wetland mitgation program, or one whopping big project with monster-sized trucks

I mentioned the racket this summer.  It's an industrial-sized project happening behind our property.  About 60 acres of former cropland are being turned into wetlands to replace about 17 acres of wetland being turned into an improved highway and a Cabela's.  Yes, the irony of turning protected wetlands into a big box store catering to outdoorsmen does not escape me, either.

 Lots of big trucks are parked on our property every night.  The cab doors are unlocked.  We trespass.  Well, not technically, as the trucks are on our property...

 This huge bridge was built over the creek to let those big trucks pass.

Huge piles of dirt form a ring around the perimeter of the field.  Why?  For what purpose?
Climbing, of course.

This one gives you some small sense of the scale of this project.  It's massive.

 
Eerily so.

All day long the big trucks push, dig, dump and transport that dirt around. 

And sometimes those big trucks bring in piles of rocks, too.

And they leave big tracks.

It's an official work site, as evidenced by this plywood covered by permits, rules and other important documents.

And it's all hidden far back on this service road that we share with our neighbors.

Big trucks on our prairie.

 Little Mr. G by a big truck.

 Mr. T illustrating how much dirt a digger can hold.

I snuck up on the workers from the edge of the woods and took some pictures, too.

That's what goes on back there.  All day.  Every day.  From seven in the morning until five at night.

Back and forth.

It's so weird to see all this space empty when it's usually planted with corn every year.  I'll keep you posted as this develops.

From what I understand, they're going to dig some kind of pond and plant a berm with native species.  Judging by the scope of this job, I imagine it'll take a little while.  I've never seen a wetlands get restored before, and certainly never seen 60 acres go from cropland to wetland.  It's easy to imagine how our back forty will benefit from an adjacent 60 acres of wildlife habitat.  It's tougher to imagine how that restoration actually happens.  But that, my friends, is our tax dollars hard at work in the Badger State.

Posted in: Badger State Fun Facts, changes, gratuitous photos of Team Testosterone, Observations