Aghaming Park damage sparks vehicle debate

Richie Swanson can’t believe his eyes. The sloughs and forests of Aghaming Park, havens for ice-fishing and bird-watching, are scarred with toppled trees and knee-deep tire ruts. A gate to the park lies crumpled, knocked off its hinges by a vehicle.

Off-road motorists threaten an increasingly rare forest that shelters endangered birds in the 1,900-acre park, across the Mississippi River from Winona in the Wisconsin bottomlands, says Swanson, a member of Mississippi River Revival and an advocate for preserving Aghaming Park. And as the degradation gets worse — Swanson said vehicle damage “took a quantum leap” this winter — few public officials seem willing or able to do much about it.

“Driving doesn’t belong here anymore,” Swanson said. “But vehicles are allowed in here. What do you expect?”

Swanson has long lobbied to ban vehicles on and off the roads in the park, which was gifted to the city of Winona by conservationist John Latsch. The city allows vehicles in the park on a road but bans off-road travel.

Members of Winona’s Aghaming Park Committee have spent years debating how to balance hiking and ice-fishing access with preserving the forests. The city drafted two plans to improve Aghaming Park, but its most recent proposal to build roads and trails there was rebuffed by the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, which said the plan was too intensive and disrupted animal habitat.

City Planner Mark Moeller said the city struggles to enforce even the existing rules in Aghaming Park because the land isn’t actually in Winona — Wisconsin authorities have jurisdiction there.

“In terms of enforcement, that whole issue is problematic,” Moeller said. “I don’t know how you absolutely control anything over there.”

The Buffalo County Sheriff’s Department sometimes responds to complaints in the park — deputies were called last month about an off-road vehicle and found no one when they arrived — but limited resources prevent routine patrols, said Sheriff Michael Schmidtknecht. His office relies on Winona for assistance, he said.

Wisconsin DNR officials have recommended the city ban motorized vehicles anywhere in the park, which is home to birds including the red-shouldered hawk, a protected species in Wisconsin, said Dave Pericak, a DNR water management coordinator.

“We would prefer that people not drive in there, but we have not taken an active stance,” he said.

Swanson suggests the city could partner with a nonprofit conservation group that could assist in protecting the area. He believes such groups would relish the chance to save the type of habitat that’s been gobbled up along the Mississippi River by locks, dams and channel projects. As a result, birds like the red-shouldered hawk and the cerulean warbler can’t find places to nest or breed, Swanson said.

“This is the species’ make-it-or-break-it place,” Swanson said. “This is where the species is surviving.”

If you go

Mississippi River Revival plans a “Walk of Reconciliation” from 1 to 3 p.m. Saturday at Aghaming Park. Organizer Richie Swanson says the group will meet on the Wisconsin side of the wagon bridge to view damage to the park recently caused by off-road vehicles. He urges participants to bring mud-resistant footwear and cookies to share.

Source: http://www.winonadailynews.com/articles/2009/03/13/news/00lead.txt

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