Sugar Creek Preserve News

I don't know if its by chance, but I have seen huge numbers of wild turkey on the property this year. They usually are in the areas bordering the prairie but near heavy woods too. Maybe there has been a decline in the coyote population or some other factor is at play, but they have been a welcome sight.

Rob Edwards and I spent an hour at Sugar Creek last week with a writer and photographer from the Janesville Gazette. It seems that they were doing an article on conservation communities and were told that our community represented the state of the art in the region - a sentiment I completely agree with. They caught the bug while out there and left very enthused and excited about what SCP has to offer. We'll keep an eye out for that article in the next week or two.

Rob

Prairie ecologist Steve Banovetz from Natural Resouces Consulting visited the prairie restoration project this week and the report was very encouraging. He used words like "fantastic" and "unbelievable" to describe the health of the native species coming up through last year's dead grass. Nearly every plant we looked at is some type of flower. Obviously some areas are better than others but this year we are all expecting something spectacular. This will be the first year that we do no prescribed mowing so the growth should be a lot higher and thicker than in previous years.

The ditch banks are doing OK. The ditches at the north entry look better than those at the south. We have made the decision to keep the southern ditch banks mowed and let the ones near the north entry grow out a bit and see how they look.

There was also plenty of conversation about the dryness of the retention basins in the prairie. While they are certainly oversized and never have been very full, they have become a lot drier in the last year or two. Our theory is that, as the swales and ditches get more vegetated the runoff into the basins decreases. Of course, this is the point of using vegetated ditches so all seems to be working well.

I will post Steve's report when it becomes available.

Rob

Last month prairie ecologist Steve Banovetz from Natural Resources Counsulting was onsite to conduct his regular inspection of the progress of the prairie restoration. The prognosis remains very good. He was able to identify numerous variety of native wildflowers and grasses that had taken root and were beginning to become established. The level of undesirable invasive species was found to be relatively low. With the exception of several patches of clover, the prairie is progressing much better than expected.


The plan for this season is to continue periodic mowings to discourage invasive plant establishment and conduct spot-spraying of thistles and other tougher undesirables. Sometime in 2008 NRC will give us the go-ahead to conduct a burn of the prairie and after that we should be able to let it grow to its full 5-8 foot height.

Restoring a native prairie has turned out to be a very complicated and intensive process, but with the right professional assistance and careful maintenance we are confident the result will be something spectacular.

Please join us for our 1st annual Campfire and Cookout.

When: Saturday June 23 at 6:00 PM

Where: Sugar Creek Preserve - Below lot 15

Brats, Burgers, Hot Dogs, Marshmellows, Buns, and chips will be provided.
Please bring your favorite beverage. Dish to pass optional

Hope to see you there!

While out for an early trail run this morning I saw the first turkey I have seen at Sugar Creek in the last couple years on the flats near lot 48. Also, there was a bluebird flying around near lots 8 and 9 - the first time I've ever seen one on the property. No sightings yet of the great horned owl seen two years ago near lot 24 or the golden eagles over the pond. Have you seen anything unusual or interesting at Sugar Creek? Post it to the comments.

With the close of 2006 Red Wing Land Company completed the vast majority of heavy work at Sugar Creek Preserve. Last fall repairs and upgrades to the dam were completed, including a new spillway and outlet pond and an 8" increase to the depth of the pond. The dam is now in compliance with all DNR dam regulations and is awaiting final certification from the state. Last week excavation contractors closed two temporary settlement basins, one near lot 6 and the other at the end of the lot 49 private drive. With the removal of what was affectionately known as the "tank trap" at the end of the lot 49 driveway a new walking loop is now available up the old roadway. Natural Resources Consulting restoration biologists will be onsite on Thursday to inspect the progress of the prairie restoration and make recommendations for mowing and maintenance schedules this year. I will post a summary of what they tell us about our prairie in the making.

This marks the first post in our new Sugar Creek Preserve weblog. Sugar Creek was envisioned as a conservation community, and an essential element to community is communication. After considering various ways of maintaining communications between residents, prospective owners, and us as the developer including newsletters, meetings, and bulk email, we settled on the concept of an interactive weblog. With this format you can stay up to date on what is going on within your community and post (moderated) comments to share with other readers. If you have an RSS reader or other feed aggregator, you can subscribe to the feed from this page and be alerted when new items are posted. We intend on posting updates regularly so check back periodically to stay in touch.