A Dream Realized: Nearly 1,000 acres added to Hackmatack National Wildlife Refuge

In 1837, a land surveyor at Tamarack Farms in McHenry County wrote in his notebook about a remarkable landscape feature there. A grove of tamarack trees, relics of the Ice Age, stood tall among the surrounding natural areas.

Today, the tamaracks are gone, but many other high-quality ecological features, including wetlands, prairie and oak groves, remain at Tamarack Farms. The 985-acre property is now destined to become part of the Hackmatack National Wildlife Refuge. The national refuge straddling northern Illinois and southern Wisconsin was established in 2012, after many years of work from local community members. More than 40 public and private conservation organizations, including the Illinois Department of Natural Resources, coalesced to encourage the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to establish the refuge.

“It’s miraculous the number of folks who came together to make it happen,” said Cassie Skaggs, manager of Hackmatack National Wildlife Refuge.

Value of Oak Woods

One of the goals of Hackmatack is to protect and enhance habitat, including oak woods that are important for wildlife, she said at a recent talk to the Friends of Hackmatack National Wildlife Refuge. She noted that among the declining resources in the region are intact oak woods.

“In 2012, only 12 percent of original oak resources remained in McHenry County, and stands could be gone by 2065,” Skaggs said.

Ed Collins, director of land preservation and natural resources for McHenry County Conservation District, is aware of those statistics. That’s why Hackmatack is so important, he said.

“The refuge and surrounding private and conservation-owned lands provide habitat for some of the highest concentrations of endangered species and wetlands in the state,” said Collins. These include rare orchids and state-threatened plants and animals, such as the small sundrop and yellow-headed blackbird.

Creation of a Macrosite

Tamarack Farms is the largest conservation acquisition in the Chicago region since the creation of the Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie in 1996. Tamarack Farms will connect several existing conservation areas, creating a continuous 5,600-acre macrosite — the third largest in the six-county metro region behind Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie and the Palos Preserves of the Forest Preserves of Cook County.

Tamarack Farms inspired Collins and others, including Steve Byers, retired field representative for the Illinois Nature Preserves Commission and Nancy Williamson a retired watershed manager for the Illinois Department of Natural Resources, to take on the daunting task of establishing the refuge. Now totaling about 4,000 acres, the refuge will, over time, grow to many more acres of prairie, wetlands, forests and easements connecting lands as they get purchased and restored. In time, some 20,000 acres of connected natural lands can serve as a self-sustaining ecosystem within the refuge and surrounding protected lands. Future plans include building a visitor center at the refuge.

Collins, Williamson and Byers serve as founding members of the Friends of Hackmatack National Wildlife Refuge.

Collins said, “The wildlife refuge’s landscape doesn’t scream at the top of its lungs like the Tetons or Smoky Mountains or Mount Rainier. But there is something here that’s elegant and old and primeval and it belongs to everyone.”

“We began the journey toward a national wildlife refuge in 2004,” Collins continued. “Tamarack Farms and all the wonderful ecological things on it was always the driving force in creating this refuge.”

Byers agreed. “The purchase of Tamarack Farms represents a dream realized,” he said.

Collins recalled seeing the property for the first time when he accepted a job with the McHenry County Conservation District in the 1980s. “At Tamarack Farms, I found some of the most stunning oak groves I’ve ever seen,” he recalled. Some 129 acres of those oak groves will become part of the national wildlife refuge.

A few decades ago the property was zoned residential, and a housing development was slated to be built.

“But in a happy set of circumstances, the family owners became attached to the property and its values,” Collins said. “The right partnership came together to purchase the property at just the right time.”

The Conservation Fund, Open Lands and Illinois Audubon Society, among other private and public entities, contributed to the land’s purchase.

Collins said the property is filled with glacial features including rolling topography and large wetlands. It also contains agricultural land where wetlands were drained leading to the demise of the tamaracks, a state-threatened species.

“As this property is transferred over to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, we may be able to plant tamaracks,” Collins said.

Of particular note are four headwater streams that feed into Nippersink Creek.

“Within the streams are small fish that form the backbone of the aquatic ecosystem,” Collins said. Farmed areas will eventually be turned into grasslands.

A survey of what’s found on Tamarack Farms has begun.

“We have an opportunity now for scientists to explore the property and start to see what’s there,” Collins said. “My prediction is that it has just begun to show its treasures.”

Those treasures will need to be cared for and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) doesn’t have enough funds to do so by itself, Williamson said. “It will be part of Friends work and everybody involved outside of the USFWS to help support and bring in the resources to do what needs to be done on this property. It’s a spectacular piece of land,” she said.

Politically, the USFWS, conservation district and other landowners will remain separate entities, but they will work together to create a diverse natural ecosystem.

Visiting Hackmatack NWR

Though not yet open to the public, the Tamarack Farms addition to the refuge will someday be available for hiking, hunting and research, among other activities. Several other portions of the Hackmatack National Wildlife Refuge are already open to the public for outdoor hiking and nature study. The Friends organization has scheduled workdays to remove invasive species and improve the landscape for grassland birds, as well as special events such as the annual Monarch Fair and World Migratory Bird Day to give visitors the chance to see the refuge.

Byers said the refuge will be an economic boon to the towns nearby because it is the only urban wildlife refuge within easy reach of Milwaukee, Chicago and Rockford.

Skaggs said that the refuge fits within the USFWS refuge system’s urban wildlife conservation program.

“More than 80 percent of American live in and around cities,” Skaggs explained. “One goal of the USFWS refuge program is to connect urban and suburban residents to nature as some folks no longer have opportunities to play in the woods.”

Byers said it will take decades to knit the refuge together by purchasing land from willing sellers.

“But just think,” he offered, “some day your granddaughter may become the manager of Hackmatack National Wildlife Refuge.”

For information on public events at the refuge, call (262) 448-3558.

---

Sheryl DeVore writes environment and nature pieces for regional and national publications and has had several books published, including “Birds of Illinois” co-authored with her husband, Steven D. Bailey.