Lee Bergquist

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

The state Department of Natural Resources wants to add more than 7,000 acres to its holdings in northwestern Wisconsin in a deal that builds on a historic transaction comprising more than 100 square miles.

If approved by a state board, the DNR will purchase an easement on 7,090 acres in Douglas County for $3.5 million.

The land would be added to the Brule-St. Croix Legacy Forest, which consists of large and small blocks of forestland now totaling 65,867 acres in four counties. Starting with the first acquisition in 2012, the Brule-St. Croix is the largest conservation-related purchase in Wisconsin history, covering Douglas and Washburn and small portions of Bayfield and Burnett counties.

According to briefing documents of DNR staff, the attraction of the land is that it offers large blocks of forest, benefiting wildlife, public users and logging industry. As Wisconsin paper companies sold off their timber inventories, there have been concerns on both ecological and economic grounds that the loss of traditional paper company land would lead to fragmentation of forests.

On Wednesday, the Natural Resources Board will be asked to approve the Douglas County acquisition, a pine barrens forest and home to sharp-tailed grouse and Kirtland's warbler. Sharptails, who drum their feet and spread their wings during mating dances, once ranged across the state, but are now found primarily in a few northern locations. Kirtland's warbler is listed in Wisconsin and nationally as an endangered species. The first photograph in Wisconsin of the warbler, which spends summers in the state, was taken in 2007.

The dominant features of Brule-St. Croix are sandy soils, dozens of lakes and frontage of more than 10 miles of streams, according briefing documents. More than 1,900 acres of the property in the latest transaction are in the acquisition boundary of the Brule River State Forest.

"These habitats are extraordinarily interesting in that they need fire and disturbance in order to propagate," Thomas Duffus, vice president of the Midwest region of the The Conservation Fund, said in a video about the initial Brule-St. Croix transactions. The fund, which offers temporary financing in land deals, played a role in the earlier purchases.

"It's not like a forest that sits there and grows and grows and grows," Duffus said. "It needs to recycle and generate."

Logging today often mimics the disturbance of fire and helps to spur regeneration.

Earlier easements occurred in 2012 and 2015 and involved land owned by theLyme Timber Co. of Hanover, N.H. The land previously had been owned Wausau Paper Co. Lyme purchased the land this year from an affiliate of The Forestland Group of Chapel Hill, N.C.

In 2012, the state purchased an easement on 44,678 acres for $11.3 million.

The next phase in 2015 involved the purchase 21,189 acres at a cost of $5.6 million. The state paid for most of the land with bonds earmarked for land acquisitions under the Knowles-Nelson Stewardship Program. It also received $3.75 million from the U.S. Forest Service.

The third transaction brings the total holdings of Brule-St. Croix to 72,957 acres.

In all three, agreements spell out requirements for continued logging, which will be managed by Lyme, and keep land open for hunting, fishing, hiking and other activities. The agreements also prohibit construction, deforestation and subdividing the land.