Wetland Enhancements at Mead Wildlife Area
By Craig Ziolkowski, Property Supervisor – Mead and McMillan Wildlife Areas
This article originally appeared in Wisconsin Waterfowl Association’s January, 2022 Newsletter edition.
The Waterfowl Stamp program continues to provide opportunities to develop, manage, preserve, restore, and maintain wetland habitat across the state of Wisconsin. This month’s project highlight features the Smokey Hill Small Flowage Enhancement and Infrastructure Replacement project at Mead Wildlife Area in Marathon County.
This project will improve approximately 630 acres of the Rice Lake Flowage Complex and surrounding area. The Rice Lake Flowage features predominantly emergent wetland habitat, including roughly 90 acres of wild rice, and is predominantly surrounded by lowland brush along with adjacent wetlands, flowages, and the Little Eau Pleine River to the north. This habitat provides valuable breeding, nesting, brood rearing and food resources, as well as stop over habitat for spring and fall migrating waterfowl populations. In addition to numerous game species, this project also provides habitat for other non-game species such as Trumpeter Swans, Black Terns, and American Bitterns, all of which are Species of Greatest Conservation Need.
Excavation and removal of old culvert under Smokey Hill Road (photo by Brandon Stefanski, WDNR)
The project itself involves two parts, enhancement of two small wetlands as well as replacement of a large culvert. The small wetlands will be enhanced by connecting them to the stationary pumping network, which will eliminate the need for portable pumping and facilitate direct water management capabilities. This will be accomplished through the installation of two new water control structures that will allow water level manipulation of a 16-acre wetland, to the west, and a 20-acre wetland, to the east of Smokey Hill Road. The second part of the project includes replacement of a 42” culvert that runs from Mead’s pump ditch, under Smokey Hill Road, into Rice Lake Flowage and Refuge.
Installation of a new water control structure (photo by Brandon Stefanski, WDNR)
Work on this project started in the summer of 2021, beginning with the drawdown of Rice Lake to facilitate culvert replacement. Actual construction began this fall, with the installation of one water control structure and the culvert. The remaining water control structure installation, along with any final grading and finish work, will continue into the summer of 2022.
Over the past several years, at Mead, waterfowl stamp projects have been leveraged to secure additional wetland project funding. This work, along with contributions from partners, such as the Wisconsin Waterfowl Association, has resulted in the award of three small North American Waterfowl Conservation Act grants for wetland improvements at Mead.