• Start-up
  • Planning
  • Action
  • Evaluation
The Newell and Ann Meyer Nature Preserve is a 653-acre Nature Conservancy property located within the Mukwonago River Watershed in southeastern Wisconsin. The Meyer Preserve encompasses oak savanna and woodlands, non-forested wetlands, and restored mesic prairies. This project focused on how to balance carbon management goals alongside other goals such as native plant diversity. Products from this case study that are broadly applicable to other sites in the region are available at the bottom of this page in the "Project Documents" section.

Project Area

Map of Meyer Preserve and other protected lands in the Mukwonago River Watershed
The Newell and Ann Meyer Nature Preserve is located in the headwaters of the Mukwonago River Watershed in southeast Wisconsin near Eagle, Wisconsin. The Meyer Preserve lies adjacent to the southern unit of the Kettle Moraine State Forest and just northwest of two other Nature Conservancy properties (Lulu Lake and Crooked Creek).

The Meyer Preserve encompasses oak savanna and woodlands, non-forested wetlands, and restored mesic prairies. The area is popular for recreational birding.

Management Goals

Example of former oak savanna that has been degraded due to woody encroachment

The Nature Conservancy's overall goal for the Meyer Preserve is to maintain and restore high quality, biodiverse natural communities including oak savanna and woodlands, non-forested wetlands, and dry to mesic prairies. Carbon stewardship is also a management goal on the Preserve, where the focus is on optimizing (not maximizing) carbon within the context of ecosystem integrity and climate adaptation. 

See the Management Plan (available below in "Project Documents") for detailed management objectives for each natural community type.

Climate Change Impacts

The changing climate is bringing warmer temperatures to the Meyer Preserve, including shorter, milder winters and more precipitation falling as rain rather than snow. Precipitation is also increasing, with a greater percentage of annual precipitation falling during increasingly frequent extreme events. Although warmer annual temperatures will extend the growing season, they will also interact with altered precipitation regimes to increase drought stress.

Meyer Preserve managers identified multiple site-level conditions that affect local climate vulnerability, including:
  • Loam-rich soils without steep slopes decrease erosion risk compared to site with steeper topography that increase erosion risk
  • Topographic diversity in the glaciated landscape, along with a relatively large intact property, promote landscape resilience; however, the Preserve is disconnected from other nearby protected lands (e.g., Crooked Lake, Lulu Lake and Pickerel Lake State Natural Areas)

For oak savannas and oak woodlands:
local factors expected to increase climate change risk include:

  • degraded starting point (low species diversity, high % cover of invasive species)
  • deer browse pressure across the property
  • low fuel levels in some woodland blocks make it challenging to carry fire

local factors expected to decrease climate change risk include:

  • site is suitable for prescribed fire (e.g., appropriate edge ratio, contiguous area, low-density development in surrounding properties), with a history of successful prescribed fire in some woodland blocks
  • diversity of oak age classes on property
  • dominant native species have broad geographic ranges and are at low risk of range shifts

For non-forested wetlands:

local factors expected to increase climate change risk include:

  • neighboring agricultural properties, especially in the northeast corner of the property
  • subdivision development nearby
  • calcareous fen plant communities have higher risk from climate change
  • heavy infestation of non-native cattail
  • reed canary grass in the neighboring uplands
  • social/human/permitting constraints for fire management in the wetlands

local factors expected to decrease climate change risk include:

  • less intensive agriculture in the surrounding landscape (i.e., hobby and horse farms)
  • local ordinances that have protected wetlands
  • wetland is groundwater fed
  • pockets of high-quality wetlands with native vegetation and better conditions with respect to invasive species than 'average' wetlands in the area
  • dominant native species have broad geographic ranges and are at low risk of range shifts
  • site is suitable for prescribe fire (e.g., trails and roads on edges help containment)
  • site is at high elevation in the watershed, reducing climate vulnerability in multiple ways:
    • most neighboring properties drain away from Meyer
    • none/few CAFOs located high in the watershed
    • less affected by extreme precipitation events compared to downstream areas

Adaptation Actions

There is increasing interest from land managers to understand how climate mitigation and carbon management goals can be considered alongside other management goals. Project participants combined the Adaptation Workbook with additional discussions and activities (see 'Optimizing Carbon Management' PDF in "Project Documents section below) to develop several adaptation actions for this project, including:

(see PDF of entire Management Plan below in "Project Documents" section, which includes more discussion about carbon considerations alongside climate adaptation actions)

Area/Topic
Approach
Tactics
Non-forested wetlands
Treat cattail (cut culm treatment), RCG, Phragmites, prioritizing species-rich areas
Non-forested wetlands
Promote prescribed fire at least 3x per decade. Schedule burns to follow invasive species treatment.
Non-forested wetlands
Treat herbaceous invasive species with targeted foliar herbicide treatments; treat woody invasives with stump-cut, foliar and basal bark treatments; mowing
Non-forested wetlands
Allow beaver to colonize wetland
modify culvert at road to maintain options for regulating water levels
Grasslands
Treat herbaceous invasive species with targeted foliar herbicide treatments; treat woody invasives with stump-cut, foliar and basal bark treatments; mowing
Grasslands
Inter-seed with herbaceous species mix that have diverse functional groups (sedges, C3 and C4 grasses, legumes, forbs, perennials, some biennials, and annuals)
Grasslands/savannas
In agriculture field adjacent to Zimdar tract, restore to oak opening/oak woodland species that can tolerate full sun/part shade (especially along woodland edges); follow up with interplanting oak seedlings with eventual goal of converting to oak opening
Oak savanna
Treat herbaceous invasive species with targeted foliar herbicide treatments; treat woody invasives with stump-cut, foliar and basal bark treatments; mowing
Oak savanna
Use prescribed fire more frequently, particularly fall burns which are ideal for site prep prior to seeding; use woodlands rather than prairies as indicators for timing of burns; be open and prepared to burn in non-traditional windows

Monitoring

Project participants identified several monitoring items that could help inform future management, including:
land-use change around the Preserve, monitored in terms of % developed, % agriculture, % natural cover
land acquisition opportunities: stay abreast of farms, other lands for sale within the project boundary
water level in wetlands, at culvert, and at cabin well: monitor changes and trends through time using continuous data monitoring to understand effects from high-capacity wells and climate change (both punctuated extreme events and gradual changes)
water quality, including nutrient (e.g., phosphorus) loading downstream of the wetland

Next Steps

In September 2023, several dozen natural resource practitioners from the region convened for a workshop hosted by The Nature Conservancy and the Northern Institute of Applied Climate Science (NIACS). Participants discussed the Meyer Project case study and how carbon management goals may align with or trade-off with other management goals at other sites within the region. In 2024, participants will be welcomed back to the Meyer Preserve for a field tour to review the Management Plan and discuss how managing for multiple goals while centering climate adaptation can be implemented at the site.