Washington County Conservation has added the 103 acre Bur Oak to the English River Wildlife Area (ERWA). Executive Director of Washington County Conservation Zach Rozmus talked with KCII about how this acquisition came about.

“So last year, we actually got under contract with a purchase agreement with the Bur Oak organization to purchase 103 acres to add on to the English River Wildlife Area, and we’re actually buying it over two fiscal years. They kind of came to us in the middle of the physical year last year. We had some big projects going on with one of them being primarily the Kewash paving, the phase two side of that, so we had a lot of capital tied up in that project. So we were able to kind of negotiate a situation where we could purchase it over two years on contract so we’re actually coming up on the second part of that contract so we’re going to make the second payment toward that. We’ve been very fortunate that we’ve reached out to private donors and also some private organizations; Pheasants Forever, National Wild Turkey Federation have made donations toward the  project. Essentially that’s going to be a recreational  addition that will actually get that property close to 900 acres along the English River northwest of Wellman, Iowa.”  

To access the site, head west from Wellman on Highway 22 to Birch Avenue. Head north on Birch to the dead end and the west side is the location of the ERWA.