Featured Volunteers
Friends of Badger State Trail volunteers gathered on Saturday, May 19, to clean up around the kiosk the group donated to the State Trail in July of 2010. Activities included grass mowing, exotic plant pulling and brush removal. Join us next year!
Prairies once covered two million acres of Wisconsin. As Europeans settled in Wisconsin, they converted the treeless, fertile prairies into crop fields and controlled the sweep of wildfires. Today, less than 12,000 scattered acres exist. In order to protect and maintain the biodiversity of prairie ecosystems, special restoration techniques, such as prescribed or controlled burning can give grasslands a chance for rebirth.
Several projects are being initiated along the trail to recover lost prairie. One led by the Montrose Railroad Stewardship Committee and the other by our own Friends group volunteers.
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The Friends of Brooklyn, the Wisconsin DOT, the Wisconsin DNR and local concerned individuals have organized the Montrose Railroad Stewardship Committee. The groups purpose is to restore about 1.5 miles of degraded prairie remnant that parallels State Hwy 69, just north of Belleville. Activities include cutting invasive trees and shrubs, hauling brush and burning everything too small for use as firewood. A neighboring farmer is picking up the logs for firewood. DOT permission and permits, a DNR approved vegetation management plan and the resources needed for the task have been | |
| acquired. The group is working hard to get as much done as possible before the adjacent farm field is ready to plow.What is needed now are more volunteers with a vision for what this prairie could be and a willingness to help with the restoration. Dan Wallace is leading the charge. Currently, the work activity is taking place north from Frenchtown Road towards County Rd. A. The group will also be working in another area, about a mile closer to Belleville, to provide "breathing room" for existing plants. Prescribed burns, seeding and mowing will complete the first phase of the project. It will be an ongoing effort to reclaim some of Wisconsin's prairie heritage |
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and the hope is that some of the ancient prairie seeds will germinate. As an added benefit to this project, visibility crossing Frenchtown Road has improved.
Everyone is invited to come out and see the progress that has been made. If you come to help, wear heavy jeans or workpants, gloves, protective eyewear, etc. A safety briefing will be conducted. |
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The Montrose Railroad Stewardship Committee is meeting on site quite often to continue their work. Their next work day is Thursday March 1, starting at 9 AM and meeting at Hwy 69 and 6969 Frenchtown Rd. There will be a fire for cooking food.
The Friends of Badger State Trail have designated May 19th as the first work day to begin restoring prairie from the Stewart Tunnel north several hundred yards to the new Friends constructed kiosk.
For more information regarding helping with the Montrose Railroad Stewardship Committee prairie restoration project, email Dan here.
A group of trail enthusiasts met south of the Stewart Tunnel on Sat. June 19, 2010 to do preparation work for the construction of the new kiosk. Dan Sullivan cleared out the area with a hedge hog earlier in the week and the volunteers cleared the area of small trees and brush. The bugs were tolerable with liberal use of bug spray! Our contractor began construction in July 2010.
The Friends of the Badger Trail had another great year with the completion of our group's project to erect a custom designed kiosk at the Stewart Tunnel and the completion of the northern section of the trail into Madison.