Wildlife refuge proposal gets boost from county

Calls for the creation of a sprawling wildlife refuge across parts of northern Illinois and southern Wisconsin received a boost Tuesday when the McHenry County Board endorsed the plan and urged federal authorities to study its feasibility.

Board members voted 21-1 in favor of the proposed Hackmatack National Wildlife Refuge that would cover about 11,000 acres, mainly in McHenry County and Walworth County, Wis.

The board joins Gov. Pat Quinn, his Wisconsin counterpart Jim Doyle and U.S. senators from both states in publicly supporting the proposal and asking the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to conduct a formal study.

Its backers say the refuge would preserve the local environment, protect as many as 57 endangered or threatened species and help bring millions in business and tourism dollars to the region.

"This will build on some of the rare natural resources we have in this area," said Cindy Skrudrud, a member of Friends of Hackmatack, a citizen group pushing the proposal. "Not only is this going to bring in tourism dollars, but also families and businesses looking for a high quality of life."

The federal government currently has 560 refuges covering about 95 million acres in parts of all 50 states. But none are within 140 miles of Chicago, the nearest being the Horicon National Wildlife Refuge in east central Wisconsin and the Upper Mississippi National Wildlife Refuge in western Illinois.

Hackmatack - also spelled Hack-Ma-Tack and the Native American word for a tree that populates areas of the proposed refuge - has been in the works for five years, thanks largely to a grass-roots effort of residents and environmental groups.

Their goal is to create a rare two-state refuge, building largely upon sites already protected by local or state agencies.

"The idea is to connect land already protected by either the McHenry County Conservation District and Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources to create an environmental corridor," said Lenore Beyer-Clow, policy director for Open Lands.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's Midwest region recently conducted a preliminary study of the proposal, said Chuck Traxler, a public affairs specialist for the service. The study was forwarded to agency headquarters, where officials will decide within the next few months whether to go forward with a full study, Traxler said.

If a feasibility study is approved, the agency will take a detailed look at what plant and wildlife the refuge would protect, where its borders would sit and where the public stands on its creation. The process, Traxler said, would likely take more than a year.

If approved, the federal agency will attempt to buy privately owned land within the refuge boundaries, but will not pursue condemnation against owners unwilling to sell.

"If they don't want to sell their land, we won't buy it," Traxler said.

Land within the refuge will be open to the public for some recreational uses, such as hiking, fishing and hunting.

And that, proponents say, should draw thousands of visitors.

"For some of the small communities in this area, this is an opportunity to identify themselves as a gateway to a refuge and to be able to attract people and businesses to come and spend money," Beyer-Clow said.

Federal studies have shown that wildlife refuges universally are financial winners for the communities in which they are located, Traxler said.

"For every dollar spent by the federal government maintaining the refuge, at least one dollar returns to the local economy," he added. "And I've seen that up to $30 or $40 (per federal dollar). With the location of this proposal, I would expect it to get considerably more visitors than most."