Protected natural areas are a walk back in time
6:43 PM 7/10/02
Ron Seely Environment reporter

indentWisconsin's rich tradition of carefully tending to its natural landscapes owes much to the conservationist Aldo Leopold.
indentBut of all the good things Leopold did for the state, one of the most important may be the least known. In 1945, at Leopold's suggestion, Wisconsin formed a natural areas committee to consider protection of the state's most unique ecological features. And in 1952, based upon the work of that committee, the state established the nation's first Natural Areas Program.
indentThis year, the Natural Areas Program celebrates its 50th anniversary. It is a milestone well worth celebrating. Since its inception, 335 natural areas, encompassing more than 122,000 acres, have been protected through the program. The sites range from old-growth forests in northern Wisconsin to prairies and savannas in the south. Thanks to the program, you can slog through cedar swamps, nose around a fen, stroll through an oak barrens, or lay on your back and stare up at the clouds from the middle of a dry prairie.
indentChances are, had there been no Natural Areas Program, many of these rare landscapes would have long ago been turned under by the plow or covered by a subdivision.
indentHad there been no Natural Areas Program there might not be a:
indentWauzeka Bottoms.
indentBogus Swamp.
indentFairy Chasm.
indentOrion Mussel Bed.
indentBeulah Bog.
indentScuppernong Prairie.
indentThomas Meyer, a natural areas specialist with the state Department of Natural Resources, said there are 60 different types of landscape in Wisconsin. The Natural Areas Program includes examples of just about all of them. Most, for example, wouldn't know there are several different kinds of prairie in Wisconsin dry prairies, wet prairies, sand prairies and goat prairies, to name a few.
indentTo visit such places, Meyer said, is to walk back in time.
indent"Places that afford a chance to see what our land looked like 150 years ago without picnic tables and without campsites are very rare," Meyer said.
indentThe natural areas, Meyer said, not only protect unique pieces of Wisconsin, they protect rare animals and plants that call them home. More than 130 endangered and threatened animal species and 80 percent of the state's rare plants are represented in the natural areas, Meyer said.
indentFinally, Meyer said, the protected areas serve as valuable outdoor laboratories for researchers who can study relative untouched ecological systems or their inhabitants. The research subjects are varied and, sometimes, downright strange. Consider the scientist who, Meyer said, is busily studying the arthropod fauna of pocket gopher holes.
indent"Without these outdoor laboratories," Meyer said, "researchers would not even have the opportunity to study intact ecosystems. These are the places we think of as benchmarks."
indentDespite the remarkable record of the program over the last 50 years, there is work yet to be done, according to Meyer. He said the natural areas staff has estimated that the state's 335 natural areas protect only about half of the places in Wisconsin that deserve such attention.
indentMeyer said what may be the most unique natural community in Wisconsin is known to exist only on a 5-acre sliver of land in Grant County. But it is not numbered among the state's protected natural areas.
indent And unless it is, your children or their children may never see an algific talus slope. These, Meyer explained, are unique geologic formations on north-facing slopes in the state's driftless region. Ice forms in cracks and crevices in limestone beneath the hillside and remains, even in the summer months. Cold air from the crevices escapes from the vents in the hill and promotes the growth of plant species that are more commonly found much farther north - Hudson Bay currant, Kamchatka rock cress, tall lungwort, and small bishop's cap.
indentWhy protect such a place?
indentMeyer said there is an easy test. Ask yourself, he suggested, what kind of world you want to leave the generations that follow us.
indent"I always think of what my children and grandchildren would think of us if we didn't protect our natural heritage," Meyer said. "These places are part of who we are in Wisconsin."
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