Project: Statewide Wildlife Areas
County: Statewide
Project Start Date: 04/01/2019
Project End Date: 04/30/2019
By Mike Alaimo, Lead AWA Volunteer
Wet weather has meant no spraying for invasive species on our adopted Wildlife Areas. This season has definitely been a struggle. There are stands of willow that are locked in our sights, but a dry spell has not presented itself to cut and then spray herbicide. There is nothing more that can be done except for improvise and finish some paperwork.
Speaking of improvising, I was privileged with some great photo opportunities centered around wood ducks. They seemed to be in every pothole this last weekend, along with teal.
Mud Lake Wildlife Area: A huge thanks and congrats goes out to Mud Lake lead volunteer Scott and his team. They finished out their first year of adoption with 106 hours of volunteer time completed, along with donated materials. Their scope of work encompassed apple tree planting, wood duck and tube structures, parking lot clearing, chain saw training and sign posting. This was a great accomplishment helping out this Columbia County Wildlife Area!
Jackson Marsh Wildlife Area: Volunteer Mike Depies and team have been doing some light maintenance. They are hoping to get out and remove some tree bark wrap that Eric Kilburg (biologist) said is not needed anymore on the property. Future plans include removing some downed trees in Cedar Creek to make it more navigable for recreational kayaking, canoeing, and jump shooting in the fall. Goals still in the planning stages are placement of a disabled accessible blind and access improvement.
Paradise Valley Wildlife Area: A boot cleaning station was added to the Beaver Dam Lake Wildlife Area launch.
Big Muskego Wildlife Area: Lead volunteer Ian Bartelmez’s crew has been busy with adding a boot cleaning station and working with Cub Scouts on wood duck boxes. A donation was accepted from the Scout Pack towards our AWA work. Nesting Tubes were also added as part of the work.
Rome Pond Wildlife Area: Another 7 wood duck boxes were added to the unit and the black tern floats were deployed with a change in tactics. For a base, inverted sod was used in hopes of being a good drain, and retaining dirt, in the top of the float. Next, it will be another go at Purple Loosestrife work, which may expand to Beaver Dam Lake as well! We will see as volunteers have some turkey permits that also need to be filled.