After Ashley Furniture received a state permit five years ago to fill in 13.5 acres of wetlands for a factory expansion in Arcadia, opponents warned of environmental consequences.
Wetlands serve as “natural hazard insurance against flooding,” the Wisconsin Wetlands Association said at the time.
So when widespread flooding in Arcadia temporarily closed Ashley Furniture 10 days ago, and photos showed canoeists paddling by a company loading dock, old arguments resurfaced.
“No one can say, ‘If only there had been more wetlands there, this wouldn’t have happened.’ But can we say there would have been less of an impact? Definitely,” said Becky Abel, executive director of the wetlands association.
But Ashley Furniture and the state Department of Natural Resources, which approved the permit, say critics are off base. The water swamping the city is coming primarily from the overflow of two upland creeks, Turton Creek and Meyers Valley Creek, not the adjacent Trempealeau River, they say. The areas of land that drain into those creeks, called watersheds, are several miles east and south of Arcadia, yet the city is at the mercy of the small creeks by being downstream.
“It’s one of those things you can’t plan for,” said Dan Baumann, a regional DNR water leader in Eau Claire who was part of the team that approved the permit. “I don’t know that their filling in of the wetlands would have caused any additional impact.”
The permit area on Ashley’s property “was not, in whole or in part, a cause or a contributing factor to the recent flooding,” said Paulette Rippley, an Ashley Furniture spokeswoman.
Extended debate
The company’s efforts to expand into wetlands played out over more than a decade beginning in the mid-1990s and spurred charges of strong-arm political tactics against Ashley Furniture and of job-killing extremism against environmentalists.
If the permit had not been granted, about 2,000 jobs — “substantially all of Ashley’s Arcadia facilities” — would have been moved to another state, Rippley said this week. The company, based in Arcadia, creates an economic ripple effect in Wisconsin conservatively estimated at more than $270 million annually, she said. The city is about 45 miles northwest of La Crosse.
Even the one-day shutdown of production at the Arcadia plant Sept. 23 hit community members hard.
“They’re the county’s largest employer,” said Dan Schreiner, Trempealeau County emergency management director. “It’s pretty traumatic when they’re not working.”
Ashley Furniture has estimated “uninsured losses and damages” due to the flooding of $3.51 million, according to information the company provided the county on Tuesday. In addition, the company projected $2.75 million in “lost wages by hourly employees and lost sales by local Ashley suppliers.”
Rippley said the company’s information technology building in downtown Arcadia was particularly hard hit. About 100 computer technicians and programmers work there, and a significant amount of computer equipment not covered by insurance was heavily damaged, she said.
Permit approved
Although sympathetic lawmakers initially sought to exempt Ashley Furniture from state wetlands laws, the company ultimately secured permission to fill in the wetlands in 2005 through the regular DNR permitting process.
Parts of the Ashley Furniture complex exist within the Trempealeau River floodplain, and the company followed all rules for building in that flood plain, Baumann said. The problem with this flooding is that the water comes largely from creeks so small their floodplains have not been studied or mapped, he said.
Others say there has been a longtime pattern in the area of incrementally degrading and eliminating wetlands — by Ashley Furniture and others — and that the cumulative effect has made Arcadia more vulnerable to flooding.
“There’s no doubt that at least some potential protection would have been afforded by not filling in so much of that river bottom,” said George Meyer, executive director of the Wisconsin Wildlife Federation and DNR secretary from 1993-2001.
Wetlands “hold a lot of water and release it slowly over time, which reduces the flooding of agricultural and residential areas,” said Keith Reopelle, policy director for Clean Wisconsin. “I think you have to admit that filling in that wetlands area has exacerbated the impact of flooding.”
Ashley Furniture mitigated the loss of the 13.5 acres of wetlands by creating wetlands elsewhere more than double the size. The 34.5-acre project cost Ashley about $1 million and included the planting of 6,400 trees and 43,500 plants, Rippley said.
Also, Ashley improved a dike along Meyers Valley Creek, which likely reduced the amount of recent flooding in Arcadia, and it has assisted the city in improving lift stations to remove flood water, Rippley said.
Abel, of the Wisconsin Wetlands Association, said mitigation programs can be successful, but not this one. The wetlands that were created are in a different watershed than those eliminated, so their function in the watershed around Ashley Furniture was not replaced, she said.
Wetlands serve as “natural hazard insurance against flooding,” the Wisconsin Wetlands Association said at the time.
So when widespread flooding in Arcadia temporarily closed Ashley Furniture 10 days ago, and photos showed canoeists paddling by a company loading dock, old arguments resurfaced.
“No one can say, ‘If only there had been more wetlands there, this wouldn’t have happened.’ But can we say there would have been less of an impact? Definitely,” said Becky Abel, executive director of the wetlands association.
But Ashley Furniture and the state Department of Natural Resources, which approved the permit, say critics are off base. The water swamping the city is coming primarily from the overflow of two upland creeks, Turton Creek and Meyers Valley Creek, not the adjacent Trempealeau River, they say. The areas of land that drain into those creeks, called watersheds, are several miles east and south of Arcadia, yet the city is at the mercy of the small creeks by being downstream.
“It’s one of those things you can’t plan for,” said Dan Baumann, a regional DNR water leader in Eau Claire who was part of the team that approved the permit. “I don’t know that their filling in of the wetlands would have caused any additional impact.”
The permit area on Ashley’s property “was not, in whole or in part, a cause or a contributing factor to the recent flooding,” said Paulette Rippley, an Ashley Furniture spokeswoman.
Extended debate
The company’s efforts to expand into wetlands played out over more than a decade beginning in the mid-1990s and spurred charges of strong-arm political tactics against Ashley Furniture and of job-killing extremism against environmentalists.
If the permit had not been granted, about 2,000 jobs — “substantially all of Ashley’s Arcadia facilities” — would have been moved to another state, Rippley said this week. The company, based in Arcadia, creates an economic ripple effect in Wisconsin conservatively estimated at more than $270 million annually, she said. The city is about 45 miles northwest of La Crosse.
Even the one-day shutdown of production at the Arcadia plant Sept. 23 hit community members hard.
“They’re the county’s largest employer,” said Dan Schreiner, Trempealeau County emergency management director. “It’s pretty traumatic when they’re not working.”
Ashley Furniture has estimated “uninsured losses and damages” due to the flooding of $3.51 million, according to information the company provided the county on Tuesday. In addition, the company projected $2.75 million in “lost wages by hourly employees and lost sales by local Ashley suppliers.”
Rippley said the company’s information technology building in downtown Arcadia was particularly hard hit. About 100 computer technicians and programmers work there, and a significant amount of computer equipment not covered by insurance was heavily damaged, she said.
Permit approved
Although sympathetic lawmakers initially sought to exempt Ashley Furniture from state wetlands laws, the company ultimately secured permission to fill in the wetlands in 2005 through the regular DNR permitting process.
Parts of the Ashley Furniture complex exist within the Trempealeau River floodplain, and the company followed all rules for building in that flood plain, Baumann said. The problem with this flooding is that the water comes largely from creeks so small their floodplains have not been studied or mapped, he said.Others say there has been a longtime pattern in the area of incrementally degrading and eliminating wetlands — by Ashley Furniture and others — and that the cumulative effect has made Arcadia more vulnerable to flooding.
“There’s no doubt that at least some potential protection would have been afforded by not filling in so much of that river bottom,” said George Meyer, executive director of the Wisconsin Wildlife Federation and DNR secretary from 1993-2001.
Wetlands “hold a lot of water and release it slowly over time, which reduces the flooding of agricultural and residential areas,” said Keith Reopelle, policy director for Clean Wisconsin. “I think you have to admit that filling in that wetlands area has exacerbated the impact of flooding.”
Ashley Furniture mitigated the loss of the 13.5 acres of wetlands by creating wetlands elsewhere more than double the size. The 34.5-acre project cost Ashley about $1 million and included the planting of 6,400 trees and 43,500 plants, Rippley said.
Also, Ashley improved a dike along Meyers Valley Creek, which likely reduced the amount of recent flooding in Arcadia, and it has assisted the city in improving lift stations to remove flood water, Rippley said.
Abel, of the Wisconsin Wetlands Association, said mitigation programs can be successful, but not this one. The wetlands that were created are in a different watershed than those eliminated, so their function in the watershed around Ashley Furniture was not replaced, she said.
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