Friends of Bird Sanctuary Working to Protect Wildlife Management Area

Katy Stech
The Daily Telegram
Last Updated: Friday, June 17th, 2005 11:35:32 PM

With the sun freshly in the sky, Ron Tuverson scans the brush field in front of him, hoping that any nearby sharp-tailed grouse will not detect his presence. For the first time in nearly 30 years, Tuverson has decided to beat the dawn to watch sharp-tailed grouse dance.

“(Sharp-tail grouse) have a communal mating system, where the males display themselves in groups to attract females to come to them in groups,” said Fred Strand, a wildlife biologist for Wisconsin’s Department of Natural Resources.  The elaborate dance is attractive to viewers who usually watch the event from a khaki canvas tent.

For Tuverson, though, the decision to watch the dance after so many years was a practical one — the odds of seeing such a display have been low in recent times because of a drastic decline in sharp-tail grouse numbers.

 In 1992, DNR officials recorded only two dancing males. The sharp-tailed grouse population, though, has rebounded in recent years, and last year 21 males were seen mating.  These grouse prefer an ecosystem called pine barren, a geographical transition area between prairie and forest land, said Fred Strand, a wildlife biologist for Wisconsin’s Department of Natural Resources.

Pine barren land used to cover 2.3 million acres in northern Wisconsin, but farmland and foresting have reduced the ecosystem’s size to 40,000 acres.  A 4,000-acre portion of this land lies in southern Douglas County in a plot designated the Douglas County Wildlife Management Area, or the Bird Sanctuary. And over the years, a organization of concerned citizens have worked to protect this area from development so that more success stories, like that of the sharp-tailed grouse, can happen.

 The 125-member group, called the Friends of the Bird Sanctuary, formed in August 2003 with a mission to inform northern Wisconsinites about the value of sanctuary.  “We’re trying to be to be the Jiminy Cricket that watches over this property,” said Scott Peterson, one of the group’s board members.  Last year, the group raised $3,000 to fund events like informational presentations on wildlife and educational field trips for local students.

 On Saturday, June 4, a handful of county residents gathered at the sanctuary during one of these events to celebrate National Trails Day.  The hikers are working to build a segment of the national North Country Trail, which stretches from New York to South Dakota, through the bird sanctuary. So far, the volunteers have finished about a fourth of 78 miles of the trail in the northern Wisconsin area.

 “When people come to the property, they will become more aware of it and appreciate it, and hopefully, that will turn into public support for the property,” Peterson said.  The organization also targets local government officials in their educational efforts with hopes that awareness of the sanctuary’s value will lead to its preservation.

 In 2003, Douglas County board members considered building a recreational area for all-terrain vehicles on the sanctuary. Local conservationists and residents, though, discouraged the project, and the board eventually agreed that recreational area belonged elsewhere.  The issue raised questions about what local government officials can do with the sanctuary’s land, though.

 The county leases about 3,000 acres of the sanctuary’s 4,000 acres to the DNR. The latest agreement, a 25-year contract, was renewed in 2003. But members of the Friends of the Bird Sanctuary are wary of the contract’s power.  “The county insisted on lease language that allowed them to withdraw any or all of the land upon 90 days notice,” Peterson said.

Some members are particularly concerned about 45 acres of land that border Highway 53 and Highway 2.  In May, Douglas County board members registered a majority of the sanctuary’s land into a special category that makes it harder for the land to be developed.  “(Because of the new designation,) the county can’t easily change its mind to try to do something different with the land,” Strand said.

 The board kept about 45 acres from the program, though, which would make the land easier to develop.  “That 40 acres leaves us more options in the future 10, 20 or 30 years that we could develop,” said Keith Allen, vice chairman of the county board.  He added that the board currently does not have plans to develop the 45 acres of the sanctuary.

 Friends of the Bird Sanctuary members are concerned that the board will develop the land because government officials have a hard time seeing the value in the sanctuary’s preservation. “Our message can’t compete too well against the dollars,” Peterson said. “But there are certain species that would die away, like sharp-tailed grouse, if this habitat was not preserved.”