WRP Helps Preserve Major Indiana Waterfowl Area

Work has been completed on the first phase of the $3.5 million Goosepond/Beehunter Marsh Wilder Farms Wetlands Reserve Restoration Project.

This massive, nearly 8,000 acre project will restore one of the most significant waterfowl use areas in Indiana due to its size, historic use by wildlife, proximity to federal and state owned natural areas, and location near the Wabash and White rivers.

Approximately 1,200 acres in the Beehunter Marsh have now been fully restored, according to Dan Luczynski, resource conservationist with the Greene County office of Natural Resources Conservation Service.

"We worked all summer putting dikes up and water control structures in," he said.

The $800,000 phase of the project was inspected and approved by Ducks Unlimited officials on Sept. 10.

In 2000, the USDA's Natural Resources Conservation Service purchased permanent easement from the current landowner, Florida businessman Maurice Wilder, for more than $7 million and began restoration of the wetland and wildlife habitat on the property.

Restoration efforts include 25 miles of earthen dikes and a permanent 2,750-acre shallow water impoundment. Through the NRCS Wetlands Reserve Program, the property will be protected forever as wetland and wildlife habitat, but it currently remains in private ownership.

The Indiana Department of Natural Resources is still negotiating with Wilder for purchase of the property.

In July, the state offered Wilder $5.5 million for the property, but he turned the deal down.

Deputy DNR director John Davis said Monday afternoon that talks are continuing with Wilder, who has told officials that he would put the property up for auction if a deal can't be worked out.

"We're continuing to have conversations with Wilder. We still have hopes that this thing can be worked out," Davis said.

Davis called the Wilder Wetlands Reserve Program project an historically significant wetland complex, located about two miles south of Linton. He said the state would prefer to have it in public ownership with the DNR assisting in the development of a recreational plan that could serve as an economic boost to the area.

The Goosepond unit is a glacial wetland basin drained by Black Creek, and Brewer Ditch within the White River Drainage Basin.

The restored complex will include about 5,000 acres of swamp, marsh, wet meadow and open water components.

The adjacent uplands have been planted to native trees, warm season grasses and forbs, and savanna habitat. The total WRP easement area encompasses approximately 7,200 acres, of which the Goosepond component makes up about 6,000 acres. The remainder of the easement is located approximately one mile east at Beehunter Marsh.

If the deal were worked out, the 8,000-acre Goosepond area would be the largest single purchase of recreational land in state history.

While the future ownership remains unknown, NRCS officials are forging ahead with their restoration plans.

"We're going ahead and doing our plans, our restoration regardless of what happens with the property. Whether Maurice Wilder retains it, keeps it or sells it to the DNR or somebody else, we are going ahead with our initial plans for restoration," Luczynski said. "It's moving along and we are making progress."

NRCS project manager Jeff Coats, from Vincennes, agreed and said, "We're here to restore the wetland no matter who owns it. We're plowing ahead with our plans."

He predicted the entire restoration project would be finished in late 2007 or early 2008.

The next restoration construction phase will go into the 5,900-acre Goosepond area and contracting the units 1 through 6 -- along the southeastern portion of the property -- which is divided into 16 total units. That six units will be completed in 2005 and a contract will be awarded for the remaining 10 units in 2006.

Water in this area will average two to three feet in most places, but may be as much as six to eight feet in some areas, he said.

Currently, there is a minimal amount of water in the Beehunter Marsh area.

"It's all based on the amount of rain. The watershed going into those units and the amount of rain we have had and it's pretty dry out there today. The macrotypography we created out there, there is some water out there now. Some of those units are obviously drying up, but that is the function of a wetland. That is what we want," Luczynski said.

The Beehunter Marsh and the Goosepond development will receive surface water, ground water and flood or overflow waters from adjacent ditch areas.

Open water and emergent marsh habitat will be restored. Water from direct precipitation, runoff, and flooding events will be captured by the construction of dikes. The dikes will be curvilinear in design resulting in the increase of edge and a more natural appearance. Borrow for the construction of dikes shall be taken in a creative manner, emphasizing "natural" meanders and other irregular shapes. A prairie grass seed mixture will be seeded on the dikes to provide a vegetative barrier to reed canary grass and to add additional habitat benefits. All areas between the dikes and utility easements will be planted to prairie grasses and forbs.

The Wilder WRP project will also provide critical migrating and wintering waterfowl habitat. The area is ideally located between the Wabash and White Rivers to receive migratory bird flights using the eastern portion of the Mississippi Flyway. Resident Canada geese at nearby Minnehaha State Wildlife Management Area in Sullivan County and upwards of 35,000 migrant geese using Hovey Lake to the south in Posey County can be expected to make extensive use of the area. Migratory waterfowl will also use the area as a spring staging area for northern bound birds needing a high protein diet for successful nesting, according to DNR officials.

Shore birds and other water birds will also make extensive use during migration. DNR officials believe the area can be expected to become an important feeding and resting area for herons, egrets, and the Greater Sandhill crane. Significant nesting use by bitterns, and rails along the marsh edges is anticipated. The area will likely attract osprey, and northern harriers are already present.

Restoration of some areas of bottomland forest will eventually provide new nesting habitat for neo-tropical migrant birds. Marshland fur-bearers such as beaver, muskrat and mink will increase, as habitat becomes available. The area will provide habitat for amphibians and reptiles, including some threatened and endangered species. The state listed Northern Crawfish Frog has already been documented as using the site.

"The Audubon Society has put the Goosepond on one of their routes for sightseeing and they are recorded species there that they haven't seen before out there," Luczynski added.

Story by Nick Schneider, Linton Daily Citizen.