More than 40 acres of former farmland northwest of Portage will be restored to wetland next year, the first Columbia County property to join the stateâs Wetland Mitigation Program.
Owner Mark Heinze bought the land in Lewiston township a few years ago to grow corn, alfalfa and soybeans, but the wet ground wasnât ideal for farming even though that had been its use since at least the 1870s, Heinze said. When his family heard that the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources was interested in getting more land for wetland easements, they thought it made sense â both practically and financially â to offer theirs.