Sugar River Wetlands

State Natural Area (No. 299)

Location: Dane County. T6N-R8E, Sections 17, 20, 21. 110 acres.

Access: Access via the Military Ridge Bike Trail. For walk-in access: From the intersection of U.S. Highway 18 and County Highway MV (Business 18) in Verona, go east on MV about 0.3 miles, then north on Country View Road about one mile to a gated access and park. Walk south on the access road, then walk southeast on the recreational trail into the site. For bike access: Park in the lot on County Highway PB just south of County MV and ride southwest into the area.

Description: Sugar River Wetlands features a diverse wetland complex including sedge meadow, calcareous fen, emergent aquatic, shrub-carr, and wet-mesic prairie. Located within the Upper Sugar River Watershed, this extensive wetland harbors numerous rare plant and animal species and contains the most diverse fishery in southern Wisconsin. The fen flora is diverse with many calcium-loving plants including Kalm's lobelia, grass-of-parnassus, and shrubby cinquefoil. The carbonate-rich groundwater that percolates up from the underlying bedrock provides high quality water to the surrounding wetlands and river. Intergrading with the fen is a wet-mesic prairie dominated by tall grasses including big blue-stem, Canada blue-joint grass, prairie cord grass, and Canada wild rye. The forb component is diverse with azure aster, shooting star, prairie blazing-star, prairie phlox, and culver's root. Also present is a southern sedge meadow with tussock sedge and a shrub-carr community dominated by tall shrubs such as red-osier dogwood, meadowsweet, and willows. Within these communities are a number of rare plants including the state threatened prairie parsley (Polytaenia nuttallii) and two special concern species, bluets (Houstonia caerulea) and glade mallow (Napaea dioica). Short-eared owls (Asio flammeus) frequent this area in winter and northern harriers (Circus cyaneus) nest within adjacent wetlands. The area is part of a larger grassland habitat restoration complex along the Sugar River, which seeks to establish landscape management areas for the benefit of declining grassland birds and animals, vegetation communities, and invertebrates that depend upon native vegetation. Sugar River Wetlands is owned by the DNR and was designated a State Natural Area in 1996.