In an effort to fulfill our mission "to protect and preserve" the natural areas on Madeline Island, the Madeline Island Wilderness Preserve undertakes projects either on our own or, if possible, in concert with other organizations and individuals who have a desire to maintain the Island's natural beauty.
Below are descriptions of some of those projects.
By Victoria Erhart, 2019
The MIWP has been wrestling with woody invasive species for a long time now… In spite of our best efforts, and there have been many of them, we still see a lot of these plants on the ground.
Recognizing this reality, over the last couple of years the MIWP has gently moved our goal away from eradication and towards containment.
Read MoreThis letter from Brigid Reina and Rebecca Flesh appeared in the end-of-summer issue of the Madeline Island Gazette. It gives a wonderful description of their work over the summer.
Read More“We never could have slayed this behemoth buckthorn without his expert chainsaw skills. Check out that stump! Who knew they even got so big? We estimate this bad boy to have been at least 120 years old.” Brigid Reina, Summer Intern
Read MoreFor 2015, the MIWP has hired two interns, Rebecca Flesh and Brigid Reina, well trained and articulate Northland College students whose jobs are to act as a resource to island landowners; to identify problem areas; to publicize their program and availability; and to do the actual cutting and treatment. While these interns technically are employed by the Town of La Pointe, the MIWP provides their salaries in the form of grants and an outright gift of $10,000; we also provide supervision, aka the unstoppable Bonnie Matuseski, as well as lakeside housing.
Read MoreMadeline Island Wilderness Preserve, the Town of La Pointe, and the Madeline Island Ferry Line have collaborated for the third summer in hiring summer interns to coordinate control of invasive plant species.
Read More2015
Our invasive species (buckthorn, barberry, non-native honeysuckle) campaign is the MIWP's biggest multi-year project ever.
Every year since 2007, MIWP has organized and funded an effort in this continuing campaign. Here's a quick timeline:
Read MoreIn 2013 MIWP and the Town of La Pointe jointly hired two invasive species interns (Ethan Rossing for 5 months, Stephen Thielking for two months). MIWP donated $10,000 outright, and $15,000 from a Wisconsin DNR grant, as well as housing for the interns and intern management.
The interns worked on mapping invasive species; cutting buckthorn and barberry; landowner involvement and education; and a five year plan.
Read MoreThis article is an excerpt from Victoria Erhart's annual president's letter for 2013. It describes Madeline Island Wilderness Preserve's ongoing project to eradicate buckthorn from the island:
We’ve written about buckthorn off and on through the years, but I am not sure how clear we have made this: buckthorn is bad.Read More
The Madeline Island GIS project was undertaken in the late 1990’s, and was premiered at the 2003 MIWP annual meeting.
The Madeline Island GIS project was a computerized mapping system containing detailed information on then-current Island land-use, vegetation, topography, soils, ownership, roads and trails, etc., and was used for planning.
Read MoreThe Madeline Island Wilderness Preserve is a non-profit land trust dedicated to the protection and preservation of natural areas on Madeline Island. The nature preserve lands are open to the public for hiking, skiing, berry-picking and hunting. MIWP is committed to education and advocacy — each summer we sponsor field trips and evening programs. Madeline Island is adjacent to the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore on the South Shore of Lake Superior in Wisconsin.
© 2014 Madeline Island Wilderness Preserve (content and photographs)
PO Box 28
La Pointe, WI 54850
info@miwp.org
