Area families committed to preserving their fen
By Tracy Ouellette
SLN Staff
Two families who live on the Pickerel Lake Fen in the East Troy area are working hard to restore the land to its pre-settlement condition and recently donated large property easements to a land conservation organization to ensure the land is never developed.
Gerry and Signe Emmerich and Jack and Marcia Boening made their land easement donations to The Nature Conservancy this winter.
“By doing this we’re really sealing up the fen and it will never be developed and I sleep so much better at night now,” Jack Boening said.
“For us, this started 30 years ago when we donated almost 13 acres to the Nature Conservancy in 1985,” Gerry Emmerich said. “At the same time, we also donated a big conservation easement on our property to restrict the amount of development on the property that would endanger the fen.”
According to the conservancy, Pickerel Lake Fen is home to pitcher plants and other showy species like marsh blue violet and Joe-pye weed. Rare turtles use the site as do sandhill cranes and other wildlife. According to the Southeast Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission, the fen is tied for first place with Ottawa Lake Fen as the most biologically diverse fen in southeast Wisconsin.
The Boeings donated a conservation easement on a little over 153 acres of land, which encompasses the entire east side of Pickerel Lake Fen. About 75 acres is high ground where many new homes could have been built. The Emmerichs updated their easement on 7.5 acres, which they had donated to the conservancy in 1985, with an amended and restated easement that also protects an additional 15 acres, eliminating the potential to build three new residences on the property.
Gerry Emmerich has volunteered with the Nature Conservancy for years and said he and his wife were extremely grateful for the conservancy’s assistance and willingness to work with them on the easement donation.
“It’s a complicated situation,” he said. “But there were quite happy to deal with us on that basis, so we would still own the land, but know it was protected from future development.”
Jack Boeing also said working with the conservancy was a positive experience and was looking forward to a continued relationship with the organizations.
“When we bought the property I was always interested in the nature but didn’t know what this land really is and the Nature Conservancy has been so helpful. I’ve cleared areas over the years and Hannah Spaul from the conservancy has been out here and so impressed with what we have and very helpful with teaching me what to do.
“I’m like a sponge, just show me and I’ll do it.”
Spaul is the conservancy’s land management director and said the donations from the two families are going to make it possible for the conservancy to conduct controlled burns to eliminate some of the invasive plants and continue to restore the land.
According to a press release from the conservancy, non-native shrubs, including buckthorn and honeysuckle, rimmed the edges of the fen and were slowly advancing on the interior. Left unchecked, they threatened to outcompete the native vegetation and eventually take over completely.
“We needed to burn the entire fen to keep the invasive shrubs in check,” Spaul said in the press release. “But eight other private landowners owned portions of it, so the challenge we faced was how to gain their support for burning the fen, which is right in their backyards.”
Gerry Emmerich said he has performed a couple of controlled burns on his property, with the assistance of the conservancy, over the years and has worked on restoring his land to what he called a “pre-European settlement” state.
“We’re working on getting it back to what we think it was back then,” he said. “When I first started I talked to some people who knew what this was, a biologist and others. About 15 years ago, we wanted to do some controlled burns to help with the invasive plants and Jack was interested in that too.
“We did a controlled burn on our property but we found putting in a fire break in the middle of the deep marsh was very difficult and the only way to manage the fen effectively was to do a controlled burn on the whole thing. That’s why this is such a good thing, now we can manage the fen as a whole.”
Emmerich went on to explain why burns are a great way to manage the invasive species overtaking the fen.
He said burns are part of the natural process of land areas like the fen, but with the practice of fire suppression in modern times natural burns that would have been created by lightening or other natural ways aren’t there to burn off the woody plants in the fen anymore.
“Burns are a natural thing, but we don’t have them naturally anymore, so we have to create them so the native plants aren’t over-competed with by the invasives. Another burn is planned for this spring.”
Since 2004, the conservancy its neighbors on the fen have burned the fen two more times
“We’ve done a good job of keeping the shrubs from taking over the fen,” Spaul said in the press release, “but this is an ongoing process. We look forward to continuing to work with our neighbors to carefully apply fire to the fen to keep it healthy.”
For Jack Boeing, working to restore his land has become a labor of love.
Marcia Boeing said they purchased their East Troy farm near Booth Lake more than 30 years ago because her husband wanted a fishing lake nearby.
“We also had two horses we wanted to keep on our property. We were driving home from Whitewater Lake one day and did some driving around off Highway 20 and found this property. We wanted to look at the house and the lake it was on.”
The Boeigs liked the property and spoke to the owner about possibly purchasing 10 acres of adjoining land with the house. Marcia Boeing said the owner liked that they wanted the extra land to keep horses and agreed to sell it to them.
“And we’ve enjoyed every minute of it since,” she said.
Jack Boeing said they’ve changed things on the property over the years, but now his main job is to restore the property and is outside on a daily basis doing just that.
“My wife sometimes says I’m working too hard when I’m out there spraying the invasives, but I say to her ‘Look at the smile on my face, I’m having the time of my life,’” he said with a laugh.
“I thank the Lord I’ve been blessed with the ability to restore this, it’s been a labor of love.”
