State natural areas preserve native landscapes

Does Hagar Mountain ring a bell?

How about Diamond Roof or Tar Dam Pines?

The state Department of Natural Resources designated the Oconto County properties as state natural areas, and they are three of almost 700 such areas found throughout Wisconsin.

Thomas Meyer, a conservation biologist with the DNR’s State Natural Areas Program, said the properties have been singled out for a good reason.

“The focus is to try to set aside the best remaining examples of Wisconsin’s native communities,” he said. “The focus is not on providing recreation, although you can in most cases hunt, fish and hike on them. This is really focused more on nature and the species that are found there.”

Oconto County is home to 21 other SNAs: Barney Creek, Battle Creek Hemlocks, Bonita Country, Camp Five Lake, Cathedral Pines, Charles Pond, Forbes Springs, Glocke Lake, Kelly Lake Hemlocks, LaFave Swamp, Lake Lackawanna, Nelligan Lake, North Branch Bottoms, Peshtigo Brook Meadow and Woods, Priest Rock, Snow Falls Creek, South Branch Beech Grove, Sunrise Lake, Thunder Mountain, Thunder River Swamp and Waupee Lake Swamp.

Shawano County is home to six SNAs: County K Woods, Jung Hemlock-Beech Forest, Kroenke Lake, Navarino Cedar Swamp, Navarino Sedge Meadow and Wolf River Bottoms.

“State natural areas are different from state parks in that we don’t actively facilitate public access and use,” Meyer said. “It doesn’t mean you can’t go there, but we’re not going to put in a 6-foot-wide trail. There might be a little footpath or a little dock to access water, but we’re not providing picnic tables, campsites or anything like that.”

Hagar Mountain State Natural Area can be found northeast of Mountain off County Road W. The area features several rare plants, one of Wisconsin’s largest turkey vulture roosting sites, numerous rock outcrops and one of the few waterfalls in the Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest.

The site takes a little work to find. Head east from Mountain on County W for 3 miles to the junction with Forest Road 2630 (Bear Paw Road). Continue on County W for a half-mile to a cabin at Fire No. 13124, park along the highway and head north on a foot trail that runs along the property line from the east side of the cabin.

Other SNAs provide easy access to the public.

Shawano County’s Navarino Cedar Swamp and Navarino Sedge Meadow are part of the state-owned Navarino Wildlife Area south of Shawano and east of Clintonville. The area has several access points and parking areas along state Highway 156, County Road K and town roads.

“This is a program that actually goes back to the 1950s,” Meyer said. “Some of the conservationists at the time recognized that native plant and animal communities were starting to dwindle in places that they used to take their students.

“They said, ‘Look, we need to have some kind of program that protects the last remaining prairie, old-growth forest or unique wetland,’” he said. “They got legislation passed that created the State Natural Areas Program.”

Meyer said the program has a process to get a property designated as an SNA.

“We have a team of ecologists that will go out to a proposed site,” he said. “We may have gotten a tip from the public or maybe this piece of property is already state-owned. A property manager could say, ‘Hey, I’ve got this back 40 here, and I think it has some unique habitat for different plants and animals.’

“Our ecologist goes in and does an assessment. What they’re looking for is the percentage of native species compared to invasive species. Then, they look at evidence of past disturbance like a barbed wire fence or old plow lines to determine whether this still has viability as a native community that might be worth protecting.”

Most SNAs don’t get a lot of foot traffic.

One that does, however, is Parfrey’s Glen, which became Wisconsin’s first state natural area in 1952. The property, now part of Devil’s Lake State Park near Baraboo, includes a narrow sandstone ravine and several rare plant species.

“It probably gets a half-million visitors a year,” Meyer said. “It really depends where they are in relation to population centers and whether they’re attached to a state park or other high-visitation property.”

Information on each SNA can be found on the DNR’s website – dnr.wi.gov – and searching state natural areas by county.

“I think 95% of the time, the effort is worth it,” Meyer said. “I spent two hours slogging through this god-awful, insect-infested swamp to get to some of the natural areas I’ve been to. It’s really nice, but was it worth the journey? For me, it usually is because I’m a trained ecologist, and I like plants and animals.”