French Creek North State Natural Area is a large wetland area containing springs, marsh, tamarack swamp, fen, and sedge meadow natural communities. As with many newer SNAs, French Creek North is owned by the Wisconsin DNR as part of a larger eponymous State Wildlife Area. French Creek North is located approximately 11 miles northeast of…
Tag: Sedge Meadow
Muehl Springs (337/696)
Muehl Springs State Natural Area features a sedge meadow, springs, and stream system that feeds into the Sheboygan River. Owned by the Wisconsin DNR, Muehl Springs is located just north of the Northern Unit of the Kettle Moraine State Forest (NKMSF) and a few miles west of Rhine Center Bog State Natural Area and just…
Crooked Lake Wetlands (336/696)
Crooked Lake Wetlands State Natural Area contains two seepage lakes, northern wet forest, southern dry-mesic forest, southern sedge meadow and an assortment of wetland natural communities straddling the border of Fond du Lac and Sheboygan Counties. Owned by the Wisconsin DNR, Crooked Lake Wetlands SNA is located near several other SNA’s in the Northern Unit…
Rice Lake (323/693)
*experimenting with post format; bear with me* Rice Lake State Natural Area contains the eponymous lake as well as surrounding wetland, sedge meadow, poor fen, and upland islands found within Thunder Lake State Wildlife Area in northeastern Oneida County, just south of Eagle River. The site can be easily accessed from a couple of Wildlife…
Peat Lake (320/693)
Peat Lake State Natural Area is headlined by its 42-acre namesake lake. Haboring mainly non-native carp, the lake is not known for it fishery and is not particularly accessible for those purposes. Such access is somewhat precluded by the extensive surrounding wetlands, composed of sedge meadow and cattail marsh. Located on the WI-IL border and…
Blueberry Trail (312/688)
Blueberry Trail preserves a floodplain forest along the slow, wide turns of Beaver Creek within the Meadow Valley State Wildlife Area in Juneau County. The site can be accessed from Mulloney Road. No parking areas are present, so this was another pull the car as far off the gravel road as possible situation. There are…
White River Sedge Meadow (278/681)
White River Sedge Meadow encompasses the largest southern sedge meadow in Wisconsin. Located just one mile south-southeast of White River Prairie/Tamaracks and also a part of the larger White River Marsh State Wildlife Area, this natural area can be accesses by numerous parking areas scattered around its perimeter. The most direct access is from parking…
Germania Wet Prairie (276/681)
Germania Wet Prairie includes a wet to wet-mesic prairie with sedge-meadow- and fen-like areas in central Marquette County, just north of the subject of yesterday’s blog entry, Comstock B0g-Meadow. A DNR parking area is found east of Eagle Road and is accessible via an access lane just north of the intersection of Eagle Road and…
Comstock Bog-Meadow (275/681)
Comstock Bog-Meadow features a large sedge meadow and marsh with bog vegetation in some areas and is located in central Marquette County, north of Montello. There are several access points to the property including parking areas off of CTH J and Edgewood Avenue. On my first visit, I followed the access lane east from CTH…
Puchyan Prairie (269/679)
Puchyan Prairie contains wet-mesic prairie, marsh, and sedge meadow wetland natural communities in the floodplain of the Puchyan River. A parking area is located on the east side of Puchyan Marsh Road, just a few feet north of its intersection with CTH CC northwest of the town of Green Lake. Puchyan Prairie is a large,…
Upper Fox Headwaters (245/679)
Upper Fox Headwaters is comprised of a wide array of natural communities in 5 parcels of land divided amongst 3 units spanning 9 miles, 2 counties, and a total of 195 acres. The Upper Chaffee Creek Meadow unit (formerly known as the Chaffee Creek unit) is accessible from a wayside off of southbound I-39/USH 51…
Trempealeau River Meadow (236/679)
Trempealeau River Meadow is a large sedge meadow and marsh complex in Buffalo County. Park on Wolfe’s Dugway Road and walk east into the site. There is a small degraded prairie before a short forested drop in elevation leading to the sedge meadow. This was another site where rubber boots would have come in handy. Most…
Allen Creek Wetlands, SNA #641 (225/675)
Allen Creek Wetlands includes a complex of wetlands including sedge meadow, wet-mesic prairie, and fen. The natural area consists of two parcels, one of which is privately owned and closed to the public and the other which is DNR-owned and open to the public. I have visited only the former, but the directions given…
Fair Meadows, SNA #416 (224/675)
Fair Meadows encompasses a variety of habitats including oak woodland and savanna, wet prairie, and sedge meadow. It is home to the federally threatened and Wisconsin endangered eastern prairie white-fringed orchid. A privately owned natural area, Fair Meadows is generally only open to the public on field trips through conservation organizations and that is how…
Summerton Bog, SNA #42 (158/675)
Summerton Bog contains a mixture of wetland communities including bog, fen, and sedge meadow northwest of Endeavor. A parking area is located off of Freedom Road on the west side of the natural area. This is another site that requires a more detailed exploration in the near future. Here, the weather precluded any significant exploration,…
State Natural Areas of Wisconsin 