Joel Kemm, prescribed-fire specialist at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s St. Croix Wetland Management District, has won the Department of Interior’s Environmental Achievement Award. The department presented the award to Kemm and nine other recipients at a ceremony in Washington, D.C., on Nov. 18. He received his award for partnering with contractors to remove invasive woody brush from waterfowl-production areas and turn it into electricity, at no cost to the Service.

The St. Croix WMD in Wisconsin needed to remove woody materials, mainly box elder, buckthorn and cottonwood, to reestablish the native prairies that can support waterfowl and other wildlife. Before the partnership, logging contractors would have considered the wood unmarketable and charged the Service to remove it. Undeterred, Kemm worked with local contractors over the course of several years to develop a mutually beneficial partnership to remove the wood. In fiscal year 2007, that partnership resulted in the clearing of a 70-acre tract on a WPA at no cost to the Service. The logging contractor who cleared and chipped the wood was able to sell the chips to a nearby co-generation plant, which burned the chips to produce electricity. The project also saved the Service tens of thousands of dollars and hundreds of staff hours that it was able to put to use on other habitat-restoration projects.

Kemm’s leadership and persistence is key to the success of this ongoing project. He not only found a market for the wood but also worked with several loggers to develop the Service’s role in that market. He also followed through by sharing his experiences and knowledge with other partners. Kemm continues to refine this process and is helping other field stations develop similar programs.