Great Rivers Partnership - UMR - Wisconsin

The Upper Mississippi River Program

Military Ridge: Benefiting Prairie and Streams

The Military Ridge Prairie Heritage Area (MRPHA), a grassland landscape of more than 50,000 acres in southwestern Wisconsin, contains significant remnants of the tallgrass prairies and savannas once abundant across southern Wisconsin. Among these are patches of high-quality prairie sod sheltering rare and declining plants and animals. Populations of 14 grassland birds, such as bobolink, dickcissel and Henslow’s sparrow, have declined as suitable grassland habitat has been lost and fragmented.

Because the area represents a prime opportunity to protect prairie remnants and species that depend upon them, the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources has assigned the MRPHA its highest priority for landscape-scale grassland protection and management.

The Nature Conservancy’s involvement in the MRPHA began modestly in 1964 when it received a donation of three acres. Now, the Conservancy has helped protect 1,823 acres in the Military Ridge area and shares with a broad-based MRPHA partnership the goal of conserving native prairie communities and surrounding them with lands that remain open and covered with grass in some form. Partners in this effort include the federal Natural Resources Conservation Service, the state Department of Natural Resources, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Pheasants Forever, Blue Mounds Area Project and The Prairie Enthusiasts.

The Conservancy’s MRPHA efforts include acquiring land from willing sellers and generous donors, as evidenced by its ownership of the 971-acre Barneveld Prairie Preserve and 324-acre Thomson Memorial Preserve. In addition, the Conservancy secured a $1 million grant from the state and matched that amount from its own funds to acquire 276 acres that was transferred The Prairie Enthusiasts, a private organization protecting and managing native prairie and savanna.

The Conservancy also promotes among area landowners an awareness of the ecological significance of the MRPHA’s natural resources and of various programs, some with financial incentives, available to them to help conserve the area. Another Conservancy effort involves restoring degraded prairie lands through a combination of planting, prescribed burning and controlling exotic species.

The MRPHA partnership and the Conservancy have recognized that recreating a larger grassland ecosystem in southwestern Wisconsin requires that native prairie remnants be carefully managed and expanded. This effort also will help protect water quality in the Pecatonica River and several high-quality trout streams in the area.

By selecting the Military Ridge Prairie Heritage Area as a priority conservation site, the Conservancy’s Upper Mississippi River Program has provided an avenue for sharing throughout the Upper Mississippi River basin the lessons learned regarding grassland conservation and its benefits for protecting water quality in streams.

The Conservancy’s Upper Mississippi River Program, Lower Mississippi River Program and Great Rivers Partnership seek to advance the Conservancy’s national and global efforts to protect the Earth’s critically important freshwater resources for the benefit of the people and other living things that depend upon them for life.

Grass field, Northbay, Wisconsin

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