To ATV, Or Not To ATV? DNR Considers New Recreation Area Near Baraboo

The Department of Natural Resources will hold an open house Wednesday night on possible alternatives for thousands of acres of land at the former Badger Army Ammunition Plant near Baraboo.

Some citizen groups want to keep the noise level down at what will become the Sauk Prairie Recreation Area.

About half the roughly 7,000 acres at the former Badger plant will become a state recreation area adjacent to Devil’s Lake State Park and the Wisconsin River. The DNR is working on a master plan that includes three options: doing no more restoration at the site, restoring the grassland ecosystem and focusing on the area’s perceived remoteness and quiet, and getting more users onto the property by offering things like a shooting range and an area for ATVs.

DNR South Central Regional Director Mark Aquino says the DNR has been trying to find appropriate places in the southern half of the state to allow ATV’s. “Most of those motorized recreation machines, ATVs, are registered in the southern half [of Wisconsin]; most of the opportunities to ride them are in the northern half.”

Aquino also says the DNR has been looking for more space for public shooting ranges. Aquino insists land cleanup at Badger would not be compromised, based on any specific recreational opportunity. But Laura Olah of Citizens for Safe Water Around Badger isn’t so sure about that: “The first thing we have to have out of there,” she said, “is a level of soil cleanup that is protective of human health for both adults and children.”

Olah and 50 conservation organizations that have signed a new letter about Badger also worry about how an ATV site and shooting range might affect grassland birds. After the open house in Prairie du Sac, the DNR will narrow its master plan options and eventually hold a public hearing.