Dunn County discusses selling “the islands”
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By LeAnn R. Ralph
MENOMONIE — Some county residents may not even be aware that Dunn County owns “islands” in southeastern Dunn County that are surrounded by the Chippewa River.
Dunn County owns Pasture Island (500 acres) and Happy Island (1,100 acres), along with Brush Island (420 acres), which is now the Caryville Savanna State Natural Area.
Over the years, the islands have produced $295,000 in timber sales for Dunn County.
One county board supervisor, Robert Bauer, began to wonder if it is time to think about selling the islands.
If the islands were sold, the land could go back on the tax roll, Bauer says.
Chase Cummings, county conservationist, prepared a report on Pasture Island, Happy Island and Brush Island for the Dunn County Planning, Resources and Development Committee’s May 1 meeting so committee members would have background information on the county’s ownership of the islands.
Approximately 800 acres of the island — all of Pasture Island and the western part of Happy Island — are in the Town of Peru, according to the report.
Approximately 1,100 acres — the eastern part of Happy Island and all of the Caryville Savanna State Natural Area — are in the Town of Rock Creek.
All of the islands are in the floodplain of the Chippewa River and are adjacent to the Lower Chippewa River State Natural Area.
The location in a floodplain and floods over the years are the reason why the islands came into Dunn County’s possession a little more than 80 years ago.
History
There were nine farms on Happy Island until the early 1940s, and access to the island was by bridge and ferry, according to Cummings’ report.
Frequent flooding caused many issues on the island as well as issues for accessing the island.
Some of the more notable floods occurred in 1884, 1885, 1905, 1938, 1941, 1942 and 1943, although those are only some of the floods that have impacted the area.
The flood in 1941 washed out the approaches to two bridges that accessed Happy Island.
In November of 1943, the Dunn County Board voted to purchase Happy Island, Brush Island and adjacent land near the Meridean Slough, the report states.
In 1944, the remaining buildings on the island were sold off in an auction.
More of the history of Happy Island and Old Meridean are included in the book titled “Where the Lilacs Grow: The Story of Happy Island and Old Meridean,” by Jeanne Anderson, Cummings noted.
The PR&D committee is not being asked for a recommendation right now on whether to sell the islands, but the committee will be discussing the background and the elements of what might affect a sale, said Tom Quinn, county board supervisor from Downing and chair of the PR&D committee.
Timber history
Red pine and white pine were planted on the islands from 1947 to 1979, according to the report.
The first timber sale occurred in 1962 and harvested existing timber on Happy Island. There are apparently no records for the amount of revenue generated by the timber sale.
The United States Army Corps of Engineers issued the first permit to build a logging road across the Meridean Slough in 1980 and 1981 to access Happy Island.
A pine timber sale in 1980 to 1984 generated $16,025 and harvested 1,236 cords of white pine and 934 cords of red pine, the report states.
The second timber sale in 1996 to 2000 of red pine and white pine generated $38,395 and harvested 1,593 cords of white pine and 1,098 cords of red pine. An easement for access from 770th Street through private property to the river crossing was used.
In 2001, Dunn County spent $5,760 on crossing repair, and timber sales amounted to $14,400 in revenue.
In 2007, the income from timber sales was $21,514, while there were expenses of $11,964.36 in supplies and road repair.
In 2008, the income from timber sales was $46,414 and expenses were $8,352 in supplies and road repair.
In 2009, the income from logging was $49,988 with expenses of $4,652.
In 2011, there was an expense of $7,948 for the timber sale setup, crossing repair and logging road repair, according to the report.
The total revenue for 2007 to 2011 in timber sales was $108,917.
In 2012, there was $152 in expense associated with the logging road and easement payment. The timber sale was bid out in 2011, but there were no bidders, so the sale was not completed.
Future timber sales in 2025 or later would need low water conditions to liquidate the remaining pine plantations on Happy Island.
Dunn County would need a Request for Proposals for a consulting forester to contract with Dunn County to set up the timber sale, bid the project and oversee the harvest in what would likely be a five-year bid contract, according to the report.
All together, nearly $295,000 has been generated in timber sales for Dunn County with approximately $39,000 in expenses associated with the timber sales.
Caryville
The Caryville Savanna State Natural Area also is known as Brush Island, according to the report.
Brush Island has one of the few areas in the state containing a natural oak savanna habitat.
There are approximately 900 acres of oak savanna in the state, and 200 of the 900 acres are found on Brush Island.
In 1991, Articles of Dedication were approved. Dunn County retains ownership, but the county gave up development rights in order to protect the area.
The first controlled burn of Brush Island was in 1992, and the Caryville Savanna Natural Area is managed by the Wisconsin DNR, the report states.
According to the Articles of Dedication, dated May 29, 1991, “This easement is being conveyed for the purpose of dedicating the property as a State Natural area to promote public awareness, appreciation, understanding, and respect for the State’s natural heritage, and to preserve the following described natural values. Caryville Savannah State Natural Area contains the least disturbed, most defensible, and one of the largest oak barrens in the state — a community that has nearly disappeared from the State’s landscape. The barrens, dominated by groves of bur, white, black and Hill’s oaks, interspersed with openings dominated by prairie grasses and forbs, is part of an intact ecosystem of oak barren, sand prairie, floodplain forest, low meadows and shrub carr on a low sandy Island in the Chippewa river.”
Easement
Dan Prestebak, who retired as the county conservationist in December of 2020 after serving the county for 42 years, spoke to the PR&D committee about the islands.
In 1980, Dunn County entered into an easement agreement with Prestebak’s mother for access to Happy Island at $50 per year, he said.
The easement is not for public access to the islands but for logging access, Prestebak said.
For the last timber sale that generated $105,000, the loggers were responsible for maintaining the road getting to the islands, he said, noting that most of the timber went to Woods Run Forest Products in Colfax and that a trucking company from Elk Mound had been hired to haul the logs.
Timber has to be at a good price in order for a logger to want to log on the island, Prestebak said.
“It is a challenge to log out there, but it is a good money-maker for Dunn County,” he said.
In the 1980s when Woods Run did the first timber harvest, the land conservation department had an enterprise fund and used the money to buy a new pickup truck, Prestebak said.
Since then, the money has gone into the county’s general fund, he said.
Most years, the road is not used, and so the maintenance request in the budget is carried forward to the following year, Prestebak said.
The nine farms on the islands had about 330 acres of cropland among them, and that was what was planted to pine trees. Much of the rest of the islands have hardwoods and are floodplain forest, which would not work for farming, he said.
The pines on Pasture Island were planted in the 1940s, but those pine trees have never been harvested, Prestebak said.
The initial planting of trees did not grow very well there, and after Prestebak started working for the county, a church group came and planted trees on Pasture Island by hand, he said.
Public access
Gary Bjork, county board supervisor from Colfax and a member of the PR&D committee, asked about public land access to the islands.
There is a boat landing at Straw Hill, and then the next boat landing is at Caryville at Highway H, Prestebak said.
The bridges washed out in September of 1941. There were floods in June and September of 1938 and in the fall of 1941 and the spring of 1942, he said.
Was there a masterplan for the timber? Bjork asked.
Milo Tappon worked with the Dunn County Board on timber sales, but nothing was ever written down and there was never a plan when he was working for Dunn County, Prestebak said, adding that he suspected Tappon had a plan but that it was not written down.
Tappon was a Menomonie resident who moved to Menomonie in 1957 and who worked for the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources. He retired in 1977 and then continued working as a consulting forester.
Tappon passed away in October of 2015 at the age of 92.
Lilacs
Monica Berrier, county board supervisor from Menomonie, noted that Jeanne Anderson had recently talked about her book, “Where the Lilacs Grow,” at Dragon Tale Books on Main Street in Menomonie.
Anderson’s presentation can be found on YouTube by doing a search for “Where the Lilacs Grow” and “Jeanne Anderson.”
Anderson noted during her presentation that while she was doing research for the book, in some places on the islands, there is nothing at all left of the farm buildings, no foundations or basements, but that you could tell where the farm buildings had been because there were still lilac bushes.
Berrier said she was fascinated by the story of the islands and had driven out to the Straw Hill boat landing over the weekend.
Berrier also said she had talked to someone who used to work for the DNR and who done some burning out at the islands.
There are stories of families who have a family tradition of deer hunting and turkey hunting on the islands, and you can imagine the process of getting across the river, shooting a deer, getting it in the boat and then getting back across the river, Berrier said.
“It sounds like an epic adventure,” she said.
Berrier asked Prestebak for more information about the floods and whether when the river floods, it overtops the entire island area.
Floods
Flooding is something that seems like it is so distant when the river is not flooding, Prestebak said.
The biggest flood was in September of 1941, but in 1884 and 1895, the floods were probably higher, Prestebak said.
In one old photograph of a church that is in the book, there appears to be about five feet of water coming across the islands, he said, noting that people tend to think of floods as happening in the spring.
In January of 1895, the islands flooded and froze, and then there were reports of ice skating on the islands, Prestebak said.
People do not think about the floods until they happen, he said.
Prestebak grew up on a farm in that area, and he remembered one flood in 1967 when half the road was flooded. The milk truck was able to drive in and loaded the milk from the bulk tank.
Driving out, the milk truck ended up in the ditch, and the driver had to pull the plug and dump the milk in order to get back up on the road so he could drive off, he said.
The biggest flood Prestebak said he could remember was the Father’s Day flood in 1993 when there had been seven or eight inches of rain in a short period of time, and right at the crossing, there was three feet of water.
The islands should stay in Dunn County ownership because of the flooding, Prestebak said.
People cannot do much to prepare for a flood, although there are better flood predictions now, he said.
How to?
The islands have generated significant revenue for Dunn County, Quinn said.
The question would be how to go about arranging a sale of the property, he said.
Because the property is in a floodplain, there would be restrictions on the use, and there would be restrictions associated with the DNR easements, Quinn said.
How much property tax would be generated would depend on what the land is used for. If the buyer puts the property in the Managed Forest Land program, then that would significantly reduce the property tax, he said.
What use would a buyer have for the islands? asked Diane Morehouse, county board supervisor from Menomonie and a member of the PR&D committee.
Supervisor Bauer brought the issue of selling the islands to the facilities committee, then to the executive committee and now to the PR&D committee because by Dunn County ordinance, the PR&D committee manages the property, Quinn said, asking Bauer to speak about his reasoning for wanting to sell the islands.
The supervisors are supposed to look for ways to generate revenue for the county, and this was just an idea for generating some revenue, Bauer said.
Could Dunn County sell the islands to the DNR? he asked.
Outfitters who take people out hunting are always looking for hunting land, Bauer said.
There would still be the question of how much property tax the islands would actually generate, Quinn said.
If it was in Managed Forest, the tax would be lower, but if it was recreational land, the property tax would be much higher, noted Mike Kneer, county board supervisor from the Town of Menomonie and a member of the PR&D committee.
It would be difficult to build on the property because it is in the floodplain, Quinn said.
Bauer commended Cummings for the work he had done on the history of the islands.
The idea of selling the islands was just an idea, and if the county maintains ownership, Bauer said he did not have an issue with the decision.
Quinn reiterated that the PR&D committee had not been asked to make a recommendation to the county board about selling the islands, and that the committee was not ready to make a recommendation.
“It was a really good discussion to have,” he said.
