Showcasing Ozaukee’s natural gems

When people come to Ozaukee County, it’s usually to fish for salmon, to golf on some of the finest courses in the country or to attend the many local festivals. 

But last week a crowd came to tour some of the significant environmental restoration projects going on in the county that the public will get to enjoy in years to come.

About 18 people joined a bus and walking tour of four Ozaukee County park system restoration sites on Friday.

The tour showcased projects supported by the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative (GLRI) program, which helped organize the tour, and the now-defunct Knowles-Nelson Stewardship Fund program.

The four stops included Clay Bluffs Cedar Gorge Nature Preserve in Port Washington, Mineral Springs Creek Nature Preserve in Port Washington, Milwaukee River Oxbow Nature Preserve in Saukville and Virmond County Park in Mequon.

• Clay Bluffs Nature Preserve is 134 acres acquired in 2022 by the county and Restoring Lands, formerly known as the Ozaukee Washington Land Trust, with the help of federal and state grants, foundations and private donors.

Lakeshore access will be provided from the bluff-top park via a stairway modeled after a similar stairway at Virmond County Park, described as “an ecologically sensitive low-impact public access” stairway.

The preserve will include a visitor center and parking lot, wooden pedestrian bridge, a trail system, a lake overlook, woodlands and wetlands and restored prairies. 

The visitor center will include a public welcome area, indoor bathrooms, a large meeting room with space for educational displays, a small kitchen area, office space and storage room for tables, chairs and seasonal displays.

The park is currently under development. Parts of it are expected to be open to the public by the end of this year or early next year.

When completed, it will be part of a trio of nature preserves in the area, which will include Lion’s Den Gorge Nature Preserve in the Town of Grafton, the county’s most popular park, and the yet-to-be-developed 96-acre Ansay Family Nature Preserve, also in Port Washington, west of Highway C near the Stonecroft subdivision.

• Mineral Springs Nature Preserve in Port is a 1.85-acre park, formerly the city’s Oakland Green Park, east of Ravine Street and has a 910-foot frontage along the banks of the creek. 

The creek was washed out in August 2018 by an intense rainstorm, exposing an 18-inch sanitary sewer line.

The county secured $730,000 in grants to restore fish passage and habitat in the creek and the city contributed $65,000 toward the work.

The creek, which originates in Ulao Swamp, runs through the Port Washington industrial park northeast until it joins Sauk Creek at Coal Dock Park. 

It is considered one of the most important streams in Ozaukee County for spawning fish, including salmon, white suckers and forage fish, partly because the creek is largely fed by ground water, making the water colder than other streams.

• Milwaukee River Oxbow Nature Preserve is being created just east of Highway W north of Highway 33 in Saukville as part of the reconstruction of Highway W.

The $3 million project involves raising the highway and shifting it to the east to help alleviate chronic flooding in the area.

The roadway is currently closed through October during construction.

The project includes installing two culverts under the road to allow the Milwaukee River to flow under the road when it rises into the historic oxbow to the east and then flow back out, helping keep the highway open to traffic during rainy weather.

The project will create a 67-acre park, including nine acres of wetlands in the oxbow that will include land donated by the Village of Saukville as well as ancient native archaeological sites.

The park will include trails, a kayak launch, fishing and informational signage or kiosks calling attention to the archaeological findings that date back approximately 1,500 years, officials say.

Work on the Oxbow Nature Preserve is expected to be completed next year.

• Virmond County Park in Mequon is a 63-acre park that overlooks Lake Michigan and includes a nature conservancy, fields and courts for sports, a picnic area and pavilion. It’s highlight is an innovative stairway to the beach, which will be replicated at Clay Bluffs Cedar Gorge.

In a press release, the GLRI program touts itself as “one of the nation’s largest freshwater ecosystem restoration efforts and has supported multiple acquisition and restoration projects in Ozaukee County.”

Ozaukee County Planning and Parks Department staff, including Director Andrew Struck, led the walking tours at each site. 

The tour was funded by a grant from the Healing Our Waters - Great Lakes Coalition and the National Parks Conservation Association.

The Knowles-Nelson Stewardship fund supplied $3.4 million to the county since 2020 for projects such as the Ozaukee Interurban Trail, Lion’s Den Gorge and Clay Bluffs Cedar Gorge nature preserves, before the state Legislature did not include it in the most recent biennial budget.