Rights-of-Way: Navigating Infrastructure Development and Habitat Preservation

Like many landowners who are working to create wildlife habitat or a refuge for insects like monarch butterflies, the maintenance practices that power companies employ beneath their lines can feel frustrating — even painful. However, the interface of power company rights-of-way and potential native habitat is a national issue with exciting possibilities for land management with ecological goals in place.

By Denise Thornton

We were devastated when the power line co-op mowed and mulched everything under the power line across our property in July,” says Wisconsin landowner, Tim Eisele. “We had purple milkweed, an endangered plant, and other native, low-growing species.”

Like many landowners who are working to create wildlife habitat or a refuge for insects like monarch butterflies, the maintenance practices that power companies employ beneath their lines can feel frustrating — even painful. However, the interface of power company rights-of-way and potential native habitat is a national issue with exciting possibilities for land management with ecological goals in place.

Iris Caldwell, Program Director of Sustainable Landscapes, Energy Resources Center, Unversity of Illinois-Chicago, has been facilitating the Rights-of-Way as Habitat Working Group, recognizing there is a lot of potential conservation value previously untapped in energy and transportation rights-of-way.

“Historically, people have looked at rights-of-way as scars on the landscape, but they have unique conservation potential,” says Caldwell. “These areas can be valuable edge habitat in a landscape where a lot of edge habitat has been removed. These linear landscapes that crisscross the country can be connectors for migrating animals and insects like monarch butterflies. They sometimes run across landscapes that are heavily managed or developed, and they can be the last remaining undeveloped areas in some regions. Since they are already under professional vegetation management, they’re well suited, with some management changes, to integrated practices that support habitat, wildlife resources, and biodiversity.”

The Rights-of-Way Group has been coordinating between the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and companies that control rights-of-ways to create a Candidate Conservation Agreement with Assurances, which incentivizes organizations to voluntarily create habitat for the monarch butterfly, with benefits to many other species. As members, these organizations will in fact benefit from having their regulatory requirements streamlined if and when monarchs are declared an endangered species.

“What we are seeing across the energy and transportation sectors is a lot more receptivity and interest and recognition that these lands are providing important conservation value. In the first four years since this agreement mechanism has been in place, we now have 50 enrolled energy and transportation partners in 41 states,” Caldwell says. “It is a mix of state departments of transportation, local road authorities, electric and gas companies, and they have all committed to managing more than 900,000 acres of habitat for the monarch butterfly. This project has huge potential.” Partners in this program who operate in Wisconsin include American Transmission Company (ATC), East Central Energy, Great River Energy, Northern Natural Gas, ONEOK, TC Energy, WEC Energy Group and the Wisconsin Department of Transportation.

A document provided by ATC states that it helped develop this voluntary conservation agreement and has committed to “implementing conservation measures that address the key threats under their control and promote diverse breeding and foraging habitat for the monarch butterfly.… Roughly 40% of the over 10,000 miles of high-voltage power line utility corridors we manage may currently serve as suitable habitat for pollinators.” ATC offers further information for those living or working near their power lines at this link.

Caldwell estimates that the total acreage in transportation and power rights-of-way across the United States totals almost half as many acres as we have in our national park system. Bringing this issue back to the state level here in Wisconsin, residents will soon have an opportunity to make a statement that could potentially influence the habitat opportunities for our own right-of-way corridors.

Eight landowners, including, Eisele, have submitted the following question for consideration by the Wisconsin Conservation Congress (WCC).  “Would you support that the Wisconsin Conservation Congress, advising the Department of Natural Resources Natural Heritage Conservation Bureau, to request power line companies refrain from mowing during the summer months and encourage power line companies to work with private landowners to manage power line vegetation that provides habitat for insects and wildlife?”  The question has been approved in all eight counties where submitted, and will be voted on by the public in every county during the WCC state-wide hearing process in April. (details below)

The WCC is an organization unique to Wisconsin and was created in 1934 by Aldo Leopold, along with several other like-minded advocates. They established the WCC so that citizens can communicate directly with the Wisconsin Natural Resources Board. The WCC describes itself in an online brochure as “an avenue for the Natural Resources Board and the Legislature to gather public input, and we frequently provide representation on Department of Natural Resources’ committees. We are also part of the administrative rule-making process here in Wisconsin, collecting public input, studying problems, and proposing solutions.”

“Summer is an important time for birds in Wisconsin,” says Robert Retko, a Vernon County landowner and Prairie Enthusiast steward, who submitted the right-of-way question to the WCC in his county. “Birds need to raise their chicks on a diet of protein — that means insects, primarily caterpillars, and if you eliminate their sources for caterpillars, it dramatically affects the amount of hatchlings they can raise.”

“A lot of these easements were drafted when the power lines were installed in the early electrification of Wisconsin in the 1940s and 50s,” Retko continues. “Back then, they probably had a chainsaw crew going out and cutting a few trees, but they are now using mowing equipment that didn’t exist back then, along with herbicide applications. We are losing habitat like crazy.” He added, “You can’t run your dog on DNR property during a certain time to protect nesting birds, and I think the same should hold true for power line corridor maintenance.”

Carl Schwartz, founding director of Bird City Wisconsin, also submitted the right-of-way question in his county. “To me it’s all about not impacting habitat to a greater degree than safety considerations require. I would hope we could reach a middle ground.”

“We feel this is really important, especially for monarchs, as lots of milkweed is growing under the power lines, and the power companies have thousands of miles that they mow,” says Eisele. “The official estimate of monarchs wintering in Mexico just came out, and it is the second lowest amount since they’ve kept records. We really need to do what we can up here on their summer feeding and breeding ground.”

 Peter Pesheck, a Wisconsin lawyer who has worked with both utility companies and environmental interests is excited to see the issue appear at this April’s WCC hearings. “This resolution is consistent with other efforts utilities have undertaken, and it is good for Wisconsin’s ecosystems as well as the birds and insects migrating through Wisconsin,” says Pesheck. “Not only does it empower landowners, but it also allows everyone to express their commitment to the environment.”

 This spring’s in-person meetings will take place in every county in the state.  Locations are listed here on the DNR website .

The meetings, on Monday, April 8, will begin at 6 p.m., with DNR staff available at 6:30, followed by election of open positions for Congress county delegates at 7 p.m. and then voting on advisory natural resources questions presented by the DNR and Conservation Congress from 7:30 to 9 p.m. The power line question, put forth by the Land Use Advisory Committee of the Conservation Congress, is agenda item number 39, urging powerline companies not to mow low native vegetation in summer.

You can find a complete list of 2024 DNR and WCC Spring Hearing Questions posted at this link on the DNR website.  People who prefer to vote online can do so from noon, Wednesday April 10 until noon, Saturday, April 13.  A link to vote online will go live April 10 at this link at the DNR website. People who want to vote and cannot attend the in-person meeting and do not have online access can contact Kari Lee-Zimmermann, DNR Conservation Congress Liaison, (Cell Phone: (608) 219-9134) and with enough advance notice she will mail a questionnaire, but paper ballots must be received at the DNR by the April 13 deadline.