In 2019, RGS/AWS Forest Conservation Director Jon Steigerwaldt sat on the selection committee for the Cherish Wisconsin Outdoors Fund (a habitat fund made possible by Wisconsin hunters who volunteer to donate to an endowment while purchasing hunting licenses). That committee looked at funding one of ten different projects throughout Wisconsin and eventually agreed to fund a 278 acre project on the Lawrence Creek Fish and Wildlife Area using the public endowment. However, the second-place project the committee agreed was a high value project wasn’t going to get funded due to a lack of available funds. Working with chapter members to rally and gauge support, RGS funded the second-place project on the Tiffany Wildlife Area in 2019. That 194 acre project aimed to create woodcock habitat by maintaining open vegetation for singing grounds, as well as combat a growing woody invasive problem and manage oak woodlands nearby. “Building on the hundreds of acres of oak-hardwood salvage from a recent blowdown event on the Tiffany, this project was a no-brainer to augment existing habitat and capitalize on additive benefits from that blow-down timber harvests to have a property-wide impact on the 5,000 acre property.” – said Forest Conservation Director Jon Steigerwaldt. “This property will be a real woodcock hotspot in the near future, but with only one project slated to get funded through the Cherish Fund, it highlights the desperate support wildlife managers and habitat organizations have to make meaningful impacts.”
Update: Since initiating this project on the Tiffany, the Miss-Croix RGS chapter across the Mississippi River in MN has adopted the WI Wildlife Management Area in 2020. Delayed from doing a project in 2020 due to COVID19, the chapter was safely able to meet on site with Regional Director of Development Dave Johnson in the spring of 2021 to conduct habitat maintenance work.
