The French Creek Wildlife Area is a tract of
protected
Protection is any measure taken to guard a thing against damage caused by outside forces. Protection can be provided to physical objects, including organisms, to systems, and to intangible things like civil and political rights. Although th ...
land located in
Columbia County and
Marquette County,
Wisconsin
Wisconsin () is a state in the upper Midwestern United States. Wisconsin is the 25th-largest state by total area and the 20th-most populous. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake M ...
, managed by the
Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources
The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (WDNR) is a government agency of the U.S. state of Wisconsin charged with conserving and managing Wisconsin's natural resources. The Wisconsin Natural Resources Board has the authority to set policy ...
(WDNR). Land to be used for the wildlife area was first acquired in 1947 to provide for increased production of
wildfowl
The Anatidae are the biological family of water birds that includes ducks, geese, and swans. The family has a cosmopolitan distribution, occurring on all the world's continents except Antarctica. These birds are adapted for swimming, floating on ...
and hunting opportunities. Prior to 1947, the area was used for the cultivation of
wire grass Wiregrass is a common name for several plants
Wiregrass may refer to:
* Poaceae grasses
** ''Aristida'' (three-awns), especially ''Aristida stricta'' (Pineland Three-awn), '' Aristida junciformis'' and ''Aristida purpurea'' (Purple Three-awn), of ...
which is used for the creation of grass rugs and mats.
French Creek
The French Creek Wildlife Area is trisected into three different areas; the all-encompassing French Creek Wildlife Area, the French Creek North Natural Area, and the French Creek Fen Natural Area. The French Creek North Natural Area is a
exclave
An enclave is a territory (or a small territory apart of a larger one) that is entirely surrounded by the territory of one other state or entity. Enclaves may also exist within territorial waters. ''Enclave'' is sometimes used improperly to deno ...
of the wildlife area consisting of mostly
wetland
A wetland is a distinct ecosystem that is flooded or saturated by water, either permanently (for years or decades) or seasonally (for weeks or months). Flooding results in oxygen-free (anoxic) processes prevailing, especially in the soils. The ...
and some shallow open water sections. The French Creek Fen Natural Area, however, is found within the defined borders of the French Creek Wildlife Area, and has an area of .
There are 14 different types of cover in the wildlife area, including agriculture, aspen, central hardwood, developed, forested wetland, grassland, marsh, oak woodland, shrub wetland, tamarack, upland conifer, upland shrub, water, and the most common, sedge meadows.
Flora and fauna
The most prominent species of trees that can be found in the wildlife area are oak and
tamarack
''Larix laricina'', commonly known as the tamarack, hackmatack, eastern larch, black larch, red larch, or American larch, is a species of larch native to Canada, from eastern Yukon and Inuvik, Northwest Territories east to Newfoundland, and als ...
, in addition to various other hardwood trees native to the region. The wildlife area is otherwise dominated by
sedges
The Cyperaceae are a family of graminoid (grass-like), monocotyledonous flowering plants known as sedges. The family is large, with some 5,500 known species described in about 90 genera, the largest being the "true sedges" genus ''Carex'' wit ...
, a grass-like plant.
A popular activity in the wildlife area is hunting, with there being a sizable population of
deer
Deer or true deer are hoofed ruminant mammals forming the family Cervidae. The two main groups of deer are the Cervinae, including the muntjac, the elk (wapiti), the red deer, and the fallow deer; and the Capreolinae, including the reindeer ...
,
turkey
Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...
, and other wildfowl in the area. There is currently a
pheasant
Pheasants ( ) are birds of several genera within the family (biology), family Phasianidae in the order (biology), order Galliformes. Although they can be found all over the world in introduced (and captive) populations, the pheasant genera na ...
restocking program in the wildlife area, which furthers the agenda of turning the area into a sustainable hunting preserve.
WDNR Columbia County Master Plan PDF
Retrieved 2022-03-09
See also
* Wildlife management
Wildlife management is the management process influencing interactions among and between wildlife, its habitats and people to achieve predefined impacts. It attempts to balance the needs of wildlife with the needs of people using the best availabl ...
References
External Links
U.S. Geological Survey Map
at the U.S. Geological Survey Map Website. Retrieved March 8th, 2022.
{{Protected areas of Wisconsin
State Wildlife Area
Protected areas of Wisconsin
Geography of Columbia County, Wisconsin
Protected areas established in 1947