Pine-oak barren project restores globally rare landscape
Enbridge Ecofootprint grant supports local effort to create and maintain high-quality habitat for barrens-dependent species
July 31, 2024
“Globally this is a unique landscape anyway, and now it’s even smaller than it once was,” explains Mike Amman, a forester in Wisconsin’s Bayfield County. “People can see things here that they won’t see in any other part of the state. There are 150 to 200 unique species in this barrens landscape.”
The Northwestern Sands Barren Restoration is an effort of Bayfield County Forestry and Parks Department to create and maintain pine-oak barrens, which is a globally rare landscape left behind by glaciers 10,000 years ago. Historically, barrens were a common landscape in northwest Wisconsin but were nearly wiped out by fire suppression, agriculture, and reforestation. In collaboration with the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, Bayfield County received a $50,000 Enbridge Ecofootprint award to maintain high-quality barrens in strategic locations to maximize the connectivity of these isolated landscapes.
The project includes restoration work at the Moquah and Barnes Barrens, as well as the Bass Lake Barrens Management Area. “This is an exciting thing in the state of Wisconsin, conservation happening right now. Restoration happening in real time. This is going to provide a lot of high-quality habitat for barrens dependent species,” adds Amman.
The barrens also provide great recreational opportunities from birdwatching and hiking to upland hunting and berry picking.
To learn more about Bayfield County’s pine-oak barrens, watch Discover Wisconsin’s original short Wisconsin’s Barrens of the Northwest Sands.
In 2023 and 2024 Enbridge’s Ecofootprint Grant Program awarded $500,000 to six environmental restoration and improvement projects in northern Wisconsin counties near the Line 5 Wisconsin Segment Relocation Project (L5WSRP).
The 41-mile project will reroute a segment of Line 5 around the Bad River Reservation through portions of Bayfield, Iron and Ashland counties, creating 700 construction jobs and more than $100 million in local project spending.
