Swan Lake WMAs #1

The Friends of Rice Lake Refuge seeks $52,500 in grant dollars to assist Rice Lake National Wildlife Refuge in the restoration of 200 acres to a mature mixed hardwood and conifer forest. The project is divided into 3 sites, a corridor 120 acre old field between mature forest, a conifer restoration site in 10 acres of newly cut aspen/hardwood and additional corridor 70 acre old field between mature forest. The two corridor 190 total acre sites would be planted to hardwoods and conifers at a rate of 340 seedlings per acre. Spacing will not be uniform. The conifer restoration 10 acre site would be planted with white pine saplings at a rate of 5 per acre. White pine sapling protection would be via bud-caps. Multiple habitat and species benefits expected. Habitat benefits include addtl young forest acres, reduced forest fragmentation, increased forest block size, conversion from exotic species to native species, and restoring native conifers to the landscape.