12/19/2009 6:00:00 AM Habitat enhancement at former Dunn landfill earns honors from national group
Waste Management district manager Mike Peterson performs maintenance on a purple martin nesting box installed at a pond at a former town of Dunn landfill.
Bird nesting boxes have beeen installed in native grasslands next to a former capped landfill (background) in the town of Dunn.
A several-acre pond occupies a low-lying area surrounded by marsh, native grasslands and woods. A half-dozen purple martin nesting boxes sit atop metal poles spaced every few hundred feet around the edge of the pond. Brush piles have been strategically placed in the water, providing shelter and hiding spots for fish, amphibians and reptiles.
It's the kind of high-quality habitat that serves as an ideal "home" for any number of song- and grassland birds, small mammals, fish and aquatic creatures.
And while this rich ecosystem may be commonplace in the wild or even in an urban preserve setting, what makes it notable in this case is the fact it's located right next to a former landfill in the town of Dunn.
It's also largely man-made due to the efforts of the former landfill's owner Waste Management, the Houston-based company that ranks among the largest landfill and waste management companies in the United States.
For its efforts at establishing the 135 acres of high-quality wildlife habitat at the closed landfill, Waste Management in November received a "Wildlife at Work" certificate from the Wildlife Habitat Council, a national organization dedicated to increasing the quality and amount of wildlife habitat on
corporate, private and public lands. The "Wildlife at Work" program is a new initiative of the council, and Waste Management's efforts to establish wildlife habitat at the landfill is the first in Wisconsin to receive the honor.
Located on Sandhill Road in the Town of Dunn, the City Disposal Landfill opened in 1966 and stopped receiving waste in 1976.
Following its closure, the landfill was fenced off and "capped" with clay and other impervious materials to prevent garbage and chemical contaminants from leeching into the ground water below. After being declared an EPA Superfund site, an enhanced cap was placed over the landfill in the mid-1990s and about the year 2000 a ground water treatment system was installed to capture run-off from the landfill, treat it and then discharge it into Badfish Creek, which runs alongside the former landfill.
Nearly two years ago, Waste Management officials entered into discussions with the Wildlife Habitat Council about measures the company could take to create "new" habitat at the landfill. That partnership resulted in Waste Management drafting a habitat enhancement plan, which the company submitted to the council for certification this past summer.
In November, the landfill became one of 24 facilities owned nationwide by Waste
Management to receive new 'Wildlife at Work' certifications from the
Wildlife Habitat Council.
The council's certifications recognize outstanding native habitat management
and environmental education programs developed through partnerships with
local organizations.
"Creating wildlife habitat at the landfill has given us a wonderful
opportunity to work with our neighbors to benefit the environment," said
Mike Peterson, district manager for Waste Management, noting that several
landfill neighbors have volunteered their time to help with the project.
Peterson said that Waste Management hired BT Squared, a Madison environmental engineering firm, to help with some of the habitat creation strategies and also to continue to do routine maintenance at the site.
Other volunteers also have gotten in on the project, said Peterson, including a group of seniors living in Florida. Peterson said an employee of BT Squared mentioned the project to an elderly relative in Florida. That person got some senior friends together and they volunteered to make the purple martin boxes that surround the pond. "We bought the materials and they put them together for us," he said.
Waste Management also purchased a number of nesting boxes for word ducks and song birds also found on the property.
The several-acre pond that sits in the heart of the enhanced habitat area was created when dirt was excavated to help cap the landfill. The entire landfill encompasses some 270 acres, with the habitat management area comprising about half that total. The "capped" section of the landfill, which sits atop the area where most of the refuse was deposited - everything from household garbage to indsutrail waste - remains fenced off and closed to the public.
In order to establish - and enhance - new habitat, Peterson said Waste Management adapted its maintenance of the site, including implementing a delayed mowing plan and cool season grass plantings, all of which benefit birdlife. "We also placed a lot of brush in the pond to help create habitat for fish and other aquatic life," he said.
Waste Management has set a goal of gaining Wildlife Habitat Council
certification for 100 company sites and 25,000 acres by 2020. To date, the
company has set aside a total of 24,000 acres for wildlife habitat and has
established more Council certified sites than any other participating
company.
In 2006, Waste Management became the first organizational
recipient of the Wildlife Habitat's President's Award, awarded for
leadership attributes and an innovative strategic vision in building
conservation programs within economically viable, sustainable communities.
In 2008, the company became the first recipient of the Council's William W.
Howard CEO Award recognizing the company's conservation, education and
outreach efforts.
Celebrating 21 years in conservation, the Wildlife Habitat Council (WHC) is a nonprofit, non-lobbying organization that devotes its resources to building
partnerships with corporations and conservation groups to create solutions
that balance the demands of economic growth with the requirements of a
healthy, biodiverse and sustainable environment. More than 2.4 million acres
in 46 states, District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and 16 other countries are
managed for wildlife through WHC-assisted projects.
