Clark County Forestry and Parks receives 40-acre donation for migratory bird sanctuary as Winx Club disbands

By Cheyenne Thomas For almost 70 years, waterfowl and other migratory bird species that annually make their way through the wetlands and other habitats of Wisconsin have had support in their journey through Clark County from the Winx Club based out of the Neillsville area. The club decided to disband due to aging, but recently made a final donation to the Clark County Forestry and Parks Department to make sure the legacy of the organization continues on, helping future conservation efforts for waterfowl to be enjoyed by future generations.

Dick Chose, Jim Schultz, Glen Grady and Butch Carl — members of the Winx Club — recently donated a 40-acre parcel of land along Walker Road in the town of Pine Valley to the Clark County Forestry and Parks Department. With the donated land, Assistant Forest Administrator John Wendorski said the county plans to continue to use the land for the intended purpose established by the Winx Club when it was first purchased in 1995.

“We want to protect migratory birds,” he said. “Ducks, geese. These lands are meant to be a sanctuary for them, so there will be no hunting allowed for migratory birds on the land. A county ordinance is going to be passed to make that designation official and as a county, we’re going to do the same thing the Winx Club did to maintain the habitat to preserve the wildlife that is here.”

The Winx Club was first founded sometime in the 1950s by a group of nine duck hunters, including local conservation warden Art Schroeder, with the goal of improving local waterfowl populations. The name of the club, “Winx,” comes from the Ho-Chunk word meaning “duck,” and for the first several years, the club hunted while taking on small projects to improve local waterfowl habitats. Some of these projects included building wooden duck nest boxes that were placed across Clark and Jackson counties, purchasing grass seed that was used to reseed fire lanes in Clark County forestland, and creating potholes in the Abbott Ranch area for ducks to use.

It was in 1981 when the club took on one of its biggest and most important projects, one which ties to the donation of land the Winx Club recently made to the county. At that time, Winx Club president Bud Struble, along with the DNR worked to create the Winx Flowage on Clark County Forest land just off of Maple Road in the town of Hewett. Wendorski said before the land was made into a flowage, there was an abandoned road that ran through the land, and the flowage was built against it.

“There used to be an abandoned town road through there,” he said. “They built up a dike and flooded it to make a bird habitat.”

The project brought in several construction firms along with the Army National Guard to help build the habitat. After it was complete, the Winx Club worked with the Conservation Congress, Clark County Board of Supervisors and the State of Wisconsin to designate the site as a migratory bird refuge. Today, the site is still a landing place for all sorts of waterfowl, from puddle ducks and diving ducks to herons, cranes, geese and swans.

“You can sit down there and just watch the birds,” said Schultz. “There’s sandhill cranes, geese, all kinds of ducks, even beavers. You don’t want those in there (since their presence can damage the dike), but they’re there anyway.”

Afewyearsaftertheflowagewascomplete and made into a refuge, the Winx Club decided that there was still work to be done to provide a safe sanctuary for birds. To that end, the club purchased 40 acres along Walker Road and Clark Avenue, located about 2 miles east of the flowage. There, the club established and maintained a second flowage which acted as a nesting area for the birds. To complete the project, the club partnered with Ducks Unlimited, the Southern Clark County Sportsman’s Club and several private citizens, dedicating the land as the “Wija” Flowage in October 1996. The word “Wija” comes from the Ho-Chunk language as well, meaning “goose.”

Since that time, the Winx Club members

Please see Winx, page 11

CHEYENNE THOMAS/STAFF PHOTOS

CHEYENNE THOMAS/STAFF PHOTO