In mid-May the Dane County Board signed off on a closely watched plan to return roughly 165 acres of land along the Yahara River to the Ho-Chunk Nation, a move county leaders say will lock in permanent protections for wetlands, rare burial mounds and riverfront habitat. The county bought what is known as the Herro property in the Town of Dunn with the explicit goal of safeguarding it forever, then handing it back to the Nation. Tribal leaders and conservation advocates describe the area as both culturally sacred and ecologically critical within the Lower Mud Lake basin.
According to a Dane County press release, the county will spend $6.41 million from the Dane County Conservation Fund to purchase the property, place a permanent conservation easement on it and then donate the protected land to the Ho-Chunk Nation. County Executive Melissa Agard called the agreement “a historic investment in conservation, cultural preservation, and partnership,” and county officials say the structure of the deal is intended to let the Nation steward the land while keeping public access in place. Groundswell Conservancy will co-hold the easement with Dane County and help monitor long-term protections.
Groundswell Conservancy, which helped put the deal together, notes that the property includes about a mile of shoreline along the Yahara River and Lower Mud Lake along with “an extraordinary concentration of archaeological and cultural features.” Ho-Chunk representatives and the landowners told the nonprofit that years of archaeological review and joint planning went into protecting the site. Groundswell has described the purchase as a once-in-a-generation chance to return ancestral lands to Ho-Chunk stewardship.
What the land includes
The property sits just south of Babcock County Park in the Town of Dunn and mixes wetlands, oak woodlands, tallgrass prairie and some tillable fields, along with significant frontage on both the river and the lake. County officials say six recorded archaeological sites are located there, including rare mound groupings tied to Ho-Chunk heritage, and that those features are a central reason for transferring the land. The county first flagged the property for protection back in the 1990s and had been in talks with the owners for years, as reported by WMTV.
Next steps and legal questions
Before the Ho-Chunk Nation formally takes title, Dane County plans to record the conservation easement on the parcels and finalize the agreement with the Nation and Groundswell Conservancy, according to county documents. County staff have indicated they favor transferring the land to the Ho-Chunk in fee simple ownership, rather than through a federal trust process, so the tribe would hold the land outright without a separate Bureau of Indian Affairs trust application. That detail was reported by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Officials say that approach is designed both to return stewardship to the Ho-Chunk Nation and to keep protections for archaeological sites and public access clear.
Supporters frame the transfer as an attempt to blend cultural redress with long-term conservation, and local leaders say the preserved shoreline and habitat will serve residents and visitors well into the future. PBS Wisconsin reported on June 19, 2026, that the move is meant to safeguard both the landscape and its archaeological resources while placing day-to-day care of the property with the Ho-Chunk Nation.
