Those of us fortunate enough to live in Northern Wisconsin walk out each day and marvel at the pristine beauty of the place we call home.

People travel from hundreds of miles away to spend time here—to fish and swim and sail in our waters. They see the value of our precious

natural resources.

Those who live near Lake Superior must remain keenly aware of their role as stewards of the lake and the streams that supply water to it.

And right now, there are looming threats to the health of the lake and the health of those of us

who choose to live here.

Local farmers have found this area to be an excellent place to raise animals to support their families and supply the region,

and elsewhere, with quality meats and dairy products.

They have also worked to manage the size of their herds and the waste the animals produce.

Even so, many times each year, local beaches in Chequamegon Bay are under advisory or closed due to high levels of E. coli bacteria.

When high levels of E. coli are detected, it is likely due to fecal matter from mammals.

E. coli is an indicator species that often means other more harmful bacteria, viruses, and protozoans are

most likely present.

Giardia

Salmonella

E.Coli

Rotavirus CampylobacterTetnus

Fecal matter can makes its way to the lake via runoff from the many streams, creeks, and rivers

in the Lake Superior watershed.

Heavy rains cause the ground to become saturated and there is a higher chance of agricultural runoff draining into Chequamegon Bay.

Photo by NOAA

We see evidence of this each spring and summer when the bay runs red with clay deposits at the

mouth of Fish Creek.

What ends up in the Bay will travel to other parts of the lake due to existing current patterns

From Dr. Randy Lehr, Co-director Center of Freshwater Innovation, Northland College

These diagrams demonstrate how far floating objects can travel

From Dr. Randy Lehr, Co-director Center of Freshwater Innovation, Northland College

This region has many small farmers, some of whom have up to 500 animals on their farms. This size is manageable and they have been committed to

balancing manure storage and spreading practices to keep their waste out of the local

water sources.

Up until now family farms in this region have managed the waste from their farm animals with little scrutiny.

Reicks View Family Farms, LLC is disrupting this historic balance by

proposing to build a CAFO eight miles from Lake Superior on the Fish Creek Watershed. Their CAFO will be called

Badgerwood LLC.

10% OF THE WORLDSFRESH WATER

Photo: Jo-Anne McArthur / We Animals

This facility will house approximately 26,000 animals (or 6,162.5 animal units).

This is an unprecedented number of animals in the region.

Photo: Jo-Anne McArthur / We Animals

This CAFO will be the biggest pig factory inWisconsin.

Photo: Jo-Anne McArthur / We Animals

Reicks View Family Farms is registered at 1020 Pembroke Ave. in Lawler, Iowa and 666 Grand Ave. Suite 200 Des

Moines, Iowa. They also operate under the following 34 names:

Cottonwood Ridge LLC

Yellowwood Farms LLC

Birchwood Lane LLC

Jerico Construction LLC

Jerico Equipment Inc

Cherry Ridge LLC

Northwood Creek LLC

Miller Creek LLC

Cy Creek LLC

Reicks View Family Farms LLC

Reicks View Farms Quality

Meats LLC

Reicks View Mill LLC

Iowa Pantry LLC

Pinewood Ridge LLC

Willow Creek LLC

Cardinal Creek LLC

Ashwood Creek LLC

Dogwood Ridge LLC

Reicksview Farms LLC

Alde Controls Inc

Lake View Family Farms LLC

Rosewood Creek LLC

Maple Creek LLC

Linden Creek LLC

Oak View Farms LLC

The Pub At The Pinicon LLC

Melwood LLC

Northeast Iowa Artificial Insemination Inc

Gopherwood LLC

Peachwood Creek LLC

Pearwood Creek LLC

Badgerwood LLC

Goldbrook, LLC

When Pigs Fly LLC

Reicks View Family Farms calls itself a “family farm”.

This HUGE CORPORATION is not a family farm.

Recent purchases by the “Family Farm”

$634,900

c

c

Recent purchases by the “Family Farm”

$1,225,000

c

None of the family farmers we know are able to make these

kind of purchases.

REICK$VILLE:

• They will NOT be supplying local meat.

• They will NOT be selling to local businesses.

Here are some of the places where this meat may end up.

Economic Benefits?

• Reicks has their own mill, construction and equipment companies

• They have their own experts for managing the operation

• Most often, CAFO employees are transients who will do the work no one else wants to do

• There may be tax revenue, but at what cost?

Potential Costs• How will this effect local land and real estate

prices?• What will this do to Highway 63 and other

local roads?• How will it effect tourism?• What about community-wide healthcare costs

related to this operation?• Who is going to test the wells and aquifers

near this CAFO?• How much would a potential clean up cost?• And who would pay?

Badgerwood CAFO will produce 8.7 million gallons of liquid manure per year.

This is roughly as much excrement as a city of 50,000 people – equivalent to a city the size of La Crosse.

Local farmers generally dispose of their composted manure by spreading it over

fields for fertilizer.

This is a common and longstanding practice that is dependent on the characteristics of

local soil and climate. The soil on the proposed Town of Eileen site is significantly

clay-based which does not absorb liquid very well.

Reicks has proposed disposing of their 8.7

million gallons of liquid raw manure by injecting it directly into the soil at a

depth of 6” to 9”.

This is of great concern because the land where this

8.7 million gallons of raw liquid manure will be spread is located near the headwaters

of Fish Creek which feeds into Lake Superior's Chequamegon

Bay.

Chequamegon Bay is the source of drinking water for the City of Ashland, a city of over

8,000 people.

There is also no way to predict what will happen to the aquifers and wells in this area when this waste is

injected into the ground. If the clay and soil temperatures inhibit the absorption of the waste into the ground, it could find its way into the Fish

Creek Watershed.

The section of their nutrient management plan dealing with manure storage only includes waste

production calculations for 180 days.

Reicks reported to the Bayfield County Board that they will have the capacity to store manure for

12-14 months to allow for fluctuations in weather and will work with the community to find “optimal

spreading times”.

The proposed Badgerwood CAFO will self-report and self-regulate all activities relating

to water usage, nutrient levels in the manure, and manure storage and spreading.

In addition to dangerous bacteria, the runoff will add high levels of phosphorous and nitrogen to the lake that may cause algae blooms

which will suck the oxygen out of the water, killing plants and fish----potentially creating a Dead Zone such as the ones in Green Bay and

Lake Erie.

Chequamegon Bay is currently considered to be one of the prime fish biodiversity sites in the country. The runoff of such large amounts of phosphorous and nitrogen has the potential to decimate life in the Bay.

This would come at a heavy cost to commercial and sports fishing on Chequamegon Bay.

Heard enough yet?Heard enough yet?

According to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, nearly 80 percent of

antibiotics in the United States are sold for use in livestock.

Antibiotic use by agriculture is not regulated and does not need to be reported.

It has been proven that the excessive use of antibiotics has created super bugs and

antibiotic-resistant strains of bacteria such as MRSA (Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus

aureus), which can be life threatening.

Drug resistant bacteria can be spread through food products, manure, air, wildlife, insects,

transport trucks, and crops.[Silbergeld et al, Medical Clinics of North America, 2008]

Reicks wants to move into our area to increase their ‘bio-security’ and avoid diseases such as PEDvthat have a nearly 100 percent mortality rate in suckling piglets.

Anne McArthur / We Animals

In addition to disease prevention, there may be other motivating factors to move to WI including dispersed production, adequate supply of corn, “rational” regulations, positive tax climate, land availability for manure spreading, and more.

Their aim is to breed sows in Bayfield County and ship the young piglets back to Iowa along Highway 63.

The Badgerwood pig factory would also use vast amounts of water. In their permit application, they

estimate that they will be using approximately 24,367,508 gallons of water per year.

This corporation has moved into our community, dividing us—pitting citizens against one another—all in the name of their profit.

Farmers and others have existed in this region in cooperation for hundreds of years.

The owners of the Badgerwood CAFO are not concerned with our community, our health, or our

water.

THEY ARE IN IT FOR PROFIT AND PROFIT ONLY.

It should not be done at our expense. It is up to each of us to act as stewards of Lake Superior and the health of those of us who call this place home.

If you’d like more info go to:

farmsnotfactories.com

Photos by

Eric IversenJo-Anne McArthur / We Animals

Mary DoughertyJulie Buckles

Jeremy OswaldJoe Van Der Puy

NOAACDC

Created by

Gina Kirsten

Jeremy Oswald

Amber Vadnais