Nesting Islands

Many endangered and threatened water birds, such as the common tern, will only build their nests away from the mainland. When wetlands are converted to farm land or cityscapes they are no longer able to act as a buffer against wave erosion and the small islands out in the Lake are quickly widdled away. This is bad news if you are a common tern.  Luckily for them the BDMCC and the WDNR have been working to restore some of the lost waterfowl habitat on Lake Butte des Morts. The Breakwall has made it possible for us to bring this unique habitat back to life.

This winter we added the last of seven planned nesting islands and added to an existing one.  In order to get the necessary materials (sand, rock & clay) to the islands the lake ice has to be thick enough to hold the construction equipment. We had several years of extremely mild winters and as a result it took us ten years to build them all! They will continue to be tweaked over the years as they settle out and we learn what works and what doesn't, but the bulk of the building is now complete. Below are some pictures of the project in progress. We will keep you updated as we add vegetation, fencing and netting and as new birds come to call the islands home.

Island #6 outline by sunset.	The equipment rests for the day.
Aerial view of six of the islands.	Aerial view of island #6.
Dump trucks could only haul half loads (10 tons) for Island 7. They had to go very slow to avoid creating an "ice wave" that could crack the ice. As it was, the 19 inches of ice was deflecting by 6 or more inches in front of the trucks, creating a rolling "wave" in front of them.	Last year Lake Butte des Morts tried to claim one of the backhoes!
Island #1 (The Cole Loberg Memorial Island) was also added to this year.	The same island with a little color to it.
Island #7, completed in March 2008, successfully attracted common terns later that year!	Bruce Loberg and Art Techlow from the WDNR oversaw the project.