According to the US department of Agriculture, the Driftless Area’s “diversity of habitat provides critical habitat for dozens of species of concern in the State Wildlife Action Plans, and has been cited as one of North America’s most important resources.”

(U.S. Department of Agriculture, Regional Conservation Partnership Program, Investing in Wisconsin – 2016, “Driftless Area – Habitat for the Wild and Rare”)

Assorted populations of birds, insects, amphibians, reptiles, and plants find their habitat in the area’s “southern sedge meadows, oak openings and barrens, pine relicts, dry prairies, mesic and dry-mesic forests, fast and cold streams, dry and moist cliffs, and forested seeps.” (ELPC, p. 31)   Many of these animal and plant populations are currently threatened.  Construction of the high-voltage Cardinal-Hickory Creek line would place these populations at additional risk.

Henslow’s Sparrow is a Wisconsin threatened species and found in 12 of the 16 townships or ranges through which the transmission line would run.  The Loggerhead Shrike, a state endangered species is found in 2 of the 16 townships or ranges in Dane and Iowa Counties.  Other threatened bird species in the area include the Acadian Flycatcher, Bell’s Vireo, Cerulean Warbler, Hooded Warbler, and Upland Sandpiper.

Also impacted by the proposed transmission line would be the rare Rusty-Patched Bumble Bee and the state-endangered Regal Fritillary butterfly.  The line could compromise other endangered and at-risk species, such as the Pleistocene Snail, Blanchard’s Cricket Frog, Pickerel Frog, Blanding’s Turtle, Ornate Box Turtle, Lake Sturgeon, Lake Chubsucker, and Pugnosed Shiner.

Waterfowl are particularly hard hit by transmission lines.  Collision with or electrocution by high-voltage lines kills millions of birds each year.   The Upper Mississippi River National Wildlife and Fish Refuge, with its large populations of waterfowl, would be particularly hard hit. (Scott R. Loss et al., Refining Estimates of Bird Collision and Electrocution Mortality at Power Lines in the United States, PloS ONE, 9(7): e101565 (2014)) http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0101565

The USF&WS and Wisconsin’s Dept. of Natural Resources should also be able to assess similar risks to bald eagles, as there are 51 active bald eagle nests in the four counties where the proposed transmission line would run, more than half of those nests being within townships in the transmission corridors.

Construction of transmission lines also involves clear cutting and regular application of herbicides to keep easements free of brush and trees.  This not only impacts the plants on which animals forage but also the ground water. And once an easement is established, it can become the target of oil and gas developers to establish underground oil and gas lines.

Cultural and historical sites would also be vulnerable should the high-voltage Cardinal-Hickory Creek line be built.  Sacred sites, pottery, arrowheads, artificial mounds, and other important historical relics from the Archaic, Woodland, and Mississippian periods could easily be damaged by the heavy equipment used to construct the lines.