The Monarch Joint Venture welcome’s Sauk Prairie Conservation Alliance to the partnership! The Sauk Prairie Conservation Alliance promotes cooperative conservation on the Badger Lands and in the surrounding Sauk Prairie landscape. The Badger Lands are a 7,300-acre property in southern Wisconsin which housed the Badger Army Ammunition Plant until it was decommissioned in 1997.
During its 20-year history, the Alliance has undertaken and promoted ecological restoration of various sites at the Badger Lands. Volunteer work parties have helped control invasive species, collect seeds, plant prairie and manage remnant prairie and savanna sites. The Alliance is currently working with Sauk County and the DOT on a plan to restore 50 acres of prairie along the Great Sauk Trail. In parallel, they are working with landowners on properties adjacent to the Great Sauk Trail to restore thousands of additional acres of grassland habitat.
With an engaged network of volunteers, the Alliance will be implementing monarch monitoring projects at prairie restoration sites on the Badger Lands. Starting in the spring of 2021, the Alliance will be collaborating with the MJV and the UW-Madison Arboretum to train local community members in the Monarch Larva Monitoring Project (MLMP). The MJV is delighted to be collaborating with the Alliance in their work to restore and monitor native prairie habitat.
To learn more about Sauk Prairie Conservation Alliance and their programs, please visit www.saukprairievision.org
The Monarch Joint Venture is a national partnership of federal and state agencies, non-governmental organizations, businesses and academic programs working together to conserve the monarch butterfly migration. The content in this article does not necessarily reflect the positions of all Monarch Joint Venture partners. Header photo is of Ho Chunk Nation Land, a part of Sauk Prairie. The photo was taken by Randy Poelma, Env. Sciences Program Manager, Ho-Chunk Nation Division of Environmental Health