Chambers Island Nature Preserve
Fall 2017 Update
|
|
Greetings!
What a summer for the Chambers Island Nature Preserve! At 600 acres we've become the largest preserve in the Door County Land Trust family. Let‘s be proud of what we have accomplished over the past four years--from protecting large parcels of our woodlands and wetlands to engaging families in exploring our island’s natural treasures and fighting invasive species. We are now working to save the islands in Lake Mackaysee and more of our mature forest. Recent changes in Wisconsin conservation grant priorities mean that funds we used in the past are not available in the near future to match our private fund raising efforts, and we are so close to completing the Nature Preserve.
So now, even more than ever, your private gifts are needed. Read more about our progress and challenges. Thanks for your continued support. It is critical.
|
|
Tom Clay
Executive Director
Door County Land Trust
|
|
Suzanne Fletcher
Co-Chair, Chambers Island Nature Preserve Committee
|
|
Mary Jane Rintelman
Co-Chair, Chambers Island Nature Preserve Committee
|
|
Lake Mackaysee and its two islands are critical to the health of Chambers habitat. With the help of our partner, the Town of Gibraltar, Wisconsin is selling us the two ecologically sensitive islands and the preserve covers more than a mile of shoreline.
Photo: Sig Weber
|
|
Help Save Lake Mackaysee Islands
|
Did you know that the State of Wisconsin owns the two small islands in Lake Mackaysee? No? Well neither did we. When we learned that
the state was going to sell these environmentally sensitive islands, the CINP and DCLT sprang into action. These iconic islands “in the lake on our island in the middle of the bay” had to be saved. Surplus public lands like the islands are offered for sale to local municipalities in the state. If there are no buyers, the sale is opened to the public for bidding. With the assistance of the Town of Gibraltar, which voted unanimously to approve the purchase, we will provide the funds for the transaction, and the islands will be added to the Nature Preserve.
The purchase of the islands and an additional 90 acres is planned for early next year. A total of $450,000 is needed to both acquire the land and save the islands. Currently, public grant funds are not available for these properties and therefore we must raise private donations. Donations from islanders, friends and private foundations are critical now.
Your gift now can make a difference. Gifts of any amount are appreciated and will be added to a generous $150,000 grant this year from the David V. Uihlein Sr. Foundation of Milwaukee and $20,000 from the Bock Foundation, as well as donations from many others. Donate to the Chambers Island Nature Preserve effort at
www.chambersislandnaturepreserve.org/donate and please mark your gift or pledge for the CINP.
|
|
Islander Carol Grelck, right, discusses Monarch butterfly propagation. She raised over 60 on the island this year.
Photo: Naseem Reza
|
DCLT’s Terrie Cooper and islander Wally Dauffendach measure a tree to determine its age. The oldest tree identified on the hike was a 350 year old maple.
Photo: Naseem Reza
|
Nocturnal blue and yellow spotted salamanders, the first known to be identified on the island, were discovered under logs during the afternoon exploration.
Photo: D. Gordon E. Robertson
|
|
Elusive Salamanders, Aged Trees and Monarchs Highlight Nature Walk
|
After a day of torrential rain and small craft warnings, the skies over Chambers Island cleared for the Annual Meeting and the CINP afternoon nature hike. Islander Carol Grelck and Terrie Cooper, DCLT director of land program, led
24 islanders and friends for the hands-on exploration
of the Nature Preserve from Baseline Road to the west side of Lake Mackaysee.
To their surprise, in searching the forest floor for creatures, they
discovered both a blue spotted salamander and a yellow spotted one
under dead logs. It was the first time those present ever saw salamanders on the island. These common, but nocturnal salamanders lay their eggs in Lake Mackaysee each spring. As they morph into tadpoles and finish their development in fall, they leave the lake and spend the rest of their lives in the nearby forests, returning to the water each spring to mate and lay their eggs.
Islanders also
identified tree species and estimated the age of the trees
in the forest, measuring the tree’s diameter at breast height and multiplying this by a tree growth factor. A number of sugar maples, red oaks and hemlocks were estimated to be over 200 years old with a sugar maple estimated at 350 years!
At the end of the walk, Carol Grelck gave a short presentation of
Monarch butterfly stages and predators
and passed around samples of each. Last year she did not propagate any pupa because there were so few on the island. This year she raised over 60, most of which she found along Baseline Road.
|
|
Tom Clay, left, Door County Land Trust executive director, Russ and Debbie Feirer of the Chambers Island nature preserve committee, Rob Van Gemert, Cellcom business sales manager and islander, and Amanda Pyke, Door County Land Trust land stewardship manager
Photo: Julie Schartner
|
|
Fighting Invasive Species
|
Debbie Feirer is a one-woman warrior defending Chambers Island against invasion – invasion of plants that threatened our native habitat. As part of her battle she spearheaded the effort to apply for and win a $3,350 grant award from Cellcom, on behalf of the DCLT, to be used for removing invasive plants in the nature preserve.
Cellcom sends used and old cellular phones to recyclers who in return send money to Cellcom for the materials that were saved from the phones. Cellcom uses funds generated by the recycling program to fund green nonprofit initiatives, known as the Green Gifts program.
“Lake Mackaysee, the 350-acre lake in the interior of the island, has had its shoreline degraded by Phragmites (wetland reeds) over the past several years. Garlic mustard has a foothold on the interior of the island, which is a part of the nature preserve, as well as the roads and trails leading to these parcels,” said Terrie Cooper, director of land program for Door County Land Trust. “Although islanders have been fighting these invasive species aggressively for nearly a decade, these plants have not been completely eliminated.”
Debbie was also the recipient of a Wisconsin Invader Crusader award last year for her continuing work against invasives. She urges all Chambers Islanders to join in the battle to beat back these aggressive plants.
|
|
Map of Chambers Island Nature Preserve
|
|
Island Nature Preserve Now the Largest in Door County Land Trust Family
|
With the acquisition of 220 acres on Chambers Island this summer, the
600 acre preserve is now the largest of the 15 preserves
owned and managed by the Door County Land Trust (DCLT). Our island stands as a significant migratory bird stopover, attracting more than 170 identified bird species with its forage and nesting habitat. The new acquisitions include a 15-acre leather-leaf muskeg (bog), the only one found in Door County. The Land Trust and CINP partnership was established in 2014 to create a Nature Preserve that
protects our interior forests and wetlands
and to advance our understanding of the island’s biodiversity, protecting its role in the Great Lakes ecosystem.
|
|
View of Lake Mackaysee
Photo: Johanna Parkes
|
|
Chambers Island Nature Preserve Completion Campaign Coming in 2018
|
In Spring 2018, we will launch a Completion Campaign to
wrap up our five-year Chambers Island Nature Preserve project. Priorities to complete the preserve include wetlands critical to Chambers habitat that are threatened with development, and land that will ensure a contiguous interior forest. These properties include additional acres on Lake Mackaysee and various parcels near Krause Lake.
Without matching public grant funds,
we must rise to the challenge and raise the funds necessary to protect our forests and wetlands. We cannot enter into purchase agreements until we know we will have the necessary funding. How much of this land we can preserve will depend on the generosity of islanders, friends and private foundations. Your support in this effort is more critical than ever. Need a New Year’s resolution for 2018?
Consider a gift or pledge to preserve and protect our special island.
|
|
|
|
Give the Gift of an Island for the Holidays
|
|
|
|
The Door County Land Trust is a local, non-profit organization working to preserve Door County's open spaces, scenic beauty and ecological integrity. The Land Trust has protected more than 8,000 acres and is supported by more than 2,200 members.
Door County Land Trust nature preserves are open to the public at no charge for hiking, cross-country skiing, wildlife observation, some forms of hunting, and other low-impact, non-motorized recreational activities.
For more information on the Door County Land Trust and to make a contribution of support, please visit: www.doorcountylandtrust.org or call (920)746-1359.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
