June Habitat Program Updates

Project: Multiple
County: Statewide

By Peter Ziegler, Project Director

Progress continues, although a bit slower than normal.  Ditches continue to remain high and the shallow ground water table is high as well, impacting the landscape.  This is delaying many things, including wetland restoration work.  We have a few projects ready to go and others which will be soon, but it might be a mad dash to get the work done when conditions finally cooperate.  The rise in the shallow groundwater table is great for wetlands and all the wildlife that utilize them.  It is allowing long periods of flooding which basically increases the available wetland acres to wildlife that rely on semi-permanent wetland types.  This should provide greater brood rearing habitat and increase the quality as well.  Hopefully this will lead to higher production of waterfowl in Wisconsin.

We are looking at a few good quality projects that are slowly making their way to the dirt-moving phase.  I can tell you, as projects progress and the field work continues, vegetation is robust.  This past week Reed Canary Grass was head high and, in some cases, taller than me as I surveyed one site.  It’s good to know that we will be able to flood a portion of that site and drown it out, creating great habitat for waterfowl in all seasons.   As I looked at that site I identified an old river channel running through, located just slightly lower in elevation, it retained good quality vegetation of bur reed and rushes.  Seeing this response, probably due to long and high periods of water since last fall, shows that with some restoration that we can bring this type of habitat back to a greater portion of the site and permanently to that old river channel, instead of just when the water is high.