Dane County nature lovers will soon have 80 new acres to explore within the Dorn Creek Wildlife Area with the launch of an innovative land restoration and biofuel project to revitalize a pair of county land holdings with “few redeeming qualities.”
“This is a first time we’ve approached a restoration project with multiple benefits,” says Sara Kwitek, a county land acquisition and planning specialist. “We’re taking care of the invasive species while also utilizing them for biofuels.”
The project is a collaborative effort between the county, the state Department of Natural Resources, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Lambert Forest Products, a timber management company located just north of Tomah.
A crew from Lambert will clear two 40-acre parcels of invasive black locust and box elder trees. Both tree species have a knack for colonization while reducing the habitat for native birds and critters.
In exchange for its work — which saves the county $40,000 — Lambert gets to keep the trees, which it will turn into chips to be burned and converted into electricity.
Mike Engel, a wildlife biologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, says the trees have no commercial value.
“Burning them may not sound like the best use of trees,” he says. “But not all trees can be made into lumber or other products. So the chips will be burned and made into electricity that gets out on the grid.”
Engel is particularly excited by the project.
“I’ve been trying to get one of these biomass harvests off the ground for five to 10 years, and this is the first one to work out,” he says.
One of the two properties, he says, was probably some kind of quarry 30 years ago. “It’s a disturbed site,” he says. “When you take material from the ground, it becomes vulnerable to nastier trees and shrubs.”
Laura Hicklin, deputy director of the Dane County Land & Water Resources Department, says the county and the Department of Natural Resources have jointly owned one parcel since 2005, while the county acquired the second parcel in 2013.
Hicklin says heavy development pressure in Westport and south of Oncken Road have driven property values upward, with the price of both parcels approaching $700,000.
Kwitek says the project fit with the county parks’ sustainability goals.
“We’ve been harvesting trees from our parks to build timber-framed park shelters,” she says.
The forest management plan for the Black Earth Creek Sunnyside Unit Wildlife Area includes a plan to harvest trees for this purpose. To date, shelters have been built at Festge Park, between Cross Plains and Black Earth, Brigham Park and Stewart Lake County Park, both in Blue Mounds.
The Partners of Fish and Wildlife Program was established by U.S. Fish and Wildlife to help Wisconsin landowners manage their land for the benefit of wildlife, Engel says, noting that 85% of Wisconsin’s landmass is privately owned.
“If you think about it, our birds and animals and plants aren’t reading property boundary signs,” he says. “And fewer and fewer acres are being purchased for the benefit of public to use, so if we’re interested in managing wildlife, then we need to find collaborative ways to partner with the people who do own the land.”
Once the project is finished, the area will open to the public for hiking, bird watching and hunting.
“Being so close to Madison, it’s an area that could provide a lot of benefit to the public,” Engel says. “The county saw that as a good opportunity to wipe this blemish off the landscape.”