City Disposal Corporation Landfill

About the Program
The City Disposal Corporation Landfill is situated in Dunn, Wisconsin, just 15 miles southeast of Madison. This retired landfill has been reclaimed to support a variety of habitats and wildlife species. It boasts 29 acres of grasslands, 25 acres of ponds and wetlands and a variety of artificial structures such as bird boxes and cover boards with the hopes of attracting an array of native fauna. 

Practices and Impacts

• Since 2009, the landfill cap has been mowed annually to prevent growth of woody vegetation with the goal of maintaining a grassland habitat. Over 128 native plant species can be found throughout this grassland habitat.
• A portion of this site consists of wetland and pond habitats to support a variety of wildlife species. These are also monitored annually to ensure native species are flourishing.
• Bluebird boxes were placed on-site in 2009 and have been maintained since. These boxes are monitored throughout the nesting season, April to July, with great success shown in the last year by nesting tree swallows, wrens and bluebirds.
• Ongoing monitoring of bat activity began in 2015 with the goal of providing shelter for native bats. With little luck of bats nesting in 2020, the box was moved in 2021 and is still being monitored. 
• The reptile and amphibian monitoring project started in 2017 and has proven quite successful with grey tree frogs using the PVC pipes  and garter snakes finding refuge under plywood cover boards. These structures are monitored nearly weekly from late spring to early fall.
• The wood duck project started in 2009, with two new wood duck boxes added in 2020. These boxes are monitored several times throughout the nesting season and are cleaned at the end of the year. In 2020, five out of the eight boxes produced chicks, and in 2021, two out of the eight were successful.
• The purple martin project started in 2009 with hopes of attracting these native birds to the site. These boxes are monitored weekly throughout the nesting season with little luck of nesting the past two years.