Location: Winnebago County

Area protected: 48 acres

Protection strategy: land given to the Northeast Wisconsin Land Trust with the help of the Natural Resource Damage Assessment Funds

Northeast Wisconsin Land Trust (NEWLT) is dedicated to preserving lands that protect our waters, landscapes, and natural habitats for this and future generations. The Land Trust works to protect natural areas, wildlife habitats, and open spaces cherished by northeast Wisconsin residents that are known to be ecologically significant.

In 2005, Northeast Wisconsin Land Trust purchased the 48 acre Guckenberg-Sturm Preserve, also known as the Stroebe Island Marsh. The Preserve is situated uniquely; it is located along the west shore of Little Lake Butte des Morts and bordered on the north by Mud Creek at the point of its convergence with the Fox River as it travels northeast into Lake Michigan’s largest bay, Green Bay.  The preserve is also adjacent to, as well as on, Stroebe Island.

The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources has classified Mud Creek, the Fox River, and Little Lake Butte des Morts as Areas of Special Natural Resource Interest (ASNRI) waters. Because of this, the Guckenberg-Sturm Preserve is recognized as important opportunity to maintain the health of the water flowing into Lake Michigan.

The marsh and surrounding floodplain forests represents one of the last remaining pristine, open cattail marshes found along the Lower Fox River drainage. This habitat type originally covered thousands of acres throughout the Fox River system, but the dramatic increases in water levels through dam construction and high speed motorized boat traffic, effectively destroyed over 99 percent of the original cattail marsh by 1965. This remaining high quality habitat is now very rare and continues to provide critical food and cover for a myriad of wetland species trying to continue their life cycles surrounded by the pressures of land development and severe habitat destruction.

The importance of this wetland along the Fox River cannot be overstated.  In a 2005 Clean Water Testing Report, it was concluded that this “marsh is a healthy, highly functioning filter for the Fox Valley’s soil and water cycle”. Because the Fox River Valley is one of Wisconsin's most urbanized and industrialized areas, it is important that this wetland maintain its health.

While the health of the wetlands is important for people in the area who rely of the Fox River for their drinking water and recreation, the 2005-2015 Wisconsin Wildlife Action Plan (WWAP) designates Floodplain Forest Communities and High Quality Wetland Communities as areas of state significance for Species of Greatest Conservation Need (SCGN).  While some SCGN documented at this site use this habitat for reproduction more use this area as a feeding and migratory staging ground.

 

 "The silken rush of woodland waters and the scoured shapes of the desert - these and countless other treasures we owe to those farsighted enough to have preserved the public lands that make up our inheritance."
- T.H. Watkins