St Croix Valley Chapter Meeting
Join us for a chapter meeting.
This meeting will be both in-person and via Zoom. 
Date: August 28 (Thursday)
Time: 6 pm until 8 pm
In-Person Location: Hudson, WI, Library, room 219
700 1st Street Hudson, WI 54016
Map
Zoom link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85163877679?pwd=YIShjOgmNf6FOzbbhK8fOMhudgNC7T.1
Agenda
Dan Carter, TPE Ecologist, has visited three sites in our area in the last 12 months. We need to discuss whether to take on the management, and possible acquisition, of these sites.
- Petra Bokken 40-acre property in Afton
Attached is a protection report for the Brokken property.
Dan says, “Long story short is it scores highly enough even without assuming full endowment. It’s different, because the central opportunity is fire-dependent woodland, and savanna is secondary, but it’s still on mission. This along with the other opportunity is a lot, so the SCV Chapter has much to consider. Alexander also needs more capacity to support brush work on the prairie slopes (particularly growing season cutting of sumac) and control sweeps for oriental bittersweet, which is arriving. A consideration here, which Bill mentioned, is potential collaboration with the Minnesota Oak Savanna Chapter. That may make a difference for capacity, and it if such a collaboration is desired, it would probably be worth bringing them into this discussion soon. To better inform a decision, it would be worth a discussion involving Debra with Petra to learn whether it might be possible one day acquire title on the portion of the property away from the structures that would be under easement. If this property is worth an easement, it’s worth owning, and the latter arrangement is best in my opinion, if it’s possible. Obviously, there needs to be further discussion about endowment as well.”
. - Ed Quinn property in Hudson
Attached is the land protection report for the Quinn Property.
Dan says, “The main point is that it doesn’t score quite high enough, but it would if the Quinns provided at least a good fraction of the needed endowment funds (I have some rough estimates in the report from our calculators). So, if the SCV Chapter is interested in and feels capable of taking on (or capable of building capacity to take it on) that easement as a project, then it is worth following up to see just how much they might provide for endowment funds. A consideration here is that Ed has already done a lot of work and will probably continue to for at least several years, which reduces short-term needs on TPE’s end, BUT funds will need to be there to support maintenance and further progress thereafter, and there will need to others willing oversee and move work ahead, even if they don’t live there. In my personal view, if funding needs are met and SCV is able, I think this would be a worthwhile project, even though it is a small site, but you have to consider what it might be like with future owners. There is also still much to do at Alexander Oak Savanna. A lot (too many!) of our prospective projects score in this gray area (contingent on funding), but this one is more centered on our mission than most. I did talk to Ed when I first arrived about our scoring and ascertained that it would be a donated easement. I also let Ed know that funding for legal defense, monitoring, and management were part of the scoring, which he was not surprised by. We did not discuss amounts.”
. - Teresa Higgins Wet Prairie in River Falls
Attached is the draft management plan for the Wet Prairie
Dan says, “I’ll get the management plan I wrote on to the agenda for a Land Management Committee meeting. If approved, it will be part of the materials provided to the Board at their next meeting, and if there are no issues there it gets signed by some people and is considered approved.”