Military Ridge Prairie Heritage Area
The Empire-Sauk Chapter participates extensively in the development and restoration of prairies that are part of the Military Ridge Prairie Heritage Area (MRPHA). This is a major landscape in southwestern Wisconsin that was created to coordinate the preservation of prairies, original or reestablished. Most of the area remains in private ownership, although a portion of this land has been made available by willing landowners, either through sale, purchase of conservation rights, or by outright donation. Also, a large part of this complex is in the Conservation Reserve Program, which requires that the land remain open and uncropped.
One major goal of the MRPHA is to protect and enhance the nesting grounds for grassland birds, an important group of birds whose habitat has seriously diminished over the past 50 years. These birds require large areas of open grassland to survive.
According to Katie Abbott, the project coordinator: "This region is made up of 48,000 contiguous acres in Dane and Iowa counties. I'm here to help coordinate the efforts of organizations including The Nature Conservancy, The Prairie Enthusiasts, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Driftless Area Land Conservancy, the Department of Natural Resources, Pheasants Forever, the Blue Mounds Area Project, USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service and Southwest Badger Resources Conservation and Development Council."
A number of sites managed by the Empire-Sauk Chapter are part of the MRPHA. These include the area collectively called the "Mounds View Grassland", which includes A to Z Farm, Schurch-Thomson Preserve, Shea Prairie, and Underwood Prairie.
The Erbe Grasslands is part of the MRPHA but is not part of the Mounds View complex. Although primarily grassland, it also contains some cropland, brushland, and woods. This 63 acre parcel is on Erbe Road in Blue Mounds Township, Dane County. See map.
Another part of the complex is the Monroe-Romolino grassland, which Empire-Sauk Chapter manages jointly with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. This grassland has an unusually diverse small mesic prairie, as well as large areas of open grassland. The photo below was taken at a recent Empire-Sauk workday at this site.
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