Navarino Wildlife Area
By Mark Pfost, Public Lands Ecologist – mpfost@wisducks.org
This article originally appeared in Wisconsin Waterfowl Association’s September, 2024 Newsletter edition.
In early 2023, WWA and the Wisconsin DNR entered into an agreement in which WWA ecologists search out opportunities and carry out wetland restorations on DNR lands, creating WWA’s Public Lands Program. In late July, WWA completed its first project on the south side of Navarino State Wildlife Area.
In May of 2023, Navarino property manager “Jaqi” Christopher showed me a ditch she thought could be plugged to restore a drained wetland. The 1,500’ ditch was dug sometime between 1938 and 1983 and the adjacent drained lands were farmed. Eventually, sometime after DNR acquisition, the farm fields were restored to prairie habitat. The ditch, however, remained a tangle, overgrown with trees and shrubs.
Surveys, designs, and permit approvals were completed by the end of 2023 and construction started in late July. Trees and vegetation were cleared as needed and a ditch plug, 150’ long, was built. Material for the plug was “scraped” from nearby, which created a small wetland.
It’s important to keep in mind that the ditch plug and the scrape are not the actual wetland restoration. The restored wetland is actually the fourteen-or-so acres to the west of the plug that will no longer be drained. Trees, including already imperiled ash, will die as water levels increase and the area will become more open. As with all habitat restorations, it will take time before the effects are readily visible.
Check out this video of the Navarino project:
This innovative public lands program is the result of an agreement with the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources with Pittman-Robertson Funding derived from your hunting and fishing expenditures. Other funding necessary to support this program was contributed by the Fund For Lake Michigan, The James E. Dutton Foundation, and the Wisconsin Bird Fund, ” A Legacy Fund of the Society of the Tympanuchus Cupido Pinnatus.