The time before and after the meeting of the Lower Wisconsin State Riverway Board meeting on Thursday, Jan. 12 was filled with the usual grumbling discussion of winter cold and the careful mincing steps needed to navigate the ice still tenaciously clinging to sidewalk and parking lot, but inside the meeting, these conditions were met with welcome. What is making life treacherous for commuters and town shoppers is ideal for the DNR foresters working to control invasive woody plants in our natural areas.

Department of Natural Resources Wildlife Biologist Travis Anderson was on hand to describe the timberstand improvement work which seeks to remove and control invasive woody species relating to permit extension requests for parcels in the Town of Buena Vista, Richland County; Town of Spring Green, Sauk County; and Town of Wyoming and Town of Pulaski, both in Iowa County. Three of the properties – Mazomanie, Pulaski, and Wyoming – are oak barrens. The Spring Green property is a prairie and oak restoration effort, and the Buena Vista property is a flood plain property.

“In areas without black locust, we have already reintroduced fire,” to the management effort, Anderson noted. But in areas with black locust, control efforts are still on girding invasive trees and treating stumps.

...

For the complete article, please see the Jan. 19, 2017 issue of the Boscobel Dial or Muscoda Progressive..