A Wisconsin family tried for years to drain nearly 2,000 floodplain acres for farming; after the effort struggled and a tax fight followed, the land is now permanently protected along 2+ miles of the Sugar River

• The nearly 2,000-acre property will become part of the Avon Bottoms Wildlife Area.
• A Wisconsin family spent years trying to make nearly 2,000 low-lying acres along the Sugar River work as farmland.
• But the property’s location in a floodplain made farming difficult, and the drainage system could not keep pace with the water.