NEW ULM — On Saturday (Earth Day) the Brown County Chapter of Pheasants Forever (BCPF) participated in its annual habitat day by cleaning up a couple of Wildlife Management Areas (WMAs).

Pheasants Forever is part of the MMinnesota Department of Natural Resources, “Adopt-a-WMA” program. BCPF has adopted all the WMAs in Brown County.

Over 40 people from the following groups participated: 4H Brown County; New Ulm High School NE Public and MVL) Trap teams; Sleepy Eye High School Trap team; Pheasants Forever members and parents.

The following activities were performed on the Wood Lake WMA, Bashaw WMA and Somsen WMA. The groups planted over 300 new American Plum tree/shrubs; cleaned up a lot of garbage; removed over a 1/2 mile of hog fence/barb wire; removed noxious trees and placed new signs.

This activity is part of an on-going effort to improve and make better the state’s public lands. While many use them for outdoor activities like hunting or habitat watching, we need to all do our best to preserve and beautify them. This is what we are all doing as part of the “Adopt-a-WMA” program.