April Project Updates

Project: Multiple
County: Multiple

By Peter Ziegler, WWA Project Director

March was busy with the changing of the seasons. I spent much of the month surveying sites and contemplating designs based on those surveys and still have many more to go. We were successful in being selected for a North American Wetlands Conservation Act grant which I submitted back in October. This will encompass all of the priority I areas outlined in the “Wisconsin Plan” which directs waterfowl conservation and restoration to the highest potential impact areas of the state. I enlisted a few partners to make our grant more competitive and those include WI DNR, Pheasants Forever, Madison Audubon Society and US Fish and Wildlife Service. These partners helped to strengthen our grant which goes a long way to greatly supporting these partners by helping to increase the available dollars they will have to complete on the ground restoration projects.

Coming up in April, the review committee for the WI DNR In-Lieu Fee program will be meeting to select projects for the latest round of project submittals. WWA holds a seat on this committee which I currently occupy and it’s always interesting to see the types of projects that are submitted.   As this program grows we are starting to see some significant wetland projects be put on the ground.

I’m also in the midst of writing a grant to the Wisconsin Habitat Partnership Fund, which is targeting the restoration of nesting islands on Zeloski Marsh in Jefferson County. This is being done in cooperation with the local WI DNR biologist and WWA’s volunteer Adopt A Wildlife Area team. This new grant program is geared towards helping improve habitat on lands open to hunting, fishing, trapping and other recreational activities. The benefit is that all of the lands this money is used on are open to hunting. WWA is submitting a grant proposal for a project desired by the local wildlife biologist that also fits within this mission. By restoring nesting habitat, especially islands on the property, we can directly increase waterfowl production on a Wildlife Area. The funding for this grant program is through Pittman Robertson funding which is the federal excise tax collect on all guns, ammo etc. and is distributed back to the state for on the ground conservation work.