Agreement Narrative: WI Coverts
Primary Funder: Wisconsin Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI) SFI Implementation Committee (SIC)
Location: UW-Madison Kemp Natural Resources Station, Woodruff, Wisconsin
Innovation:
The Wisconsin Coverts Project began in March 1994 with the funding of a 3-year proposal by the Ruffed Grouse Society & American Woodcock Society (RGS & AWS). Most recently, the project has been the recipient of (6) 2-year (2013-14, 2015-16, 2017-18, 2019-2020, 2022-23, 2024-2025) Wisconsin Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI®) Implementation Committee (SIC) grants which have included matching contributions from RGS & AWS as well as support from the Department of Forest & Wildlife Ecology at UW – Madison, University of Wisconsin – Extension, the Anne and Jason Spaeth Family, and Braun Woodlands. The Wisconsin Coverts Project is also funded in part by the Renewable Resources Extension Act (RREA).
This 3-day, immersive workshop is offered free of charge to participants through our SFI SIC grant. Land owners are provided with a wide range of information from many experts in multiple natural resources disciplines to aid and assist them with managing their property. Land owners hear lectures, travel by bus to state lands management projects, and tour a private property owned by RGS members Terry and JoAnne Ides of Fifield, WI as the capstone. The Ides are a family of ruffed grouse hunters and guides that have been managing their 600 acre+ property for ruffed grouse for over 40 years. This immersive nature of the program is specifically intended to give land owners the confidence and tools to manage their own properties for wildlife.
Impact: Since 1994, 854 Coverts Cooperators (representing 715 properties) have attended 33 Coverts workshops. Those landowners own or are responsible for managing a combined 553,521 acres (including 165,000 acres of industrial forest, 60,000 acres owned by the U.S. Army, and 80,000 acres owned by Board of Commissioners of Public Lands) in Wisconsin (and the Midwest). Coverts Cooperators from the first 33 workshops have reached out to more than 17,000 landowners accounting for an additional estimated 707,000 acres in Wisconsin and neighboring states. The total land base impacted through 29 years of the program is estimated at over 1 million acres.
Partners: UW-Extension, SFI SIC, USFS, WI DNR, UW-Madison Wildlife Ecology Dept.
