Since 1979 the National Park Service has acquired over 2,500 parcels of land totaling roughly 111,500 acres along 620 miles of the Appalachian Trail. Since 2002, in a unique partnership arrangement with the U. S. Forest Service, the NPS has also acquired lands to help complete the Florida and Pacific Crest national scenic trails with the purchase of over 50 parcels totaling almost 5,000 acres from willing sellers. All of this land acquisition work was carried out by the NPS National Trails Land Resources Program Center in Martinsburg, West Virginia. Their work has been outstanding. The expertise gained along these other national scenic trails is critical to successfully completing the Ice Age Trail.
In 2009, Congress and the President gave NPS the authority to become a full partner in the land acquisition for the Ice Age Trail. With the enactment of the Omnibus Public Lands Management Act the NPS now has the legal go-ahead to acquire lands for the Ice Age Trail directly from willing sellers. But during these past two years, NPS has not assigned any NPS staff from the Martinsburg office to the Ice Age Trail to begin the work of acquiring parcels from willing sellers. Even the recently designated New England National Scenic Trail is beginning to benefit from land acquisition work by the NPS Martinsburg office.
About 500 miles of Ice Age Trail still need to be protected. To relocate unsafe connecting road-walk routes to off-road trail, to stay ahead of changing land uses and to allow the Trail to take its rightful place among the great national scenic trails, the federal partner needs to have an active role in the protection of the nationally significant resources that are found along the Ice Age National Scenic Trail.
The project is not daunting. Fewer miles and fewer parcels need to be purchased to complete the Ice Age Trail than were needed to complete the Appalachian Trail. Plus the Ice Age Trail has able partners, including the Wisconsin DNR, to hopefully continue to acquire other Trail lands. NPS needs to augment, not replace, the efforts of the existing Ice Age Trail partners. To do this, NPS needs a Focus Area.
The Trail corridor between the City of Madison and Village of Cross Plains would make an excellent Focus Area and starting point for NPS. This ten-mile segment contains a mere 20 parcels in need of protection. Located between Woods Road and Black Earth Creek, acquiring these 20 parcels would complete land acquisition along this segment and allow construction of a premier, off-road segment of national scenic trail. (There may be instances where other Ice Age Trail partners need to lead the acquisition for a specific parcel within the NPS Focus Area.)
Resources of this proposed Focus Area include the 156-acre property already owned by NPS, a 174-acre property owned by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, a representative portion of the geologic region known as the Driftless Area, 500 million year old rock outcrops, a cave and glacial moraines. An NPS geologist outlined the importance of this area in a 1961 report that is summarized at http://iceagenationalpark.blogspot.com/p/nps-geologist-on-proposed-nps-focus.html
There is public support for protection of these lands and the risk of private development creates urgency for protection.
There is public support for protection of these lands and the risk of private development creates urgency for protection.
Please join us in calling on the National Park Service to begin a land acquisition program for the Ice Age Trail, starting with the Focus Area in Dane County.
