Shenandoah and Kettle Moraine Diverge

by Drew Hanson

Envisioned to be roughly the same length and shape and created at almost the same time, Shenandoah National Park and the Kettle Moraine State Forest have different conservation legacies. Why?

Shenandoah National Park

Shenandoah National Park encompasses part of the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia. The National Park Service owns a continuous corridor of land for the park, stretched along a long and narrow ribbon of ridges. See a map of the park here. Significant to the question of this article, it includes a 101-mile segment of the Appalachian Trail.

Shenandoah was authorized by Congress in 1926 and fully established on December 26, 1935. Prior to being a park, much of the area was farmland. The State of Virginia acquired the land through eminent domain and then gave it to the Federal Government provided it would be designated a National Park.

Most of the people displaced for the park left their homes quietly. According to the Virginia Historical Society, eighty-five-year-old Hezekiah Lam explained, "I ain't so crazy about leavin' these hills but I never believed in bein' ag'in (against) the Government. I signed everythin' they asked me." (Source: Wikipedia) The lost communities and homes were a price paid for one of the jewels of our National Park System.

Northern Kettle Moraine State Forest

Near the end of the most recent Ice Age, a 100-mile long series of morainal ridges formed between two immense lobes of glacial ice in what is now southeast Wisconsin. Nineteenth century geologists named the belt the Kettle Moraine. Due to its rocky soils and steep slopes, the Kettle Moraine turned out to be ill-suited for farming. With flooding downstream becoming a problem, the Izaak Walton League purchased the first 800 acres in the Kettle Moraine in 1926. Eight years later the State Planning Board recommended the entire scenic belt of glacial ridges be purchased for a public conservation and recreation area. The Kettle Moraine State Forest was established in 1937 albeit in two separate, North and South purchase units.

Conservation leaders like Ray Zillmer kept up the drum beat of pressure to acquire the connecting corridor between the North and South units of the State Forest. In 1942, the Milwaukee Chapter of the Izaak Walton League adopted the report, “The Wisconsin Glacial Moraines”. A couple years later, the Wisconsin Division of the Izaak Walton League adopted a similar resolution.

In a July 1, 1948 letter to Oscar Rennebohm, Acting Governor of Wisconsin, Ray Zillmer introduced himself and the Kettle Moraine State Forest: “I have given a great deal of my time to the Kettle Moraine project. I have given 34 addresses to over 2,000 people, and I know how the people feel about it. I would like you to give consideration to extending the purchase area so that the northern and southern areas are connected to form a line 100 miles long. As far as the State of Wisconsin is concerned, this will be one of your most important acts. I consider my own efforts in the promotion of this project the most important contribution in my life.”

After receiving a response from the Acting Governor, two weeks later Zillmer replied: “Your letter shows that you have a very good knowledge of the Kettle Moraine project. Personally, I believe it will perform a greater service to the people of Wisconsin than any other projects which are more expensive. The war demonstrated that so many of our young men are not physically fit. We need more outdoor projects where we can retain health by normal exercise of the body. I believe it is urgent to extend the Kettle Moraine area at the very earliest opportunity. It will make possible the purchase of many tracts not now available. The connection of isolated tracts with larger areas will gradually take form.”

In spite of these and many other calls for the protection of the Kettle Moraine corridor, there were set-backs. Zillmer addressed one loss in a December 28, 1948 letter to Ernest Swift, Director of the Wisconsin Conservation Department. Regarding a Mr. Froedert, who sold his property to a developer for twice what the State was offering to include the property in the Kettle Moraine State Forest, Zillmer wrote, “I want you to know that I was utterly disgusted with Mr. Froedert; perhaps more sorry for him than anything else, because he has, in his struggle for wealth, lost all social values”. Lamenting the loss of enchanting Blue Spring on the property, he wrote, “In its original form, the Palmyra Blue Spring, was known in southeastern Wisconsin as one of the most unusual, natural phenomenon. It was a very active pool of a beautiful blue color and so active as to simulate the pools in Yellowstone National Park. It was a place which, in its original condition, could have been developed into a pilgrimage spot for nature lovers. This has been spoilt by the damming of the waters.”

Ten years later, Zillmer founded the Ice Age Park and Trail Foundation (later re-named Ice Age Trail Alliance) to promote and assist in the creation of an Ice Age National Park.

Another fifty years later, there remains no 100-mile segments of the Ice Age Trail (none are even half that long) and the Kettle Moraine State Forest never became a continuous corridor of public land like Shenandoah National Park.

What happened? Why did the 100-mile continuous corridor of public land for Shenandoah National Park achieve success but the Kettle Moraine State Forest (and Ice Age Trail) did not? Did Mountain Majesty Bias have an effect? Is it because eminent domain was used to acquire the land at Shenandoah but in only rare instances for the Kettle Moraine State Forest? A friend said to me, "Maybe Virginians care more about their unique and beautiful landscapes than Wisconsinites?"

What do you think?

Will the AGO Help the IAT or Not?

by Drew Hanson

Unveiled in 2011 by U.S. Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar, the America’s Great Outdoors (AGO) report had good ideas. Among them was to place greater federal emphasis on the Ice Age Trail (IAT). The story was highlighted in November of that year in, One of the Top 100 Great Outdoors Projects in America. 

More than a year later, how has the AGO improved the IAT?

Well, ehem, there was another proclamation.

On September 12, 2012, Secretary Salazar signed Order Number 3323, which established the America’s Great Outdoors as a formal program for the Interior Department. It seeks greater collaboration between federal offices and with state partners. The vision is to connect Americans, especially children, to the outdoors and conserve and restore America’s land, water and wildlife. The Order is available from the Department of the Interior.

NPS photo from the IAT in southern Wisconsin.

Based on input from more than 50 public meetings held around the Nation, over 100,000 comments and consultations with the Governors of all 50 states, the Order specified a set of inaugural projects. Twenty “Landscapes of National Significance” were designated, including the Everglades in Florida, the Crown of the Continent in Montana, and the Great Lakes. Also designated were 28 “Landscapes of Regional Significance” that include the Willamette Valley in Oregon and Ice Age Trail in Wisconsin. It’s an impressive list of landscapes.

If you’re not a cynic, it sounds like needed help is on its way. Maybe the federal IAT partner will begin a land acquisition program as suggested in the initial AGO report and promoted for years including recently in National Park Service Land Acquisition for the Ice Age Trail should begin now.

Last month we learned that Secretary Salazar would be leaving his post by the end of March. Today President Obama nominated Sally Jewell to replace him. Will the new Secretary give the Ice Age Trail the attention outlined in the America’s Great Outdoors Program or not?

Pedestrians want to know (and are ready to help).

Gem of a Junction

by Drew Hanson

Whenever I have free time, it’s hard to beat a walk or a hike. If I’m running errands on the far west side of Madison, one of my favorites is the Ice Age Junction Area. Sometimes it’s called the “Ice Age Trail Junction Area” or “Ice Age Trail Junction Natural Resource Area”. My vote would be to rename it “Kathleen Falk County Park”, but that’s another story.
 

The park has no lake or stream, no picnic shelter or playground equipment. It’s just a great place between Madison and Verona to have a few minutes of respite from civilization.

Click on the map below for a larger image. A map of the broader area is at http://danedocs.countyofdane.com/webdocs/pdf/lwrd/parks/IAT_Junction_Map.pdf

Source: map 66f, Ice Age Trail Atlas 2011

I usually deposit my car in the well-marked parking lot on the south side of McKee Road. A paved bike path leads south to the Military Ridge Trail. I like to use the bike path for about a quarter-mile to access the oak woods in the middle of the park as quickly as possible.

In the winter I sometimes wander around the woods, where the sounds and views are dominated by nature. From there I might follow some of the mowed paths that are designed to firstly be prescribed burn breaks. Or I might just explore off-trail.

In the summer the greatest assets of the park are the native prairies. Volunteers with the Dane County Chapter of the Ice Age Trail Alliance and staff with the Dane County Land and Water Resources Department have spent years converting former cultivated fields into the beautiful restored prairies we see today. In July and August, the prairies are in their full glory—they’re absolutely fantastic. I enjoy these prairies far more than the historic prairies at the famous UW-Madison Arboretum.

The topography is more fun here than most other places in Madison too. With the terminal moraine a couple miles to the south, according to David Mickelson’s Geology of the Ice Age National Scenic Trail, the prairie-covered high hill in the northern part of the park is composed primarily of dolomite bedrock with an upper layer of glacial till.

The only disappointing thing is the current route of the Ice Age National Scenic Trail (IAT) that courses through on a more-or-less north-south orientation. In general, some of the most scenic areas of the property are missed. But that's about to change. A reroute is in the works. Careful trail layout and design by specially trained volunteers and staff is the first step. Once all the prep work is complete, in coordination with the National Park Service and Dane County Land and Water Resources Department, the Ice Age Trail Alliance will lead construction of the new trail tread. The result will be a park that is a gem.

Care to volunteer to help make it so?

A Neighborhood Ice Rink

by Drew Hanson

Madisonians will know it as the Union Corners rink, perhaps someday anyway. That big snow that lasted a few weeks was followed by a warm week and now this flash freeze—perfect conditions for creating a shallow frozen pond. It made a delightful swath of ice for a five year old to learn to skate and then stamp around in winter boots. It's only a one block walk from our home.

For those who don’t know the 11-acre area, just a decade ago it was a Kohls grocery and old battery factory. A developer had plans to transform it into a new neighborhood that became a casualty of the recession. The city bought it a few years ago to guide its future. It is a future that would be especially nice for families with kids if it included a small ice rink. Wouldn’t that be a sweet neighborhood destination and gateway feature along East Washington Ave/Highway 151?