Käyttäjän mmmiller päiväkirja

Lac qui Parle Wildlife Management Unit (WMA)
Chippewa, Swift, Big Stone, and Lack qui Parle Counties
24,802.61 acres; native prairie, wetland basins, two large lakes (Lac qui Parle and Marsh)

Focus on: Marsh Lake Dam area, SW of Appleton, Swift county, MN

Marsh Lake is part of a chain of lakes that lie along the upper Minnesota River. It is home to the largest American White Pelican rookery in Minnesota, one of just two nesting colonies in the state. Birds traveling through the area during migration include Tundra Swans, Snow Geese, Greater White-fronted Geese and Sandhill Cranes. The lake contains many species of fish.

We had hoped to drive to the dam (having dual interests in our party of engineering and nature) but the current status of the road leading to it was unclear. There was only sparse information on the area, some of it seemed conflicting, and information on Google Maps for the area was non-existent or very old. So we set out to explore.

Route Taken from Appleton, MN - heading south into the WMA
From the Swift County Fair Grounds in Appleton, MN, travel County Road 51 west and south. Instead of following County Road 51 when it heads west along 95th St SW, continue south (straight) on 240th Ave SW.

100th St SW - which, on maps, appears to be a road that heads west from 240th Ave SW - is closed permanently (an update on this situation has been submitted to Google Maps so how it appears on that site may change at some point). The turn off for that road is now a parking area and one can either hike or bike along the old road 1.75 miles to the old north-side old parking area for the dam.

240th Ave SW continues south (past the old 100ths St SW parking area) till it bends to the west as it approaches a railroad track. Shortly after, one can either go a little further west to a parking area or take a sharp turn south onto 115th St SW which crosses the railroad track. Almost a mile later, there is another parking area on the north side of the road. Just past that parking area, the road intersects MN-119. At this point, we chose to turn around and take the same route back through the WMA and towards Appleton.

The parking lot at the old 100th St SW road was clear and not overgrown. The other two parking lots were mostly overgrown as I don't think they're used much outside of hunting season. You could park there but one should be prepared for ticks if you get out of the car. There were no bathrooms in the area we visited. There was no shoulder on the road but very little traffic so we traveled as slowly as we liked and occasionally stopped for closer looks at something.

I've since found information that indicates there may be an alternate way to get to the Dam from the north. I wasn't aware of this before our visit but I'll quote here what I found:

North access to the Marsh Lake Dam: From Hwy 59/7 in Appleton, go south on Hwy 119, turn west (right) onto Hwy 51/90th St SW. Stay on Hwy 51 until the pavement ends, continue going west on 95th St SW for 0.5 miles then take a left onto 255th Ave SW. NOTE: A section of 255th Ave is a new road and Google maps does not yet show this section that connects to the old portion of 100th.

One can also walk in to the dam from the south in Lac qui Parle County. Find info on that HERE. You essentially come upon the dam almost immediately upon parking the car.

Nearby

Lac qui Parle State Park is 15 miles* to the SE
Big Stone NWR is 10-15 miles* to the NW
Plover Prairie SNA is 8 miles* to the west
*mileages are from the dam as the crow flies, it would be longer by car as one nagivates country roads around the lakes and river.

Visits

June 6, 2023; (90 degrees, skies hazy with Canadian wildfire smoke)
Finding we could not drive to the dam (via 100th St SW), we decided against hiking to it. (Too far, too hot, not kitted for ticks). But we enjoyed a drive along the back roads through the WMA taking the route described above. Notable observations: Bobolinks, Eastern Kingbirds, Red Saddlebags Dragonflies, lots of Yellow Warblers.

Observations submitted to iNat:
25 species: birds - 11; insects - 3; spider - 1; plants - 10

Useful links

MN DNR: Lac qui Parle WMA: Main Unit
eBird Hotspot reports: eBird Hotspot reports: Marsh Lake Dam; Swift Co (northern side)
eBird Checklist: Marsh Lake Dam; Swift Co (northern side)
eBird Hotspot reports: Marsh Lake Dam; Lac qui Parle Co (southern side)
eBird Checklist: Marsh Lake Dam; Lac qui Parle Co (southern side)
iNat: observations in a bounding box for the area discussed
Minnesota River Virtual Tour: Marsh Lake
MN River Valley National Scenic Byway: Marsh Lake Dam
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and MN DNR: Marsh Lake Habitat Enhancement Project
John A. Weeks III website: Marsh Lake Dam

Plover Prairie Preserve
Odessa, Lac qui Parle county, MN
1134 acres; wet lowland, mesic and dry prairie with granite outcrops

Park/Area Notes

The Nature Conservancy’s Plover Prairie Preserve is a mosaic patchwork of prairie amongst active farmland. The property contains wet lowland prairie feathering into mesic and dry prairie on higher ground with scattered boulders and granite outcrops.

Apparently an attempt is being made to reintroduce the Greater Prairie Chicken to the area and the prairie is home to Loggerhead shrike, Wilson’s phalarope, short-eared owl, several nesting waterfowl, and two species of concern according to the state: the upland sandpiper and marbled godwit. A large number of mammals live on the preserve, including northern grasshopper mouse, plains pocket mouse, prairie vole, western harvest mouse, coyote and badger. White lady’s slippers can be found, as well as prickly pear cactus, Carolina foxtail, slender milk vetch, lotus milk vetch, water hyssop, mudwort, mousetail and soft goldenrod. (source: The Nature Conservancy website)

A rough bounding box around this area at iNaturalist (as of July 2023) shows observations of: 77 plant species, 17 insect species, 2 fungi inc lichen species, 1 bird species, 1 frog species, and 1 skink species.

Other than some signage and rough pull offs parking areas, the site is minimally maintained and there are no amenities. The preserve is close to the Lac qui Parle and Pyramid Wildlife Management Areas (WMA), two Waterfowl Production Areas, and Big Stone National Wildlife Refuge.

The Preserve can be thought of as having three units: East, Central/Addition, and West. The Nature Conservancy treats the East and West as one Main Unit and the central part as the Addition Unit. MinnesotaSeasons.com and eBird treat them as three separate units with eBird calling the Addition the Central Unit. Because that area of the state has sparse online map information and the names of roads seem to vary from web service to web service (Google, Bing, etc), figuring out where one might park to visit the site took a bit of work. By far, the best information on parking and maps was found at MinnesotaSeasons.com. They have a pdf map of the complete area on their East Unit page.

Caveat: Referencing the map (link above) will help with awareness that the preserve shares many boundaries with private land and it will take care to avoid trespassing on that private land. Since this preserve is not heavily trafficked nor maintained, the parking pull offs are likely to be overgrown. There are no shoulders on the narrow roads so just ‘pulling over’ without entering the field pull offs is not feasible. From MinnesotaSeasons.com: “The roads bordering this site are very narrow gravel roads with no shoulders. Meeting a vehicle traveling in the opposite direction would be an adventure. There is no room anywhere to park on the shoulder.”

EAST UNIT parking/links:

A field pull off is on the NW corner of the 370th St (e/w) & 201st Ave (n/s) intersection.
There is a wood sign near this pull off.
The preserve lies to the NE and NW of this intersection.

Google Copy Plus Code: 5QW2+VM Odessa, Lac qui Parle County, Minnesota
45.19694481806881, -96.2478712944992
Google only shows the name of 201st Av at its extreme south end where it intersects with 370th St.
Bing only shows the name 201st Ave - not CR15 at all.
The intersection is two miles east of US75

MinnesotaSeasons.com: Plover Prairie East
eBird Hotspot reports: Plover Prairie - East Unit
eBird Checklist: Plover Prairie - East Unit

CENTRAL/ADDITION UNIT parking/links:

A field pull off [1] is on north side of 370th St, .38 miles east of US75.
A possible pull off [2] is on north side of 370th St, just west of 191st Ave (.95 miles east of US75).
The preserve is to the north of 370th St.

Pull off [1]
Google Copy Plus Code: 5PW9+PMV Bellingham, Lac qui Parle County, Minnesota
45.196867, -96.280817
Pull off [2]
Google Copy Plus Code: 5PWJ+Q8H Bellingham, Lac qui Parle County, Minnesota
45.196950, -96.269150

MinnesotaSeasons.com: Plover Prairie Addition
eBird Hotspot reports: Plover Prairie - Central Unit
eBird Checklist: Plover Prairie - Central Unit

WEST UNIT parking/links:

A field pull off is on the east side of US75, .6 miles north of 370th St and 3.77 miles south of MN7.
The pull off is just north of a wood sign for the preserve which sits to the east.

Google Copy Code: 6P46+5HW Odessa, Lac qui Parle County, Minnesota
45.205483, -96.288533

MinnesotaSeasons.com: Plover Prairie West Unit
eBird Hotspot reports: Plover Prairie - West Unit
eBird Checklist: Plover Prairie - West Unit

Additional Links:

The Nature Conservancy: Main Unit (East & West)
The Nature Conservancy: Addition Unit
MinnesotaSeasons.com: Plover Prairie Complete
MN River Valley Nat'l Scenic Byway: Plover Prairie

Visits

After all the digging and investigating I did, we ultimately did not visit this preserve. But I sure wasn’t going to dump all the work I did. Even if we never make it back to this area, someone else might benefit from the work I did and what better place to offer it up than here?