Steps will be taken to restore native plants around the Dug Road Trail

Retired University of Iowa botanist Peter Van der Linden--now a Decorah resident--told members of the Trails Committee Wednesday that the landslides along Dug Road have meant the area "has lost a significant native plant area."

Van der Linden is an Iowa expert on local native plants.  He says Dug Road has areas with cold air vents (the so-called "algific slopes") that mean the plants which grow along the trail are different from other plants.

But Van der Linden also told the committee there are four problems with restoring native plants along the trail: the cold air patterns might have been changed during reconstruction of the trail; the rainstorms also led to a loss of tree cover in the area; there was no inventory of which plants were in the area before the flooding; and the supply of replacement plants and seeds is scarce.

He told committee members he has contacted a SW Wisconsin company called "Driftless Land Stewardship" about their restoration services.  City and county officials on the Trails Committee took no action Wednesday, but say they definitely plan to restore the Dug Road area to its previous condition.