned with myself, my other car has an annual parks sticker. My arguments didn’t overrule my sense of obligation – or perhaps that nagging fear of getting caught. Some of the boundaries we experience are the ones we carry around inside. I used the stubby pencil provided and stuffed $7 into the too-small envelope – why they don’t have an envelope large enough for the bills they are intended to hold?! And, yes, my fingers ended up feeling like icicles. My toes were already cold, too, from standing there.

Even at this early hour on a Saturday, cars went by now and then. The Ice Age Trail led off parallel to the road. There was another obviously well used but unmarked trail heading off away from the road and toward the Scuppernong River. It was a relatively “blank spot on the map,” to use another Leopold expression, and therefore more appealing.

I needed a brisk walk to get blood flowing to my extremities but numerous footprints had frozen into the packed snow making it both uneven and slippery. I also had to dodge dog turds melting their way towards the ground. The dog walkers turned back at the flooded prairie where the trail became a sheet of ice thin enough to fracture with every step. In places I broke through.

Then a creek crossed the trail. Probably no more than a trickle in summer, it was swollen with snowmelt. I unwisely tried to position myself for a shot of it and ended up with icy water in one of my boots. I briefly considered aborting my hike – I still hadn’t warmed up. But also the sun still hadn’t risen and I had taken only that one unlucky photograph. I plunged through the stream and on down the now less travelled path.

By the time I reached the river I was warm, the sun was just breaking over the ridge to the east, and the prairie grasses lit up like fire. I was able to make a few satisfying photographs, but the greatest reward was more ephemeral. I had gone far enough from the road to hear…nothing. No animals rustling the grass; no birds calling; no wind in the trees. Nothing at all, except the ringing in my ears – perhaps the accumulated residue from the urban cacophony I had left behind.

After a while a small plane interrupted the peaceful silence. Its distant transect of the sky reminded me of the one mosquito that gets inside a tent, small but impossible to ignore, knowing what it will do as soon as I fall asleep. I was reminded not to be asleep to my own impact upon the earth. 

The plane was followed by a long line of geese, honking with undecipherable urgency. In “March” Leopold writes, “One swallow does not make a summer, but one skein of geese, cleaving the murk of a March thaw, is spring.” Although we had a thaw last week, it is February yet and I didn’t need this week’s snow to remind me it is not spring. Those geese, contrary to instinct, likely have grown accustomed to surviving through the winter in Wisconsin, surviving off the detritus – or voluntary largesse – of a society that likewise finds itself untethered to the seasons.

I walked back, warmed and thoughtful, observing patterns and discovering curiosities encased in the ice that I’d rushed across before. Where I’d broken through a new sheet of ice had already healed over the wound. It broke more easily in its weakened state. For three hours I had walked over many acres, across the unbounded spaces of the park, and was thankful for the opportunity. Like Leopold I consider land stewardship a moral imperative. In a time of ever dwindling natural areas, it is also that much more important for economic sustainability as well as psychological health. But the ice has gotten very thin. We must tread more lightly than ever.

To see more images from my excursion in the Kettle Moraine, go to my flickr page.

Gov. Walker: don’t cut Knowles-Nelson Stewardship funds!

Open letter to Governor Walker and the Wisconsin state legislature:

I am writing to urge you not to eliminate funding for the Knowles-Nelson Stewardship Program – not this year, not any year.

There are few state programs with the overwhelming bipartisan support that the Knowles-Nelson Stewardship Program enjoys. The reasons for this are clear: the program preserves our environment, creates and protects jobs, and provides opportunities for recreation.  That’s win-win-win. The public knows it and most politicians have agreed up to now.

Since 1990 this program has protected over 600,000 acres natural land and wildlife habitat. Wisconsin has a well-deserved reputation, not only for its natural landscapes, but also for its advocacy for ecological sustainability. Has Wisconsin saved enough of its natural environment that it can rest on its laurels? No. Stewardship means managing and caring for. Stewardship of natural lands and resources is a never completed process and funding for it must be maintained.

Yes, the state faces a severe budget crisis. Hard choices must be made – some already have been made that are unpopular. But the natural environment sustains all else – life itself as well as all economic activities – and must not be sacrificed. Maintaining a healthy environment isn’t an expense, it’s an investment that generates returns that are both measurable and priceless.

Please contact the governor and your state legislators. Contact info below.


For more information about the governor's position, click here.
Gathering Waters Conservancy posts regular updates on this issue. Click here to go to their website.

Governor Walker's office contact info:

Emailgovgeneral@wisconsin.gov

Mail

Office of Governor Scott Walker

115 East Capitol

Madison, WI 53702

Phone(608) 266-1212

To find out who your state legislators are, go to Wisconsin.gov.