MVC buys its biggest property, along Kickapoo River and Plum Creek, for more than $3 million

Area will be restored to supply natural expert services this kind of as flood safety, recreation and wildlife refuge

LA CROSSE — The Mississippi Valley Conservancy leveraged $3 million — its largest monetary reward ever — to invest in 1,600 acres of rugged land together the decreased Kickapoo River.

Just north of Wauzeka in Crawford County and the MVC’s most significant residence, the web-site consists of a stretch of Plum Creek. The MVC dubbed it the Plum Creek Conservation Space.

“This land acquisition was manufactured possible by an anonymous donor who is passionate about land and h2o conservation in this portion of Wisconsin and gave a gift – the major we have at any time obtained – to order the assets,” mentioned Carol Abrahamzon, govt director of MVC.

The region will be restored to provide purely natural expert services these kinds of as flood safety, recreation possibilities and “an expanded space of connected lands that supply refuge for wildlife whose native habitats are threatened by climate change and advancement,” Abrahamzon stated.

The MVC bought the land with the $3 million present in collaboration The Character Conservancy in Wisconsin and the Wisconsin Division of Natural Means, Abrahamzon claimed.

One more husband or wife, the Savanna Institute, will support approach the extensive-expression restoration of the land to support MVC access its conservation ambitions for the job. Further funding from the TNC, the Paul E. Stry Foundation and the John C. Bock Basis protected other expenditures.

The undertaking was a significant priority for acquisition, stated Kurt Schlimme, the conservancy’s land tactic director, who cited its size, proximity to other shielded lands and its prominence within just The Mother nature Conservancy’s Resilient and Linked Lands examination. That examine determined a network of lands and migration corridors across the United States that ideal assistance plants and animals in a switching local climate.

The Wisconsin DNR has been seeking to come across strategies to preserve the land considering that the 1980s, explained the DNR’s Craig Thompson.

“It’s been a extensive time,” Thompson reported. “I’m really glad to see MVC and TNC do well in the conservation of the land. The Wisconsin Land Legacy Report describes it as ‘one of the most varied assemblages of organic communities in the state.’ ”

The house consists of far more than 5 and a half miles of frontage alongside the west financial institution of the Kickapoo and a lot more than 2 miles along the two banking companies of Plum Creek, a Course I trout stream. It is next to the DNR’s 1,927-acre Kickapoo Wildlife Place-Wauzeka Device, which features the 635-acre Kickapoo Wild Woods Point out Natural Space.

These guarded locations guidance a single of the maximum concentrations of rare forest-interior breeding birds in southern Wisconsin, together with lots of viewed as large conservation priorities in jap North The united states, Thompson mentioned.

It may perhaps consider a number of many years to restore the land’s ecological health and fitness, stated MVC conservation director Abbie Church.
Many of the woodlands have been longtime grazing sites, and the farmland gives quite a few alternatives to carry out conservation methods, she stated.

“Erosion and habitat degradation both equally want to be dealt with,” Church reported. “Much of land will proceed to be farmed and grazed while integrating regenerative farming practices as section of the management strategy. The land will continue on to generate property taxes to help the regional community, as it has in the previous.”

The MVC merged a present of $50,000 from a pair and $200,000 from TNC to develop an endowment to assistance manage the long-time period treatment of the house. The MVC, which is celebrating its 25th anniversary, is launching a match campaign to double that total.

Peter Lewis of Madison represented the home entrepreneurs through the negotiations. His father, Robert, and other close friends and family started purchasing land for the farm in the 1970s. They elevated cattle and had fields in a rotation of corn and hay.

Robert Lewis, who was an agriculture staff assistant for previous Wisconsin Gov. Gaylord Nelson, experienced a lasting commitment not to carve up the property for pastime farms, Peter explained.

The intact sale and safety of this land “is the maximum feasible ending I can picture,” Peter reported.

Asked about the present to get the land, the nameless donor claimed: “I appreciate Crawford County and am so fortunate that I can aid the genuine authorities who have worked to conserve this land for future generations. … And to have this prospect for habitat security, in this kind of a exceptional area, on such a big scale, this is all further than my wildest dreams.”

The shielded land will be open up to the public for hunting, fishing and reduced-impression recreation such as climbing, paddling and wildlife observation.

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