From Milwaukee journal Sentinel, by Lee Bergquist
The Natural Resources Board was expected to approve two land acquisitions Wednesday that would add more than 5,600 acres of public land in central and northern Wisconsin, including miles of frontage on remote rivers and streams.
The largest of the two transactions is $4.4 million to buy 2,821 acres from Plum Creek Timber Co. for an assortment of parcels across northern Wisconsin.
The second transaction calls for Mead Witter Foundation of Wisconsin Rapids to donate just over $2 million for the purchase of 2,804 acres for the Mead Wildlife Area in Portage and Marathon counties.
Mead Witter was founded by family members of Consolidated Papers Inc., a Wisconsin Rapids-based papermaker. Before it was acquired, the company had considerable timber holdings in Wisconsin, including all of the land involved in Wednesday's transactions.
Plum Creek acquisitions
Based in Seattle, Plum Creek is the second-largest private timberland owner in the United States.
In 2002, Finnish paper giant Stora Enso sold 309,000 acres in Wisconsin and the Upper Peninsula to Plum Creek - land previously held by Consolidated Papers before it was acquired by Stora Enso.
The Plum Creek purchases would include adding 1,187 acres to the Northern Highlands-American Legion State Forest.
The largest of four parcels in the state forest is 749 acres in northwestern Vilas County near the Wisconsin-Michigan state line. It includes 12,900 feet on the Turtle River, which is classified by the Department of Natural Resources as a muskellunge river.
Another purchase would add 626 acres of wooded land to Copper Falls State Park in Ashland County, including 6,000 feet of Bad River frontage.
In one deal in Bayfield County, the state would buy four parcels totaling 554 acres. The land includes seven stream and river drainage systems that empty into Lake Superior and serve as spawning habitat for the lake. The DNR envisions the land as a site for hunting, fishing and passive recreation such as hiking.
Also in Bayfield County is 454 acres that would add to the Bibon Swamp Natural Area, a mix of forest and wetlands that is drained by the White River, a cold-water trout stream.
Mead Wildlife Area
The 2,804 acres would be bought from the Consolidated Water Power Co., a unit of Stora Enso, and would include nearly 11 miles of Little Eau Pleine River frontage.
The land includes turkey, bear, deer, waterfowl, eagles and osprey. One of the goals of the state is to manage the area to increase the population of prairie chickens, a threatened species in Wisconsin.
The Mead Witter Foundation was founded in 1951 and was endowed by George W. Mead and family members who were shareholders of Consolidated Papers.
