The Madison Audubon Society recently made an appeal to the National Park Service to require the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources to honor its agreement to maintain areas of the Badger Ammunition Plant as habitat and low-impact recreation zones in order to maintain and preserve areas essential to grassland birds. The NPS stipulated that federally-owned land at the Ammunition Plant site be used in this manner, however, the Wisconsin DNR is still pursuing possible development of ATV trails and shooting ranges in the area that would impinge on 500 acres of land that has been identified as having high potential for grassland bird habitat. It is the belief of the Madison Audubon Society that such developments would violate the DNR's agreement with the NPS.

If you would like to join us on this issue, we encourage you to contact Jonathan B. Jarvis, Director of the National Park Service, and ask him to hold the DNR to their promise to maintain this reclaimed landscape as habitat for grassland birds. One way you can be heard is to write an advocacy letter. For an example letter, see Executive Director Matt Reetz's appeal to Mr. Jarvis; you may also borrow the text of this letter in its entirety for your personal submission.

If you choose to write your own letter, be sure to remain succinct and to-the-point with your communication, yet provide enough context to pique interest in the important conservation matter at hand. Use personal anecdotes about your experiences at the Badger Ammunition Plant, or utillize attention-grabbing statistics to maintain the attention of the reader.

You may send your finished letter to the following address:

Jonathan B. Jarvis, Director
National Park Service
1849 C Street NW
Washington, DC 20240

Find out about how habitat restoration & preservation of native Wisconsin Prairie at our Sanctuaries benefits our local species.

More at: http://madisonaudubon.org/