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“Kickapoo Community Sanctuary”:

Keeping Our Rural Past While Stepping Into the Future
Creating an International Model
(5/12/08)

Community Conservation, 50542 One Quiet Lane, Gays Mills, WI 54631,

www.communityconservation.org
Robert H. Horwich, Jennifer Nelson, James Poehling, Joe Swanson, Rosanne Boyett, Juliee
Wendland, Terry Beck, Gereon Welhouse, Joe Rising, Sylvia Attleson, Brian Walker and
Margaret Thielke

“Sustainable development must mimic the process of living, biological systems…

The purpose of sustainable development is permanence – to create and maintain a
social, economic and natural environment for a desirable quality of life, over
time, indefinitely, forever. Non-human communities are designed by nature for
permanence. They are naturally productive and regenerative…. The principles
for permanence are ecological, social and economic integrity.”
John Ikerd; “Principle-based planning for a sustainable community”

Summary -Vision of a Community Sanctuary

While most of us, living in the Kickapoo Valley, appreciate its beauty, we may not know
that its biodiversity ranks with that of many protected areas. Essentially we are living in a
culturally and environmentally unique ―park‖ where we want to continue to live. As
contemporary pressures such as industrialized farming, loss of family farms, sprawl, and
fragmentation threaten the agrarian nature of the community as well as the integrity of our
natural areas, we must protect this valuable region where we live. Coordination of current local
stewardship organizations with local governance will provide a cohesive group to function as a
watershed-wide support group for voluntary protection of the land and people. A number of
voluntary tools, many of which are being tried already on a limited basis, are proposed to
enhance protection of the Kickapoo watershed. The Natural Step training along with land use
planning will support and encourage new models of sustainable farming, economic development,
alternative energy systems and waste management practices. Using voluntary conservation
easements and private land use plans will encourage landowner participation in saving our
natural areas. Community monitoring and research will measure the progress of protection of
the Kickapoo watershed to maintain its beauty, its biological integrity while maintaining our
rural lifestyle. A community sanctuary would promote family farms, sustainable farming,
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preservation of natural areas, and economic development through land use planning.

Methods
Natural Step for Towns/Townships – The Natural Step method trains people to look at
planning that encourages sustainable and low impact development and the preservation of natural
areas. Local governments can use it for visioning and land use planning to encourages
sustainable farming, watershed protection and strengthening the economy from the grass-roots
up.

Private Land Use Plans as Buffer Zones – Private lands can be used as buffers surrounding
natural areas to discourage environmentally destructive development and agriculture.
Landowners can be educated in sustainable systems and the local natural heritage. An initial
project in the lower watershed will catalog biodiversity and create land use plans for private
lands. Future surveys will measure the effectiveness of the conservation practices. Landowners
and farmers will be brought together to develop sustainable farming and other conservation
practices. If successful, this model will be duplicated in other parts of the watershed.

Education and Encouraging Sustainable Systems – Various governmental and environmental

organizations already have education programs in place which can help educate the community
on alternative and sustainable farming methods with low-impact on the natural resources.

Land Use Plans and Regional Planning – Comprehensive land use planning developed by
watershed townships can be coordinated for regional and private land use planning.

Economic Development – Development of eco-tourism, ag-tourism and low-impact industry,

that is already beginning, would be encouraged.

Conservation Easements – Voluntary easements which limit some kinds of development would
be encouraged.

Monitoring Research – Community and other resource monitoring, including land, water,
biodiversity, soil and farmland would be expanded for maintaining conservation management.

Waste management - The guiding principles for waste management can be summarized as
replace, recycle, reduce and remove. Individuals and local governments will encouraged to
follow these guidelines to manage waste.

Alternative Energy – Energy systems that do not impact the local natural resources would be
encouraged.

Transportation - Support of local food, fuel and goods production wherever possible would
reduce our reliance and vulnerability to changes in oil prices and availability.

Establish working relationships with partner organizations – All valley-wide organizations are
invited to join this proposal.
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I. Introduction
As the world’s population steadily increases and as the global climate changes, our natural
resources become more threatened and valuable. Here, in Wisconsin, we still have an abundance
of resources, but other areas of the world are seeing their resources fast depleting. The same can
happen to us. Without proper care of the resources necessary to sustain life, future generations
will not enjoy the quality of life we have today. Just as clear—our government cannot protect
our resources without our help, and indeed, sometimes may need our leadership.
This understanding has come to Community Conservation (CC) over the past 25 years as
we developed a flexible formula for catalyzing communities to protect their natural areas. We
began in Belize, where now over a dozen communities co-manage protected areas with the
government of Belize, which has incorporated policies of community co-management. CC then
carried this work to Assam, India to effect similar regional change despite a complex political
situation of militants, illegal log smuggling, and ethnic violence. The entire region is now being
protected by seven community organizations. In Wisconsin, CC has helped to catalyze five
community conservation projects with resulting community managing groups. This flexible
formula is now being proposed to pursue regional change within the Kickapoo Valley.
The Kickapoo Valley is now facing three major challenges to its natural resources: 1) large scale,
industrialized agriculture that threatens to pollute the surface and ground waters of the Kickapoo
Valley and destroy the community fabric of the townships and villages, 2) reduced land parcel
size resulting in fragmentation and reduction of the natural and farming communities, 3) global
climate change that is likely to result in severe economic, social, and biological changes (as
evidenced by the floods of August 2007).
Positive conservation changes have been occurring within the Kickapoo Valley over the
past 20 years as individual projects or institutions have been created. While successful, these
have failed to realize the full potential for regional change. In the late 1970s, Kickapoo Valley
Association’s (KVA) River, History, and Energy projects, based in Viola, brought people
together valley-wide with a focus on the Kickapoo as the connecting thread to all our lives. Yet
that momentum was not maintained. However, due to the synergy created by these local
institutions, the time is now right to consider uniting them to initiate regional change to protect
our Kickapoo River Valley.
As the valley villages, townships and residents consider their land use plans a general
consensus indicates that residents want to retain the traditional values of the area while pursuing
development that will retain its natural quality (for interesting evidence of this, see the
―Kickapoo Conversations‖ conducted by Valley Stewardship Network in 2003). The sprouting
of local institutions concerned with such pursuits strengthens this consensus. These include the
Valley Stewardship Network, the Coulee Region Organic Produce Pool, the Driftless
Stewardship Initiative, the Kickapoo Valley Reserve, the Prairie Enthusiasts, the Kickapoo
Woods Cooperative, the West Fork Sportsman’s Club, Crawford Stewardship Project and the
resurgence of the Kickapoo Valley Association, as well as others. Their common goals indicate
that the time is right to effect regional change at a grass roots level. This will require bringing
together committed residents to preserve the natural areas and quality of life in the Kickapoo
Valley while pursuing changes that will maintain this natural quality.

II. Vision of a Community Sanctuary

If we listen to the survey results of landowners in the Kickapoo townships the visions are
very similar. Landowners within the Kickapoo Valley want the area to ―remain the same‖: they
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want to preserve the rural lifestyle and the area’s natural beauty. Yet most landowners and
residents agree that they want some development that will enhance a vibrant local economy. At
the same time area residents want a greater sense of local control and the ability (in a general
political atmosphere that is continually imposing outside forces on small rural communities
without their input) to determine their own directions.
The Kickapoo Valley is widely known for its natural beauty, and many residents already
feel they live in a great natural park (which, like all great parks, needs much care). This proposal
for the ―Kickapoo Community Sanctuary‖ is an attempt to create a voluntary plan to preserve our
rural and natural lifestyle while restoring local control: a plan that will unite communities within
the Kickapoo Valley to determine their own destiny and to protect their natural resources against
current pressures.

The vision of the Kickapoo Sanctuary will be realized when:

 Proper land use has stemmed the loss of family farms through farmers adopting
sustainable and organic practices.
 Resident and absentee landowners are linked with farmers who wish to farm in a
sustainable manner.
 Economic development is responsible and sustainable.
 Buffer zones of responsible land use extend throughout the Kickapoo watershed.
 Natural step precepts are incorporated into all planning.

III. Kickapoo River Valley Focal Protected Areas

In the past 20 years, the state government and outside agencies have been interested in
purchasing lands within the Valley as protected areas, often with recreational functions. While
there has been some local resentment of these purchases, local people have, nevertheless, sold
their lands to the state and other agencies. Thus at the same time land has increased in value,
family farms have been disappearing. And there has been no effort to maintain some of the
important fertile areas as farm lands. Indeed, with increased land prices there has been a
reduction in parcel sizes. Reduced parcel sizes have serious consequences: it fragments the
forests, makes it difficult for small farms to survive, and opens the area to large scale agriculture.
These trends threaten both the quality of our land and natural resources and the fabric of our
rural communities.
At the same time, ecotourism has become a growing industry within the valley. Such an
interest is a potential ally in stopping negative trends and protecting natural resources.
Essentially there are three focal areas that need to be considered in any overall land use plan
for the Kickapoo Valley:
1) the Northern Region, which includes Wildcat Mountain and the Kickapoo Valley
Reserve,
2) the Central Region, which includes the Kickapoo Wildlife Area - Bell Center and the
Hogsback and Nature Conservancy properties, and
3) the Southern Region, which includes the Wauzeka Wetlands.

IV. Methods
A. Natural Step for Towns/Townships
A well-developed, widely proven approach for local government units to become responsible
to both the environment and to citizens is basing decisions on the four ―Natural Step‖ principles:
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 using as few minerals as possible extracted from the ground;

 minimizing the use of man-made chemicals;
 preserving and enhancing the wild spaces within their jurisdiction
 insisting that any jobs and/or firms that they allow into their jurisdiction pay a living
wage.

To follow such an approach, local governments need to have a written vision for how they
want to see their area look in twenty years. With such a written vision, day-to-day decisions
become easier to make. However, progress in reaching those goals needs to be constantly
assessed; and every four years, the vision statement needs to be re-examined and, possibly, re-
written. For the health of the environment and for a sustainable economy, three elements should
be common to all vision statements:
 maintaining a rural atmosphere with farms that pasture their animals,
 maintaining hedge rows between fields to minimize wind erosion and provide bird
habitat,
 protecting the streams that feed the Kickapoo River.

To become adept in following the Natural Step approach, interested villages and
participants will form Natural Step study circles to
 study Natural Step methods and history
 evaluate current practices and
 suggest changes which will make their environments and economies more sustainable.

Outcomes from these study circles will be wide-ranging but specific to each study circle.
When carried out well, citizens will realize that they are the ―local government‖: that decisions
(on spraying roadsides, for example) will be driven from the bottom up, not the top down; that
recycling and reuse is an area-wide concern, not a township-by-township concern; that land use
plans make sense to protect the environment and quality of life in the Kickapoo Valley.

B. Private Land Use Plans as Buffer Zones

Since most land is privately owned (about half of it owned by absentee landowners), we
propose to target private lands which can serve as buffer zones to natural areas. (―Buffer zones‖
are areas of human use which minimally impact the adjacent natural area.) Adjacent landowners
will be educated about sustainable farming, logging, and conservation practices. Such an
approach will maintain the rural atmosphere that valley residents desire and resurrect family
farming within the Kickapoo Valley while not detracting from its natural beauty and clean
environment.
One such project has been started recently, focused on the Nature Conservancy lands
surrounding the Hog back prairie and adjacent lands, looking at the conservation of forests,
grasslands and farmlands. The first step will be to assess these lands taking baseline data on
specific flora and fauna biodiversity. As data accumulates and practices are refined, the four
adjacent private properties will be used as a model for conservation land use for the Kickapoo
Valley watershed. When possible, additional biodiversity and land use data will also be gathered
on nearby lands.
Knowledgeable interns (both university students and area residents) will gather flora and
fauna data on the four properties whose landowners have agreed to follow conservation
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guidelines laid out by the project. These interns will also bring together similar data that is
currently being gathered by the Nature Conservancy, by the Department of Natural Resources,
and by private landowners within the lower Kickapoo Valley, below the Village of Gays Mills.
This baseline data will be used for comparison of the lands in later years to evaluate the
conservation efforts.
A second project is a survey of the landowners to determine their interest in and
commitment to sustaining small farms and natural areas as ways to preserve the character and
economic value of the area. One of the goals of this survey is to determine the feasibility of
developing voluntary land trust agreements which will protect Kickapoo Valley lands from being
developed into Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (which, according to evidence
collected in areas where CAFOs are concentrated, will destroy the natural character of this
pristine valley). .
A regional land use plan will result from these studies and be incorporated into the
project. If successful, this model will be duplicated elsewhere in the valley with the initial focus
around protected areas.

Plan Elements for a pilot program in the middle and lower valley (see separate mission and
vision statement/ Kickapoo Initiative)
(a) Land trust voluntary easement purchase for Farms
(b) Farm-Link program for rental lands-sustainable farmer to landowner
(c) Absentee Owners enlisted in land use planning
(d) Land Use Plans that detail management
(e) Management structure created to oversee.
(f) Education Encouraging Sustainable Systems of Agriculture
 Organic – dairy, beef, pigs and livestock, vegetables, fruits, etc,
 Sustainable methods - rotational grazing, prairie grazing, encouraging young
farmer programs
 Environmentally sound farming practices – livestock fencing, manure
management, etc.
 Non traditional crops – herbs, flowers, honey, goats, sheep
(g) Sustainable Environmental practices (e.g., sustainable logging, selective logging,
encouraging wildlife such as grassland bird breeding, etc.)

C. Education and Encouraging Sustainable Systems Working with non-profit groups and
state organizations, we will connect area farms with information on methods of agriculture and
marketing to help them broaden their knowledge about farming options available beyond what
has become the traditional area farming options. These would include organic or sustainable
methods for raising crops and livestock, rotational or prairie grazing, alternatives to row
cropping, permaculture, and raising non traditional crops such as flowers, herbs, honey, goats,
and sheep (some of which are already flourishing in the valley). Environmentally responsible
practices for livestock fencing and manure management, sustainable logging, grassland bird
breeding, etc. would also be encouraged, the project facilitating education on these processes.
We would encourage working with active groups already working in the valley in grazing and
permaculture as well as University Extension, Natural Resources Conservation Service,
Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection and CROPP.
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D. Land Use Plans and Regional Planning – Regional planning will be facilitated by gathering
the existing township and village land use plans and making them available as both a regional
guide and as a specific guide for specific townships. Other planning materials and information,
such as those developed by Valley Stewardship Network and by individual landowners, will also
be collected and made available.
Individual landowners will also be encouraged to create plans for their own lands,
planning with neighbors who may be receptive to conservation issues. Neighborhood planning
projects will be encouraged and facilitated, perhaps evolving into a major part of this project
(although it will probably start slow and will develop with other sections of the project).
More sophisticated methods such as gap analysis using GIS could be employed if the
State, Federal, County and other agencies were interested in working with landowners using data
collected to compare geographical areas within the valley as to assess important areas for
protection or restoration.

E. Economic Development - ―Ecotourism‖ needs to be understood in the broader context of

tourism: a term that is often misunderstood. Whenever any of us travel and/or shop somewhere
not in our home town, we are tourists. Someone from La Farge (eastern Vernon County) fishing
on the Mississippi River near Genoa (western Vernon County) is engaged in tourism as much as
person from England visiting the Kickapoo Valley. Three types of tourism seem to be
particularly appropriate for the Kickapoo valley: ecotourism, agri-tourism, and low impact
tourism. Eco-tourism refers to the practice of visitors coming to appreciate the natural resources
of an area: an increasingly popular form of tourism, as more and more people take an interest in
the beauty of the natural world. Agri-tourism is a specific kind of eco-tourism in which tourists
come for experiences directly related to agriculture, such as visiting an orchard or a U-pick berry
operation, photographing livestock grazing in an open pasture, shopping at a local farmers’
market, etc. Both eco-tourism and agri-tourism depend on the wise use of the natural resources
of a region, and both promote the use of the natural environment as part of the attraction for
visiting a region or area.
Low-impact tourism shares many features with eco-tourism, attracting people who seek
activities and businesses that strive to leave the smallest possible imprint on the environment.
The project will find ways to educate local businesses to this potential. Thus, businesses can be
educated to use low-volume plumbing fixtures, energy-efficient lighting, and native plantings for
landscaping and to purchase regionally manufactured/produced products (thus reducing carbon
emissions caused by long-distance transportation of goods). Campgrounds and parks can feature
native plants and use energy efficient lighting, low-volume plumbing, and walkways and parking
areas that have porous surfaces which allow rain and snowmelt to be absorbed rather than create
run-off. Such campgrounds and parks would emphasize hiking, bird watching, bicycling,
canoeing, snow shoeing, and encourage visitors to patronize restaurants with menus that feature
locally produced foods or roadside markets with seasonal fruits and vegetables.
Since access is a key component of any type of tourism, the project will seek ways to
encourage and support a vital and energy-efficient transportation infrastructure as people come to
experience the Kickapoo River (known as ―the crookedest river‖) and the winding roads that
criss-cross the watershed in the renowned ―Driftless‖ area.
The motels and hostels to shelter the visitors should remain small and locally owned and
should be encouraged to operate according to the principles of ―green tourism‖. Restaurants
should emphasize locally grown food. Municipalities should maintain parks and trails that
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encourage the use of human powered transportation. Parks should have wild areas within them
to encourage the ground nesting birds and, where appropriate, maintain (or re-create) the oak
savannas and prairies that were here in the 19th century.
Since the tourism industry has the initial and, often, the primary contacts with tourists,
they should act as educators about the natural areas and about the community sanctuary concept.
The better educated tourists become, the more they will encourage like-minded tourists to travel
to the Kickapoo Valley and to spread the information about sustainable communities and
ecosystems.

F. Conservation Easements – The project will look for ways to work with the Mississippi
Valley Conservancy or other land trusts to persuade landowners to provide voluntary
conservation easements—which are permanent and so may require time for some people to
accept. Such voluntary conservation easements can be structured to address each landowner’s
wants and needs for their land while providing long-term protection at the same time. Basically
they limit certain kinds of development and dictate long-term conservation or farming ideals and
the actions to maintain them. Voluntary conservation easements are a way that a landowner can
create a permanent impact on the land they have come to appreciate. They are a legacy to leave
behind that honors both the natural resources and beauty of the area and honors what are
residents stated they want, to leave the area as it is and as we found it. One goal is to create as
much contiguous Kickapoo Valley land under conservation management as possible so that we
can preserve some of the more sensitive flora and fauna that depend on larger natural areas. Data
collected in monitoring or in gap analyst could be used to inform landowners who may be
willing to create voluntary conservation easements to protect important resources found on their
land. Landowners may be more interested in such voluntary conservation easements when they
learn how their land fits into the historical land cover and current conservation management of
the Kickapoo Valley.

G. Monitoring Research – Monitoring the environment is extremely important if threats to the

environment are to be acted on in a timely manner. One type of monitoring that has been going
on for a long time is Valley Stewardship Network’s (VSN) water quality monitoring program on
the Kickapoo and its branches. Such monitoring allows area residents to discover as quickly as
possible when and how streams are being polluted and the data collected is also valuable to other
areas in the state. Monitoring for pollution from known sources when necessary, may include
water, air, groundwater and soil monitoring. Encouraging state and federal governments to
expand their programs could strengthen volunteer programs. Involving school classes in
environmental monitoring with volunteers would be encouraged as well.
In addition, local experts and University workers could also work with NGOs to set up
databases.
Other natural elements to monitor as the project develops will include forests and
prairies, song bird breeding (on both public and private lands), brook trout breeding, reptile and
amphibian hibernation, and individual species like eagles and cranes which have began breeding
in the area in the last 20 years. Many of these projects will be enhanced by participating in larger
monitoring projects, such as those done by the International Crane Foundation and the DNR bird
and amphibian counts. Monitoring on farmlands native species could be done in conjunction
with local farmers.
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H. Waste management
The guiding principles for waste management can be summarized as replace, recycle,
reduce and remove. These are valid in towns, in the country, on the farms and in a bio-sphere.
Without intelligent management of wastes, sustainability is not possible. We can not foul the
lands and water that grow our food and provide us with recreation and shelter without harming
ourselves and generations to come.
Replacing means finding alternate items to replace objects that pollute the environment
either during or after their use with non-polluting objects. This includes, on a personal level,
using to cloth or paper bags instead of plastic bags; using organic products or mechanical
eradication rather than petroleum-based herbicides and pesticides; using metal or glass rather
than plastic to carry our drinks; using rotational cropping and manures to build soil fertility
rather than chemical fertilizers; using sisal twine rather than plastic. For government, the same
holds true. If ―noxious weeds‖ are a problem, cutting them just after they flower will remove
them just as effectively as spraying them with herbicides. Similarly, using sand and ash on the
road can be as effective as salt.
Recycling means putting items with economic value back to use. Glass bottles, for
example, can be sent to ―remelters‖ who will turn them back into useful products without having
to mine more material from the ground. County and municipal governments must play an
important role, provide trash bins and recycle bins in parks and natural areas as well as the
regular sites. County government can also protect streams and lakes by mandating that animal
containment, where most of the manure is generated, be limited to the volume of manure that can
be used on that farm in a single year when applied within the norms of accepted farm practices.
Reducing waste means lowering the use of raw materials. Reusable bags taken to the
store reduce our waste; buying milk in glass bottles in lieu of plastic jugs. Government can
choose to mow roadsides once a year to keep down brush which would also allow the wild
flowers to grow, flower and reseed. Parks can be mowed every two weeks. Landowners might
be encouraged to mow and reseed right-of-ways to maintain prairies under power lines.
Removing means that items that no longer have any economic value are removed to a
safe, secure site—NOT in the ditches and gullies that, too often, are repositories for old batteries,
refrigerators, tires, and farm implements. Counties must provide landfills that encourage the
separation of waste streams into glass, cans, batteries, waste oil, newsprint, and metals—all of
which have economic value in after-markets. Electronics, refrigerators, air conditioners,
fluorescent bulbs all need to be assessed a fee and sent to qualified recyclers to remove the
hazardous materials from them. Cardboard boxes should be baled and sold. Compostable
materials should be segregated and recycled. What’s left—items such as plastics, soiled paper,
furniture, and construction debris—should be sent to the Xcel power plant in La Crosse (which
will take everything except furniture and construction debris which are not generated in large
amounts in rural communities).
The municipalities and townships can educate their citizens about recycling through
flyers enclosed with yearly tax assessments and other regular mailers. (The Federal EPA website
has many different ideas and resources for local governments.) Visitors need to be reminded that
everything they take in, they need to bring back out.

I. Alternative Energy - to move beyond the exploitation of resources that negatively impact
eco-systems and social systems, we must begin to think in a more holistic and integrated way.
Rather than thinking of some energy sources as ―alternative‖ and others as ―mainstream‖ or
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―normal,‖ we need to think of energy sources as sustainable or non-sustainable. Historically,

energy production has been based upon consumption and profit, with little regard for resource or
waste management. Conservation has been disregarded, because it places wise resource use
above profit. And local governments have felt they had little role to play since energy
production seems to be beyond their scope. But if energy is thought of holistically and in terms
of sustainability, it becomes apparent that energy use can and must be decided locally. It is
primarily fossil fuels that are difficult to control locally, and it is fossil fuels that are non-
sustainable and a primary source of pollution.
Energy is one component in a system of many overlapping systems that make up our
natural and social systems. To change the impact of traditional production and use patterns, it
will be necessary to look at energy producing technologies, distribution systems, and energy use
patterns in their entirety, considering their impacts on both the social and the natural worlds . . .
and not just for the present time but for generations to come.
If we collectively explore the relationships within systems, we can find ways to use our
economic, social, and political resources to create meaningful change. Personal consideration of
how our actions impact the systems they interact with is the key to a successful beginning.
2
A recent episode of the PBS e series, ―Harvest the Wind,‖ shows how the Buffalo Ridge
area of Minnesota has made rapid growth in alternative energy production—not because of
government programs but because of change beginning at the local level. That kind of ―home-
grown‖ re-direction of energy systems can and must be done in the Kickapoo Valley.
J. Transportation - The roadways of the Kickapoo Valley make our rural properties not only
accessible but vulnerable. In the past fifty years, increasing vehicle weights and increased usage
has exceeded the design load, making our roads in constant need of expansion and repair. That,
coupled with the increasing expense of the key ingredient—oil—and its questionable future
places our entire transportation infrastructure in jeopardy. Encouraging resurgence of limited
mass transit and support of local businesses to acquire goods would reduce energy consumption.
However, today’s rural economies are dependent upon our transportation systems to
provide our supplies and deliver our goods to markets. Traditionally, the natural topography and
resources determined business development. But today, business philosophy ignores community
responsibility and technology gives people an apparent ability to dominate natural and social
economic ―progress‖ proceeds without respect for natural systems. Except in a very few
quarters, economic thought does not consider the real costs of our domination. Food is a good
example. Our average meal travels 1500 miles before it rests on our plates, but the real cost on
our communities is not calculated into our bills at a grocery store or restaurant. Nothing of what
we pay for our food is channeled back into paying for the effects of all this transportation on our
roadways and communities or on our water and our air.
Despite the undeniable benefits and satisfaction cheap transportation has brought, the
time has come when we can no longer ignore its true costs and the enormous implications of
infrastructure built on rapidly diminishing resources. (How much have we squandered in
military actions to support our enormous addition to oil?) Nor can we ignore transportation’s
impact on our health and quality of life.
We must rethink our transportation habits if we are to lessen our impact on our eco-
systems and created sustainable lifestyles. The Vernon County Transportation Project Planning
Report (August 2007) indicates that the majority of county residents surveyed are interested in
alternative transportation options: regular bus routes, car and van pools, better bike trails, and
better coordination of alternatives to single-occupancy car transportation. The currently forming
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―Driftless CarShare‖ project is still another indication of citizen interest. In short, the time has
come for more responsible and more energy-efficient transportation systems in the Kickapoo
Valley. And this project would seek to put all the interested parties in contact with each other

K. Establish working relationships with partner organizations – We would like to invite all
valley organizations to participate in this proposal and especially the three organizations that are
already working valley wide: the Valley Stewardship Network, the Kickapoo Valley
Association, and the Kickapoo Woods Cooperative. These and other organizations could begin
to see how their mission would fit in best with the proposal and begin to all work together in a
common goal to make the Kickapoo Community Sanctuary a reality.

V. Management Structure for the Community Sanctuary

The Kickapoo Valley watershed forms a natural unit within the center of the driftless
area, an area of rugged beauty never covered by the glaciers that wore down the hills and filled
the valleys of the rest of Wisconsin. While seen by some valley residents and by some non-
governmental organizations (NGOs) as an ecological and social unit, it has not been viewed as
such by many who, when their gaze rises about their private land ownership, see only towns and
villages, or, at best, northern or southern parts of the valley. However, similarities within the
watershed far outweigh differences, and the threats are similar throughout. Valley-wide thinking
is very important because how the river is treated in its upper reaches affects the residents, lands,
and water at its lower areas. Similarly, threats and social changes initiated in one area of the
watershed will spread throughout. Thus, an important part of this proposal is to make residents
aware of these similarities and aware of the necessity of working together to create a healthy
socio-economic/natural unit.
This awareness will initially be spread gradually through word of mouth and through
dissemination of this proposal to residents and landowners throughout the Valley. Additionally,
we will gradually incorporate interested local NGOs, helping them to carry out their missions
while helping to strengthen the unity, especially those such as Valley Stewardship Network, the
Sustainable Wood Cooperative and the Kickapoo Valley Association that already function as
valley-wide organizations: this project will help to encourage this focus. As early aspects of the
project are carried out with success, they will influence the possibility of spreading the concept
as well. Finally, as momentum begins after the project has been going, we will start a series of
valley-wide awareness celebrations with the support of other organizations, to let people see and
experience the unity of the valley.
Once the project has wide interest and acceptance, and until its actions are eventually
coordinated by a local NGO(s), some way of gathering stakeholders into a governing board
should be instituted to maintain the project as a valley-wide project. Such a board or committee
should be composed of approximately 70 – 80% community members and 20 – 30% of NGO,
county, and state representatives. Some area representation to include towns and counties
should be included as well, either within the board or in an advisory capacity. One suggestion is
for a board of thirteen: two members from NGOs which are involved in area planning, ten from
Communities within the planning area (four from Crawford County, four from Vernon County,
two from Monroe County), and one from the DNR.
 12

Focal Protected Area

Map: Courtesy of Trout Unlimited website (adapted)