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PRESS RELEASES

As the 2010 Volunteer Restoration Season gets well underway at the former Badger Army Ammunition Plant, The Sauk Prairie Conservation Alliance is excited to announce a new partnership with W.S. Badger Company, Inc. the makers of Badger Balm and other USDA certified organic products!    

As part of the Alliance’s Volunteer program, which has been growing steadily over the last several years,new Restoration Volunteers will receive one of a selection of products donated by W.S. Badger!  Existing Volunteers can participate, too!  Simply bring a friend along to a regularly scheduled Alliance workday, and introduce them to the vision of a restored Badger!  The makers of Badger Balm are thrilled "to support their fellow Badgers", and the Alliance is just as thrilled by their involvement in this growing community stewardship program!  

Volunteers at Badger work side by side one Saturday morning per month removing invasive species from remnant prairie and savanna sites. Activities may include cutting invasive shrubs, pulling mustard or other weeds, collecting seed, or creating a prairie nursery. 

The Alliance's first scheduled Volunteer Workday of the season was Saturday, March 13. Volunteers were hard at work removing old barbed wire fencing, collecting common burdock seed, and marking patches of garlic mustard to be treated later this spring. The Alliance hopes to continue work inside Badger throughout 2010, focusing efforts on the Hillside Prairie and in a large savanna at the northeast end of the plant.  When at all possible, volunteers will work inside the fence.  Many thanks to USDA Dairy Forage for allowing access inside their gate in order to reach worksites more consistently!  On days when access inside the fence is limited, however, work activities will occur outside the fence, along U.S. Highway 12, or at the Moely Prairie on County Road PF.   

The next scheduled workday is Saturday, April 10 from 9am until 12 noon; volunteers are please asked to RSVP in advance to workdays@saukprairievision.org.   For a full schedule of volunteer workdays, please visit the Alliance’s website at  www.saukprairievision.org/newsroom.

Community volunteers and students from UW-Madison's Wildlife Ecology classes spent a brisk autumn morning piling brush along Highway 12 near the former Badger Plant; these brush piles will be burned during the Alliance's final Restoration Work Day for the 2009 season.  The Alliance is helping to restore remnant prairie in and around the former Badger Plant.  To date, local community volunteers have contributed approximately 500 hours to the Alliance's Restoration Program for 2009!

Inventories of plant and animal species conducted at Badger between 1993 and 1998 indicate that although much of the property is overrun by invasive species of grass and woody plants, there is still an abundance of native species to be found.  Volunteers are helping to pave the way for these native species to rebound, by removing non native plants. Already this year, new populations of native prairie plants have been found in areas that were formerly covered in a dense growth of solid honeysuckle--great evidence that restoration work parties are making progress toward a new future for Badger!

As work at Badger continues to progress, the Alliance is excited to announce the receipt of a grant from the Greater Sauk County Community Foundation in support of community based restoration work!  These funds will go a long way toward growing the Alliance's Restoration Program and envisioning a new prairie future for Badger.

After visiting the cemeteries, a catered lunch will take place at noon, followed by a brief  afternoon program including a historical review of the cemeteries, sharing of family histories and an informal discussion of community planning for future care and long term preservation of the historic cemeteries.

Retired U.S. Army Colonels Virginia Metcalf and Mary Yeakel were presented the Retired Army Medical Specialist Corps Association's (RAMSCA) Distinguished Service Award during a ceremony at the RAMSCA Biennial Meeting in Seattle, WA on June 27. Metcalf and Yeakel have been instrumental in bringing continuity to a diverse partnership of organizations in an effort to develop a clear vision of what the former Badger Army Ammunition Plant near Baraboo might become, and are deeply involved in what has become known as the Badger Reuse Plan.   

Virginia Metcalf and Mary Yeakel served their country as part of the Army Medical Specialist Corps.  After long careers as a Physical Therapist for Metcalf and an Occupational Therapist for Yeakel, the two women retired in Wisconsin Dells.  Their commitment to serve, however, did not end there.   

Both women have contributed countless hours to the decommissioning process for the Badger Plant.  As founding members of The Sauk Prairie Conservation Alliance, the nonprofit organization dedicated to actively involving the community in the restoration of the Badger lands, they are helping to ensure that all 7,354 acres are managed as one cohesive unit, part of the greater Sauk Prairie landscape.

With the transfer of Badger to its new owners, the WI Department of Natural Resources, the Ho Chunk Nation, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture, nearly complete, Metcalf and Yeakel continue to serve in various capacities on the Badger Interim Oversight Management Commission, a diverse group of stakeholders charged with overseeing Badger’s future.

Perhaps most importantly, however, Metcalf and Yeakel understood from the beginning that the restoration of Badger needed to be a shared community vision, and they needed to bring that vision to the public.  In 1998, they commissioned local artist Victor Bakhtin to create Sauk Prairie Remembered:  A Vision for the Future, a painting depicting the expansive Sauk Prairie as it once appeared, and as it may appear again.  Metcalf and Yeakel became ambassadors for the prairie, toting the painting to venues across Wisconsin.  The painting has become the signature piece for The Sauk Prairie Conservation Alliance, inspiring a camaraderie of volunteers to work together to begin restoring the prairie at Badger.   

Through their commitment to community service, Metcalf and Yeakel are succeeding in bringing the vision of a restored Badger to life, a shared future on the greater Sauk Prairie that acknowledges a long and enduring human history on a remarkable and unique piece of land stretching from the foot of the Baraboo hills to the shores of the Wisconsin River.

To learn more about the decommissioning of the former Badger Army Ammunition Plant and the vision for its restoration that so inspires Metcalf and Yeakel, please visit The Sauk Prairie Conservation Alliance website at www.saukprairievision.org, and find out how you can become involved!

6/16/2009

FRANK PIRAINO PRESENTED WITH INDIVIDUAL WEED CHAMPION AWARD

By Sauk County Dept. of Land Conservation

http://www.co.sauk.wi.us/data/news/_current_events/2009_invasive_species_awards.pdf

5/14/2009 

TENTATIVE ACCORD ON CEMETARIES WOULD HELP TRANSFER BADGER AMMO LAND

By Ron Seely

http://www.madison.com/wsj/topstories/451234

4/11/2009

PRESCRIPTION BURNS SCHEDULED AT THE BADGER ARMY AMMUNITION PLANT

The Sauk Prairie Conservation Alliance (TSPCA) is coordinating two prescribed burns in April at the Badger Army Ammunition Plant off of U.S. Highway 12 in collaboration with the U.S. Army, Spec-Pro Inc, the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, the Ho-Chunk Nation, and the International Crane Foundation.  Controlled burning is a management tool used to control invasive species, restore native ecosystems and improve habitat of declining wildlife species such as grassland birds. 

The first burn scheduled at the Badger Army Ammunition Plant is a small hillside prairie at the southern end of the property. The second is a 300-acre parcel in the northeast part of the Plant which includes prairie, savanna, and oak woodland vegetation.  As is standard for prescribed burning, these burns will be implemented by trained fire personnel. They have been carefully planned to prevent any risk of fire escape and to keep the highway clear of smoke.

The Badger Army Ammunition Plant has long been cited by wildlife biologists as an important haven for grassland birds and other species. Restoration activities have been coordinated by TSPCA for a number of years in an effort to preserve and restore critical habitat.  Since 2005, TSPCA has hosted volunteer work days at Badger and this is the fourth year the Alliance has coordinated prescribed burns on the property. 

The Sauk Prairie Conservation Alliance supports conservation activities involving the Badger lands through education, research, ecological restoration, and community participation. If you have questions about the prescribed burn activities, or if you would like to volunteer for the restoration program at Badger, visit http://www.saukprairievision.org.

Please visit us again soon for more updates!