Greenseams Program Hopes to Prevent Floods and Improve Water Quality

[exerpted from the Journal-Sentinel]

A 33-acre property on the south shore of Dumke Lake in Franklin, where Edwin P. Dumke fished, raised peacocks and pheasants, and hiked to observe native birds, now serves a new purpose: storing storm water in the upper end of Ryan Creek to prevent downstream flooding.

The Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District bought the property for $273,000 earlier this year through its Greenseams flood management program.

"My dad loved that land, and my joy is knowing nobody can build there," Sherry Olsen, an Arizona resident, said of her late father, a 24-year Muskego alderman who died last year. "Through this program, I was able to continue his legacy on the land."

Last week, the Greenseams program that preserved the Dumke land reached a milestone - surpassing 2,000 acres with a $340,000 purchase of 26 acres of floodplain along Trinity Creek in Mequon, MMSD Executive Director Kevin Shafer said.

The former Hahm family farm north of County Line Road encompasses a lowland wooded corridor, which blocks soil and other pollutants washed off nearby fields from reaching the narrow stream.

In future years, most of the farm's open fields, which are in a previously drained wetland, will be restored as a wet meadow or planted in trees to expand the filtering capacity of the lowland woods, said David Grusznski, program manager for the Milwaukee office of The Conservation Fund. The national organization administers Greenseams for MMSD.

Trinity Creek flows east out of the Mequon Nature Preserve and a separate Greenseams property, crossing Wauwatosa Road into the former Hahm farm.

From there, it flows through the north end of an adjacent, low-lying farm bought by Greenseams a few years ago, Grusznski said.

The neighboring farm was planted in trees this summer. Wooden stakes mark the snow-covered rows. As the trees grow, they will add to the buffer provided by the lowland woods, helping to store storm water and prevent it from rushing into the creek, a tributary of the Milwaukee River, Grusznski said.

On a recent afternoon, two coyotes walked slowly out of the woods, stalking a group of more than a dozen turkeys feeding in a field.

Through its property acquisitions, Greenseams is stitching together ribbons of floodplain along upstream stretches of rivers and creeks in Milwaukee, Ozaukee, Washington and Waukesha counties, Shafer said.

Seam is a reference to one program goal of preserving open space along waterways.

Since 2002, MMSD has spent more than $14.64 million to acquire 2,012.96 acres of land and conservation easements to properties. Stewardship Fund grants from the state Department of Natural Resources contributed an additional $4.25 million toward costs of the acquisitions.

Ownership of the properties will be transferred to municipalities or counties in the future, and the sites will provide public recreation.

Fully 302 acres of Greenseams purchases to date in Germantown are within a large wooded basin that is the headwaters of the Menomonee River, Grusznski said. The village owns an additional 204 acres there. While officials refer to the property as Wilderness Park, it is known locally as the Germantown swamp.

Public access to this natural area in two to three years - for hiking, cross-country skiing, bird watching and possibly horseback riding - likely will come through a Greenseams property north of the intersection of Highland Road and Mary Buth Lane, said Brett Altergott, director of the Germantown Park and Recreation Department.

Letting nature work

Greenseams is not a traditional flood management program responding to problems by yanking homes out of floodplains or building levees to block floodwaters from entering residential neighborhoods, Shafer said.

Greenseams buys lowland properties in rapidly growing communities so development does not encroach on those wetlands, woods and fields in the future and they can do the job nature assigned to them: storing floodwater and preventing downstream problems.

This approach is less costly than buying homes and property in previously developed urban areas, Shafer said.

He has the voice of experience.

After widespread flooding in 1997 and 1998, MMSD started removing buildings from floodplains and constructing flood walls and berms. June 1997 floods alone forced hundreds of Milwaukee-area residents to flee their homes, closed freeways and caused an estimated $90 million in damage.

MMSD spent $12 million at Valley Park in Milwaukee and $48 million at Hart Park in Wauwatosa to reduce the threat of floods along the Menomonee River.

Walls along Lincoln Creek were part of a $120 million flood control project for Milwaukee's north side.

The district is spending $100 million at the Milwaukee County Grounds to subdue Underwood Creek and protect its investments downstream on the Menomonee.

Next up is a $49.9 million effort to control flooding on the Kinnickinnic River that will include the purchase of 84 residences and at least 12 other properties over several years.