Iron County receives stewardship grants

HURLEY — The Iron County’s forest will soon be expanded through two Knowles-Nelson Stewardship grants from the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources to purchase additional land.

The grants will be used for two projects, according to Iron County Forest Administrator Eric Peterson, one centered in Saxon and the other spread throughout the county.

The first grant will be used to purchase 80 acres near Saxon from a private seller, while the second grant will add just over 244 acres of forest spread throughout the county and owned by the state’s Board of Commissioners of Public Lands.

The board controls parcels throughout the state seized for tax reasons during the early 1900s, Peterson told the Daily Globe when originally applying for the grants.

Most of the land being added to the county forest are obvious additions, Peterson said.

“These parcels are three quarters or completely surrounded by county forest currently," Peterson said. “This acquisition is filling in the holes in the county forest."

Total cost of the Saxon project is expected to be $117,630, with the other project costing $419,570, according to Peterson, of which 50 percent needs to be provided by the county.

Peterson explained, however, that the grants allow the county to use additional land additions to the county forest to meet the match requirement, rather than money, meaning that — with the possible exception of a small amount of money depending on the actual acquisition price — the county won’t be spending any money to add the land.

The county’s match will total 321 acres, according to Peterson.

While there were initial indications that the stewardship grant program would be eliminated under Gov. Scott Walker’s proposed budget, changes have since included some funding for the grants, according to Peterson.

While the budget hasn’t been approved and could still change, Peterson said it appears the program, along with several other forestry grant opportunities that the county board of supervisors also voiced support for, will be continued under the new budget.

The one forestry proposal that hasn’t been returned, Peterson said, would increase the amount the state pays towns for their forestry lands. The lack of headway on the issue would mean that the state would continue to pay the 30 cents-n-acre rate established in 1989, rather than the proposed increase to $1 an acre.

Iron County will likely be unaffected by whatever the resolution is to the state funding of the Knowles-Nelson Stewardship program, Peterson said, as the two purchases wouldn’t be impacted by any future budget decisions and would likely be the last purchases in the foreseeable future.

“The possibility is there to look into other potential strategic acquisitions," Peterson said, “but as far as stuff in the pipeline, there is nothing currently where I’m saying ... ‘because stewardship (funding) is available I’m going to be pursuing this project right now.'"

Peterson said the grants require the entire purchase and related work be completed by June 30, 2016.