Projects

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.

May 18, 2021

The Buck(thorn) Stops Here

May 18, 2021/ Victoria Erhart

By Victoria Erhart, 2021
Last fall, I went with several MIWP board members to tour two sites recently treated for buckthorn by Bay Area Environmental Consulting, Nile Merton and Michael Sinclair…

I was struck by how much our approach to buckthorn removal has changed since those early years when we believed we could get rid of it completely. It is always a hard, dirty business, but we now have a systematic seven-year plan, we are effective and efficient, we no longer do all that very labor-intensive cutting and hauling, and our focus is more on keeping the bad stuff from spreading than on making it go away completely.

Can I do something to help?

May 17, 2021

Madeline Island Trails

May 17, 2021/ Marnie Sanborn Myhre

by Marnie Sanborn Myhre, 2021
The MIWP’s charter describes us as “a non-profit land trust dedicated to the protection and preservation of natural areas on Madeline Island for everyone's enjoyment.” Even though we spend much of our time and energy working to “protect and preserve,” we view our Island wilderness as a community asset to be enjoyed by Island residents and visitors alike. In fact, during this past year of global pandemic, our lands and trails have offered much needed solace to many.

With more people seeking refuge in the natural world, we are working hard to make our trails accessible and enjoyable, and we continue to dedicate time, energy, and resources to maintaining and improving our trail network.

Toward that end we have begun partnering this winter with the new Madeline Island Trails (MIT) organization to help us improve our trails and encourage their use and expansion.

We are planning to update our trail maps later this year to help hikers and skiers navigate the system. We will be replacing/repairing some bridges later this spring and are hoping to experiment with some boardwalk structures to promote use and enjoyment of the wettest areas of select trails.

May 06, 2019

A New Approach to Halting Island Invasives

May 06, 2019/ Victoria Erhart

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.

October 23, 2015

2015 Invasive Species Interns' Open Letter to The Community

October 23, 2015/ Madeline Island/ MIWP

This 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.

August 04, 2015

Madeline Island Hero of the Day

August 04, 2015/ MIWP

“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

July 28, 2015

Summer Interns Continue Invasives Work

July 28, 2015/ MIWP

For 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.

May 15, 2015

Land Trust Outreach And Invasive Species Coordination For 2015

May 15, 2015/ MIWP

Madeline 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.

January 10, 2015

Our Multi-Year Invasive Species Project

January 10, 2015/ Victoria Erhart

2015
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:

December 29, 2014

Invasive Species Management Plan and Mapping in 2013

December 29, 2014/ Madeline Island/ MIWP

In 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.

November 28, 2014

Can We Stop the Buckthorn on Madeline Island?

November 28, 2014/ Victoria Erhart

This 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.

October 01, 2014

The Madeline Island GIS Project

October 01, 2014/ MIWP

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.