Detailed Management Plan for Swamplovers Nature Preserve Managed by Swamplovers Foundation and Ice Age Trail Alliance Dane County, Wisconsin
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Detailed Management Plan for Swamplovers Nature Preserve Managed by Swamplovers Foundation and Ice Age Trail Alliance Dane County, Wisconsin ∳Integrated Restorations, LLC Ecological Restoration & Land Management Services Ecological Restoration & Land Management Services Compiled by: Craig A. Annen Operations Manager and Director of Research Integrated Restorations, LLC Comments provided by: Kevin Thusius Director of Land Conservation–The Ice Age Trail Alliance Graphic layout and typesetting: Daniela Annen First Edition: July 2010 Revised Edition: February 2012 This detailed management plan is supplemental to the document entitled “Management Plan for the Swamplovers Property” prepared by IATA Staff and signed into effect on January 25, 2005. This detailed management plan is complementary to the document entitled “Land Management Plan for Swamplovers, Inc.”, prepared by The University of Wisconsin‐Madison Department of Forestry on December 15, 1998, which focuses primarily on management of timber stand production for the property. Cover photo courtesy of Gary Nelson. Table of Contents Executive Summary Page 6 History of the Swamplovers Foundation Page 9 Legal Description and Location Page 14 Status of Adjacent Land Page 15 Vision Statement Page 16 Ecological Management Goals Page 19 Regional Context of the Preserve Page 20 Climate Page 20 Hydrology Page 21 Geology and Geomorphology, and Soils Page 25 Geologic History (Precambrian to Ordovician Periods) Page 26 Glaciation (Quaternary Period) Page 27 Glacial Retreat (Holocene Epoch) Page 30 Soils Page 31 Vegetation Page 37 Postglacial Vegetation History of Southwestern Wisconsin Page 37 Presettlement Vegetation of the Preserve Page 40 General Ecological Context of the Preserve and Management Summaries for Ecological Communities Page 42 Descriptions of Communities Page 44 Prairie Page 47 Summary of Ecological Management Goals Page 56 Management Recommendations Page 57 Sedge Meadow Page 64 Summary of Ecological Management Goals Page 69 Management Recommendations Page 70 Oak Savanna (Oak Opening) and Open Oak Woodland Page 74 Summary of Ecological Management Goals Page 82 Management Recommendations Page 83 Emergent Pond Margins and Open Water Page 89 Summary of Ecological Management Goals Page 92 Management Recommendations Page 93 Mesic Forest Page 96 References Page 99 Appendix A – Species Lists A – 0: Summary of species richness Page 103 A – 1: Total species richness Page 104 A – 2: Species of conservation concern Page 129 A – 3: Species richness and floristic quality (unit 1) Page 135 A – 4: Species richness and floristic quality (unit 7) Page 139 A – 5: Species richness and floristic quality (unit 20) Page 141 A – 6: Planting list for management unit 31 Page 144 A – 7: Planting list for management unit 13 Page 146 A – 8: Planting list for management units 2 and 3 Page 148 Appendix B – Specific Recovery Plans for Plant Species of Conservation Concern B – 1: Yellow hyssop Page 150 B – 2: Purple milkweed Page 154 B – 3: Tuberous Indian plantain Page 155 B – 4: Clustered poppy mallow Page 157 B – 5: Pale purple coneflower Page 159 B – 6: Cream gentian Page 161 B – 7: Butternut Page 163 B – 8: Glade mallow Page 165 B – 9: Marbleseed Page 166 B – 10: Wild quinine Page 168 B – 11: Prairie turnip Page 170 B – 12: Eastern prairie fringed orchid Page 172 B – 13: Casey’s ladies tresses Page 175 Appendix C – General Management Recommendations for Avian and Herpetofauna Species of Conservation Concern C – 1: Grassland and migratory birds Page 176 C – 2: Herpetofauna Page 177 Appendix D: Management Units of the Preserve Page 178 Appendix E: Soils Map of the Preserve Page 180 Appendix F: Autumn Transplanting of Federally‐Endangered Eastern Prairie Fringed Orchid Page 181 Executive Summary The Detailed Management Plan for the Swamplovers Nature Preserve was prepared as a supplement to the document “Management Plan for the Swamplovers Property” (a perpetual management plan for the property) prepared by IATA Staff and the Swamplovers Board of Directors and signed into effect on January 25, 2005. This detailed supplemental plan is subservient to the property’s perpetual management plan should any conflicts arise between the two documents. The overall purpose of this management plan was to develop and record long‐ term ecological and land‐use management goals for the Swamplovers/Ice Age Trail Alliance Nature Preserve (for brevity, hereafter referred to as the SL/IATA Preserve or simply ‘the Preserve’). The current draft of this plan provides a baseline for an adaptive ecological management approach to accomplish those goals in accordance with the vision statement of the Swamplovers Foundation Board of Directors. Future renditions of this document shall contain management goals and strategies for recreation and education on the Preserve, to be prepared by IATA staff. The first edition of this supplementary Detailed Management Plan was developed by Integrated Restorations, LLC, the Swamplovers Foundation, Inc., and Ice Age Trail Alliance during the months of May 2009 through July 2010. The second edition was updated by Integrated Restorations, LLC in February 2012. To accommodate changing management needs and midcourse corrections necessary to achieve long‐term management goals, and to update species lists and management recommendations for species of conservation concern, this 6 document should be revisited and revised/updated at two‐year intervals. Subsequent revisions should also document in detail the history of restoration and management activities completed up to that date at the SL/IATA Preserve. Data updates and detailed site history descriptions will provide a permanent record of habitat enhancement histories at the Preserve for use by future land managers and consultants. This detailed history will provide baseline data to guide future land management initiatives and will record the accomplishments (and setbacks) observed after the implementation of various restoration techniques and practices. This supplementary document provides detailed geological and ecological descriptions of the SL/IATA Nature Preserve and the surrounding landscape, long‐ term ecological management goals, a summary of species richness that has been documented at the Preserve (consolidated from all existing species inventory, research, and management projects from the inception of the Swamplovers Foundation as a Sub S corporation through January 2012), brief overviews of the management history of some of the Preserve’s various habitat units, and detailed management recommendations for many of the Preserve’s species of conservation concern. It is the intention of the Swamplovers and IATA that future land managers, consultants, and site stewards of this property utilize this document (or any subsequent revisions), along with the perpetual management plan when prioritizing and conducting future management initiatives at the Preserve. 7 Swamplovers’ Foundation: ________________________________ _________________ Gerald R. Goth, President date ________________________________ _________________ H. Lee Swanson, Vice‐President & Treasurer date ________________________________ _________________ Tom Kuehn, Secretary date Ice Age Trail Alliance: ________________________________ _________________ Kevin Thusius, Director of Land Conservation date ________________________________ _________________ Michael G. Wollmer, Executive Director date 8 History of the Swamplovers Foundation Contributed by H. Lee Swanson and Gerald R. Goth In the mid‐1980s, Joe Kuehn and H. Lee Swanson were interested in the purchase of approximately 600 acres of land (Sections 27, 28, 33, and 34 in T8N R7E of Dane County) from the von Rutenbergs of the Mariner’s Inn [Restaurant] fame. Joe received a telephone call from the von Rutenbergs in spring 1987 that they were willing to sell the property on County Highway KP. Following a couple of months of negotiations, the sale was closed on August 5, 1987 with a purchase price of $380,000. Contemporaneously with the purchase, a Sub S corporation was formed called Swamplovers, Inc. with five shareholders (Joe Kuehn, Lee Swanson, Tom Kuehn, Gerry Goth and Jim Kuehn). Joe Kuehn coined the name “Swamplovers” in jest to reflect the belief by the group that local people would think they were crazy for buying a parcel of “unproductive swamp land”. Jim Kuehn was only a partner for a short time. The property had been completely plotted for development by the von Rutenbergs. That, however, was never the intent of the Swamplovers group, who initially saw the property as a hunting and recreational opportunity. In early 1988 Swamplovers decided to sell four lots on the east side of Highway KP totaling approximately 141 acres. These sales left 460 acres on the west side of KP in possession of the Swamplovers Sub S Corporation. The farmland in the east and west valleys were rented to local farmers Gerald Kerl and LaVerne Marten and was initially entered into the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) in 9 1988. A forest management plan was prepared by the UW‐Madison Forestry Department in 1998, and in 2002 the west ridge was put into the Forest Crop Protection Program. Swamplovers pursued several select logging operations over the next few years. The effort led to more attention to the woods as a resource to improve by removing invasives such as buckthorn, garlic mustard and honeysuckle. In concert with Steve Holaday of the DNR, several Timber Stand Improvement (TSI) projects were undertaken with grants (and cost sharing from