Land trust agreements protect over 5,000 acres in Northwoods

The close of 2009 brought with it several major conservation milestones for the Northwoods Land Trust, said executive director Bryan Pierce. “By the end of the year, the land trust has now protected a total of over 5,000 acres of natural shorelands, woodlands and wetlands in northern Wisconsin. These conservation lands included over 50 different private properties.

“In addition, these projects have permanently preserved over 20 miles of shorelines on 40 different lakes, and another nearly 7 miles of natural shorelines on rivers and streams,” Pierce said. “Among these are protected shorelines on nine lakes identified by the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources as ‘wild lakes’ and at least five more priority river and stream segments recognized by the WDNR Northern Rivers Initiative.”

“In 2009 alone, the land trust permanently protected about 1,050 acres of land with eight conservation projects,” said Pierce. “These projects included completion of seven more perpetual conservation easements and our third outright donation of conservation land.”

Pierce noted that in early 2009, Thomas and Eileen Pawlacyk of Neenah signed a conservation easement on 23 acres of woodlands in the town of St. Germain. This site is located along the Hwy. 70 corridor and includes public snowmobile trail and paved bicycle trail corridors. The Pawlacyks are also previous conservation easement donors for other large properties in the towns of Plum Lake and St. Germain.

Don and Sue Kratsch of St. Paul finalized their second conservation easement, providing protection for over 1,500 feet of natural shoreline frontage on the Eagle River and Nine Mile Creek. Located immediately across the stream from their previously-conserved 21-acre property, a scenic corridor of shoreline is now preserved just upstream from the Burnt Rollways Dam on the Three Lakes Chain of Lakes.

Jeff and Sara Wiesner of Waukesha also protected a 37.8-acre parcel of productively-managed woodlands along with over 1,000 feet of entirely natural shoreline on Bearskin Lake in the town of Hazelhurst, Oneida County. “This property features a natural spring open year-round that flows into the lake,” said Pierce. “We also observed active bald eagle and broadwing hawk nests last summer.” This property was protected in honor of Jeff’s parents.

Also in honor of their parents, the Behm family of Jeffery Behm, Donald Behm, Jeanette Schachtner, Sylvia Behm and David Behm granted a conservation easement on their family’s 78.5-acres. This former farmstead adjacent to the Nicolet National Forest includes valuable woodlands and wildlife habitat in the town of Washington, Vilas County.

As volunteers and supporters of both the Northwoods Land Trust and The Nature Conservancy in Wisconsin, Dr. Walter and Donna Gager of Brookfield made their own personal commitment to conserve their 120 acres of woodlands and wetlands in the town of Pelican, Oneida County. Managed as productive forest land, the property includes several vernal ponds of importance to breeding frogs and salamanders.

According to Pierce, a unique, 11-acre property in the town of St. Germain, Vilas County, was protected by nationally-known ecologists Dr. Gene and Phyllis Likens of New York. Both work for the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies. The property was previously owned by Dr. Forest Stearns, a forest ecologist from Milwaukee.

Dr. Stearns initiated a study of forest regeneration on this property over 50 years ago, which was continued by Dr. Likens. A research report titled “One Hundred Years of Recovery of a Pine Forest in Northern Wisconsin” was published in American Midland Naturalist in 2002. The site includes natural frontage on both Found Lake and an unnamed bog lake.

At the close of the year, Pierce noted that the largest single conservation easement to date protected by the Northwoods Land Trust was completed on over 800 acres of land in the towns of Newbold and Pine Lake in Oneida County. Purchased by Walter and Janet (Nina) Wellenstein, and gifted to their adult children through the Highlands Limited Partnership of Wisconsin, the Wellenstein family protected in perpetuity several miles of natural shorelines on Fredrich’s Flowage, Douglas Lake (a DNR-identified “wild lake”), and Tom Doyle and McCabe Creeks.

Siblings Michael Wellenstein, Charles Wellenstein, Rick Wellenstein, Anna Wellenstein and Bart Wellenstein signed the conservation agreement to ensure these family lands will remain intact. This property is also adjacent to a 595-acre conservation easement protected by the Wellensteins in 2007, providing for an extensive block of 1,400 acres of conserved lands.

NWLT’s third outright donation of conservation land includes over 4,000 feet of natural shoreline on Squash Lake west of Rhinelander. Donated by Pat Dugan and Sue Hausserman-Dugan, this unique property features a long, narrow esker peninsula extending out into the lake. This generous gift will become the “Dugan Squash Lake Nature Preserve.”

“The Northwoods Land Trust would like to extend our sincerest appreciation to all of these landowners for their outstanding commitment in 2009 to leaving a legacy of protected shorelands, woodlands and wetlands for all future generations to come,” commented Pierce.

The land trust is a volunteer and membership-supported, non-profit conservation organization. Based in Eagle River, the group works with private landowners in a six county area including Vilas, Oneida, Forest, Florence, Iron and Price counties.