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\;eopold Wetla11d · e· ~ ·c\ anagement Dist~ Annual Narrative Fiscal Year 1999 AGJL ~ 3/z!JjtJO Refuge Supe~ Date ~~ f)2"1\6\ Geographic Assistant Date e· . Regional Director J(!;£ rn .1jj/ -- 3b~)o Programmatic Assistant Regional Director, Akw Date TABLE OF CONTENTS DISTRICT MAP INTRODUCTION HIGHLIGHTS CLIMATE DATA Monitoring and Studies 1a. Surveys and Censuses 1 1b. Studies and Investigations 3 Habitat Restoration 2a. Wetland Restoration On-Refuge 4 2b. Upland Restoration On-Refuge 4 2c. Wetland Restoration Off-Refuge 7 2d. Upland Restoration Off-Refuge 11 2e. Deep Water/Riverine Restoration 12 Habitat Management 3a. Water Level Management 14 3b. Moist Soil Management 14 e 3c. Graze/Mow/Hay 14 3d. Farming 15 3e. Forest Management 16 3f. Fire Management 16 3g. Pest Plant Control 18 Fish and Wildlife Management 4a. Bird Banding 19 4b. Disease Monitoring and Treatment 19 4c. Reintroduction 19 4d. Nest Structures 19 4e. Pest, Predator & Exotic Control 20 Coordination Activities 5a. Interagency Coordination 21 5b. Tribal Coordination 23 5c. Private Lands Activities (excluding restoration) 23 Resource Protection 6a. Law Enforcement 24 6b. Permits & Economic Use Management 24 6c. Contaminant Investigation 26 6d. Contaminant Cleanup 26 6e. Water Rights Management 26 6f. Cultural Resource Management 26 6g. Land Acquisition Support 27 Public Education & Recreation 7a. Provide Visitor Services 28 7b. Outreach 28 Planning and Administration 8a. Comprehensive Conservation Planning 33 8b. General Administration 33 Leopold Wetland Management District d•. s Iowa 30 0 30 60 Lafayette Green Rock --Counties Approved for WPA Acquisition Partners for Fish and Wildlife Counties 33 County Wildlife Management District ·e Leopold Wetland Management District by County Coynty WPA acres # of WPAs CE acres # ofCEs Adams 344 1 0 0 Brown 0 0 0 0 Calumet 0 o. 0 0 Columbia 2926 10 28 1 Dane 1430 8 106 4 Dodge 455 2 45 1 Door 0 0 117 2 Florence 0 0 144 1 Fond duLac 752 3 89 2 Forest 0 0 106 1 Green 0 0 134 3 Green Lake 0 0 0 0 Jefferson 250 3 65 1 Kenosha 0 0 0 0 Kewaunee 0 0 139 2 Lang lade 0 0 0 0 Manitowoc 120 1 75 1 Marinette 0 0 162 2 Marquette 182 1 0 0 Menominee 0 0 0 0 Oconto 137 1 227 4 Outagamie 35 1 110 3 Ozaukee 536 5 0 0 Racine 0 0 0 0 Rock 297 4 30 1 Shawano 109 1 954 11 Sheboygan 300 1 90 3 Walworth 0 0 35 1 Washington 0 0 0 0 Waukesha 0 0 152 1 Waupaca 0 0 216 2 Waushara 232 1 0 0 Winnebago 2126 2 0 0 TOTALS 10231 45 3025 47 WPA = Waterfowl Production Area CE =Conservation Easement . INTRODUCTION History Leopold Wetland Management District (WMD) covers 33 counties in eastern Wisconsin. This includes 20 counties approved for Waterfowl Production Area (WPA) acquisition, a 10-county Partners for Fish and Wildlife (PFW) private lands district, and a 33-county Wildlife Management District, involving management and enforcement of U.S. Department of Agriculture's Farm Service Agency (FSA) Conservation Easements (CEs). The WMD has its roots in a 1974 interagency agreement based on U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) Director Lynn Greenwalt's authorization for federal purchase of land and waters in Wisconsin. These lands would be managed by mutual agreement between the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Wisconsin Department ofNatural Resources (DNR) under a signed Memorandum of Understanding (MOU). Management ofthe WPAs was accomplished according to the MOU signed in 1974 and several addenda after that. In general the DNR personnel were responsible for on the ground management activities and the USFWS personnel were responsible for administration. Federal management authority was under the guidelines of the National Wildlife Refuge System Administration Act with the day-to-day activities spelled out in the Wisconsin Wetland Management Guidelines. As WP A acreage increased, so did the time and commitment of management personnel. A DNR "Workload Analysis" in the late 1980's documented a staff shortage for management activities on the WPAs. The DNR Director ofthe Bureau of Wildlife Management and the USFWS Regional Director began meetings in early 1990 to discuss transferring management of the WP As to the Service. The date selected for the transfer was September 30, 1995. The transition date was later moved forward when the Service received funding for District Managers and summer temporaries to work with the DNR in the summer and fall of 1992. The final transition and establishment of the St. Croix and the Leopold Wetland Management Districts took place July 1, 1993. The advent of the Service's Partners for Fish and Wildlife and FSA Conservation Easement (CE) responsibilities in the late 1980's further defined the WMD's role. Private land upland and wetland restoration projects, and protection and management of wetlands, floodplains, and other important habitats on inventory properties added greatly to the workload and habitat diversity of the district. Geology A majority of the WMD is quite similar to the glaciated prairie region of western Minnesota. This similarity is recognized with the inclusion of these glaciated prairie areas in Category 2, Prairie and Pothole Parklands, the Service's revised ''Waterfowl Habitat Acquisition Plan". The counties that lie within the Leopold WMD boundaries owe much of their ecology to the glacial history of Wisconsin. Glaciers most recently flowed into Wisconsin about 25,000 years ago and reached their greatest extent, covering approximately two thirds of the state, some 14,000 to 16,000 years ago. The retreat of the ice front was interrupted a number oftimes by re-advances, the last one touched northwestern Wisconsin about 10,000 years ago. The advancing ice was channeled into the lowlands now occupied by Lakes Superior and Michigan, Green Bay, and the Fox River, and was impeded by the uplands of the Bayfield, Keweenaw and Door Peninsulas. The ice thus split into six major lobes as it flowed southward across the state. The Green Bay Lobe, which has few obstructions in its path, penetrated as far south as present-day Janesville in Rock County. ,30 ,GOml •50 itOOkm Dice DIce Free - Lakes Recessional Moraines - Ground Moraine D Unpitted Outwash - Pitted Outwash Lake Deposits Maximum Extent of Ice in Wisconsin From Steven Dutch, Natural and Applied Sciences University of Wisconsin-Green Bay The glaciers left their lasting impression on the landscape of Wisconsin. In some areas streamlined, elongate hills called drumlins were formed. Impressive clusters of drumlins are found in the Campbellsport Drumlins Unit of the Ice Age National Scientific Reserve, which is near the aptly named Kettle Moraine WPA in Sheboygan County. Occasionally the flow stopped, the ice stagnated, and blocks of ice detached from the glacier and were buried in the debris. Many of Wisconsin's lakes and potholes, or kettles as they are called, lie in the depressions formed by the melting of the buried ice. The moraines vary greatly across the state. Those in the southwest are usually dry, narrow ridges sitting atop older hills at the edge of the unglaciated Driftless Area. Across the northern counties, the moraines form a broad band of hills dotted with lakes, marshes, and bogs. The rugged, scenic Kettle Moraine in the eastern part ofthe state is actually a series of moraines formed between the Lake Michigan and Green Bay Lobes. Some moraines stand no more than 30 feet above the surrounding terrain, but others in the Kettle Moraine may rise to heights of250 to 300 feet. The melt water flowing offthe glaciers spread fine layers of sand in broad plains, such as in Langlade, Rock, and Portage Counties, that today are fertile cash crop farming areas. In other areas the melt water pooled, forming large lakes where silt and clay collected. The flat bed of glacial Lake Wisconsin, is an example of one of these lakes, and is a marked contrast to the unglaciated hills of the Driftless Area that bound its west side. In the Fox River Valley, Lake Winnebago and Horicon Marsh are small remnants of another pro glacial lake, Lake Oshkosh. As streams slowly wash away kames, eskers, and moraines, and as the marshes, bogs, and lakes fill with sediment and organic debris, this young landscape will become like the older glacial landscape, which lies between the driftless area and the terminal moraines of the most recent glaciation. In this area erosion has had the time to inodify the landscape and, as a result, glacial landforms are subdued of unrecognizable. Lakes and bogs are much less common in this older landscape. Most have either been drained by the gradual lengthening of streams, or filled with sediment that has accumulated over thousands of years. The result is a gently rolling landscape or nearly flat plains broken by occasional remnant hills or ridges that form the prairie-savanna region of the state. e Vegetation Curtis, in his 1959 book "Vegetation of Wisconsin", describes the nature and distribution of vegetation types in Wisconsin and also that of the lands that fall within the Leopold WMD boundaries. The southern forests covered the southern half and western third of the state. Dominant species were primarily oak on the drier sites; sugar maple, basswood, slippery elm, red oak and ironwood on the mesic sites; and silver maple aild American elm dominating the lowland sites. In pre-settlement times these forests covered approximately 5.2 million acres with another 7.3 million acres of what is considered oak savanna also falling into this category. In this region the closed woodlands and oak savanna's provided no distinct boundaries but blended together.