New Connection between Spirit Lake and Pukaite Woods Is Now Open!

September 2, 2025  |  Topics: Events, Places

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By Eddee Daniel

Fittingly, the late August sunset bathed the forest canopy with a crown of gold. At least 100 people gathered at the head of the brand-new boardwalk in preparation for an inaugural crossing between two parks that for many years had lain adjacent but, until now, disconnected.

Ecology teaches us that healthy environments depend on healthy relationships and that connected natural areas are more beneficial to wildlife than isolated ones. Those values hold true for humans as well as wildlife!

An even larger crowd, estimated at 150, had assembled in a nearby pavilion in Mequon Rotary Park to celebrate the opening of the new trail (not all of them chose to brave the clouds of mosquitoes in the woods). It was a diverse group, drawn from the ranks of several organizations—including the Mequon-Thiensville Sunrise Rotary Club, Restoring Lands land trust, and the state-wide Wisconsin Wetlands Association—along with residents of Ozaukee County and beyond. Healthy relationships amongst these varied organizations were crucial to the success of this project.

Pukaite Woods, an 18-acre parcel at the north end of the 95-acre Rotary Park, is named for Connie Pukaite, former Mayor of Mequon and active member of Sunrise Rotary Club. While mayor, Pukaite was instrumental in the establishment of the park, which was donated to the City of Mequon by Sunrise Rotary Club in 1991. For many years since then, she has been the chief steward of the woods that bear her name, helping to clear buckthorn, establishing a prairie meadow and oak savannah, and an accessible gravel trail that winds through it. She had long envisioned the connection that is now established with next door neighbor Spirit Lake.

155-acre Spirit Lake Preserve is owned and managed by Restoring Lands—newly renamed following the merger of Ozaukee Washington Land Trust and River Revitalization Foundation. Acquired in 2015, much of the property had been agricultural and some of it still is, although piece by piece it is being restored to pre-colonial natural landscapes. It now contains upland hardwood forest, lowland hardwood forest, ephemeral ponds, cattail marsh, wet meadow, and a small, restored grassland, together with a network of restored wetlands along a half-mile tributary that flows to the Milwaukee River.

The large group at the head of the pristine boardwalk slowly began to funnel onto it. The short crossing leads into the forest at Spirit Lake where a newly cut trail guides everyone in a long, attenuated single file through the trees, across a second boardwalk and out into a large open tall grass meadow ringed by a palisade of tall pines. Up a short slope and along a broad berm that curves around the 2.2-acre lake that gives the preserve its name. The setting sun, now below the palisade of trees, casts everything in deep shadow.

Two tour groups diverged at this point. One headed back to Pukaite Woods. A second, larger group continued around the far side of Spirit Lake, across a second meadow; they penetrated the western edge of the tree-lined compound, emerging out into a former ag field now lined with 9,000 recently planted trees—mainly native hardwoods, including black cherry, bur oak, hackberry, red oak, shagbark hickory and white oak. Conifer trees were also planted between the rows of native hardwoods. Threading their way along the edge of the field, the tour group made its way to the far reaches of the property to see the restored wetlands first-hand and learn about their importance to the larger ecosystem of the Milwaukee River watershed. The recent severe flooding in the Milwaukee basin made the message about capturing and filtering rainwater especially trenchant.

The new connector creates a combined trail system stretching over three and a half miles, making the combined parks with their diverse and scenic habitats a worthy destination for far more than the local residents. “The new trail invites visitors to spend extended time in nature among forest, prairie, and wetland ecosystems,” said Restoring Lands Executive Director, Tom Stolp in his opening remarks to the assembly.

An added bonus for visitors to Spirit Lake is the new opportunity to take advantage of the copious parking available in Rotary Park. While Spirit Lake Preserve has long been open to the public and identified with an entrance kiosk, the new parking lot off Boniwell Road only has space for seven vehicles. Now both parks are accessible during Mequon Rotary Park hours, from dawn to dusk.

Note: thanks go to Restoring Lands for providing most of the information contained in this story.

For more information about the two places go to our Find-a-Park pages for Spirit Lake Preserve and Pukaite Woods in Mequon Rotary Park.

Eddee Daniel is a board member of Preserve Our Parks. Restoring Lands is a project partner of A Wealth of Nature.

About Preserve Our Parks

Preserve Our Parks, Inc. is an independent nonprofit organization dedicated to the preservation of parks and green spaces.  Our mission: To advocate for and promote Milwaukee area parks and open spaces and to strive to protect the tenets of Wisconsin’s Public Trust Doctrine. 

For more than 25 years, we have been a leader in advocating for the protection of Milwaukee County park lands, halting many proposals to develop, privatize, or sell local parkland and lakefront spaces.  More information about POP, including past accomplishments, is available at www.preserveourparks.org.

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