The Upper Wisconsin River Legacy Forest was established in 2015 with 1,042 acres of forestland southeast of Land O’Lakes along the Wisconsin River.
It’s privately owned with a conservation easement through the state of Wisconsin.
Now, 191 acres along Highway 45 and County Road E is being added to the forest.
Joe Hovel is the Director of Partners in Forestry and the Northwoods Alliance who has been working to see the project completed. He is also the landowner.
He says the stretch of land includes pine barrens and conifer swamps that’s home to a variety of wildlife.
“It's a diverse habitat for a variety of wildlife, flora, and fauna. I refer to this as protecting nature's DEI on the landscape,” said Hovel.
The conservation easement on the original 1,042 acres were secured through Wisconsin’s Knowles Nelson Stewardship Program.
The easement on additional acres came through a category under the federal Forest Legacy Program called “Strategic Small Tracts.”
The completion of this addition is bittersweet for Hovel as there is a chance both the funding sources used on the Upper Wisconsin River Forest will no longer be available.
The Wisconsin Legislature ended its session without renewing Knowles Nelson and the Strategic Small Tracts program was funded one time through the Inflation Reduction Act.
“I'm all the more grateful to see this project completed, because we're at a time of kind of like incredible misguided attacks on some of the most valuable programs,” said Hovel.
Small tracts like this one can be key in keeping larger forests segments connected and help reduce the loss of biodiversity.
“That’s got habitat for threatened and endangered species. There's spruce grouse there. The Pine Barrens are an endangered habitat themselves, and they're also a very fragile habitat. Can you imagine if that was fragmented in the small lots and in hunting camps and so forth? With the fire prone vulnerability of Jack Pine, for goodness sakes, you know that could be a disaster,” said Hovel.
With this added tract, the Upper Wisconsin River Legacy Forest now borders the Spruce Grouse Swamp State Natural Area, Vilas County Forest land, and National Forest land.
“That's a good example of the greater strategic importance in this case,” said Hovel. “The whole Upper Wisconsin River Forest lies in what we call the Wisconsin River headwaters conservation opportunity area.”
The Upper Wisconsin River Legacy Forest is open to the public for what Hovel referred to as foot-base activities like hiking, hunting, and fishing. There will also be managed timber harvests.
Another project Partners in Forestry and the Northwoods Alliance is hoping to see completed soon is the Border Lakes project west of Land O’Lakes along County Highway B. It is also using funding from the Strategic Small Tracts program to secure conservation easements. In total, Wisconsin had four projects under this program.
It was going through the process alongside the Upper Wisconsin River Legacy Forest but was delayed due to a glitch in the legal description that’s being corrected.
Both projects had the support of the Vilas County Board.
As a forestland owner himself, Hovel calls programs like the Forest Legacy Program gratifying.
“The Forest Legacy Program is just this sort of wonderful compromise between being able to be still, as a private owner, still hands on, and very involved with the land, and you've accepted the fact that you're protecting this land and you're willing to share it with others,” said Hovel.
Roughly 16 million acres of Wisconsin is forested land with about 68% privately owned. As of 2020, nearly 297,000 acres of privately-owned land is protected by a Wisconsin DNR conservation easement.
