Landscape at a Glance

Physical & Biotic Environment | Socioeconomic Conditions | Considerations for Planning & Management

Species

Species of Greatest Conservation Need

The following species are listed according to their probability of occurring in the Central Sand Hills Ecological Landscape, based on the findings in the Wisconsin Wildlife Action Plan.

Community opportunities

Natural community management opportunities

The Central Sand Hills Ecological Landscape contains opportunities to manage for the following natural communities, based on the findings in the Wildlife Action Plan (originally presented by the Ecosystem Management Team).

Description of Terms Used to Define Opportunities for Protection, Restoration and/or Management of Natural Communities by Ecological Landscapes

Major
A major opportunity for sustaining the natural community in the Ecological Landscape exists, either because many significant occurrences of the natural community have been recorded in the landscape or major restoration activities are likely to be successful maintaining the community's composition, structure, and ecological function over a longer period of time.

Important
Although the natural community does not occur extensively or commonly in the Ecological Landscape, one to several occurrences do occur and are important in sustaining the community in the state. In some cases, important opportunities may exist because the natural community may be restricted to just one or a few Ecological Landscapes within the state and there may be a lack of opportunities elsewhere.

Present
The natural community occurs in the Ecological Landscape, but better management opportunities appear to exist in other parts of the state.

General opportunities

General management opportunities ¹

Fire-dependent communities were once common and widespread in the Central Sand Hills. Although today's examples are mostly small remnants, there are excellent opportunities to manage for fire-dependent and fire-adapted communities such as oak forest, oak woodland, oak savanna, tallgrass prairie, sedge meadow and fen. Remnant savannas, both Oak Barrens and Oak Openings, occur on dry and dry-mesic sites scattered throughout the Central Sand Hills. All of these communities have high potential to support rare plants, invertebrates and reptiles.

Dry forests of white, black and bur oak are common, though forest management at large scales is constrained by ownership patterns and small tract size and current land uses. Management of oak forests and woodlands could be integrated with management of oak savanna, prairie and wetlands. This would be especially appropriate on public and private lands managed mostly for conservation purposes. Mixed forests of pine and oak are locally common, and the Central Sand Hills is one of two ecological landscapes where good examples of the Central Sands Pine-Oak Forest community have been documented.

Numerous springs and coldwater streams emanate from the end moraine that forms the western boundary of the Central Sand Hills. Wetland communities associated with these glacial landforms include fen, sedge meadow, low prairie, shrub swamp and tamarack swamp; some of these wetlands are quite alkaline and differ in composition from those found in the more acid environments to the west.

Large wetland complexes such as those found at Germania Marsh, Comstock Marsh, Grand River Marsh and Fountain Creek Prairie contain good examples of fen, sedge meadow, wet prairie, shrub swamp and tamarack swamp. The Central Sand Hills contains more occurrences of the globally rare Coastal Plain Marsh community than any other landscape in Wisconsin. Coastal Plain Marsh communities provide habitat for rare vascular plants and invertebrates and are associated with sandy or gravelly shores of seepage lakes that exhibit dramatic natural water level fluctuations. The US Threatened Fassett's locoweed is strongly associated with this and the inland beach communities. Floodplain forest is significant along stretches of the major rivers such as the Wisconsin, Baraboo and Montello and provides important habitat for resident and migratory wildlife.

Important warmwater rivers include the Fox, Montello, Baraboo and a short but ecologically significant stretch of the Wisconsin. This section includes Pine Island State Wildlife Area, an area associated floodplain habitats, as well as significant savanna and grassland remnants. Dams on several of the major rivers have created very large shallow impoundments, including Buffalo Lake, Lake Puckaway and Lake Wisconsin, and these offer valuable wildlife habitat but need rehabilitation to address their poor water quality. Green Lake, Wisconsin's deepest inland lake, is located in the east central portion of the Central Sand Hills.

Bedrock exposures are rare in the Central Sand Hills. However, they include good examples of glades, cliffs and talus slopes, which support rare plants and other unique vegetation, as well as some rare animals.

1. The text presented here is a summarized version of a longer section developed for the Ecological Landscapes of Wisconsin Handbook.

Maps

Central Sand Hills maps

Printable maps from the Ecological Landscapes of Wisconsin Handbook. These maps are in PDF format and will open in a new window.

1. Finley's Vegetation of the Mid-1800s
2. Land Cover of the Mid-1800's
3. Landtype Associations (LTAs)
4. Public Land Ownership, Easements and Private Land Enrolled in Forest Tax Programs
5. Ecologically Significant Places
6. Exceptional and Outstanding Resource Waters and 303(d) Degraded Waters (2010 Update)
7. Dams
8. WISCLAND Land Cover (1992)
9. Soil Regions
10. Relative Tree Density in the Mid-1800s
11. Population Density, Cities, and Transportation

Also see the statewide maps from the Ecological Landscapes Handbook.

LTAs

Central Sand Hills Landtype Associations

Landtype Associations (LTAs) are units of the National Hierarchical Framework of Ecological Units (NHFEU), a hierarchical ecological land classification system. LTAs are much smaller than Ecological Landscapes, ranging in size from 10,000 and 300,000 acres. In Wisconsin, they are usually based on glacial features like individual moraines or outwash plains. LTAs can be very useful for planning at finer scales within an Ecological Landscape.

The following are the LTAs associated with the Central Sand Hills Ecological Landscape. The Central Sand Hills LTA map [PDF] can be used to locate these LTAs. Clicking on an LTA in the list below will open a data table for that LTA in PDF format. Descriptions are included, where available.

• 222Kb01. Arnott-Almond Moraine Complex
• 222Kb03. Wild Rose -Wautoma Moraine Complex
• 222Kb04. Coloma Plain
• 222Kb05. Buffalo Lake Outwash Channels
• 222Kd02. Green Lake Moraines
• 222Kd07. Princeton Drumlins
• 222Kb06. Lewiston Basin
• 222Kd08. French Creek Moraines
• 222Kd01. Rio Moraines
• 222Kd04. Pardeeville Plains
• 222Kb07. Portage Floodplain
• 222Kd05. Prentice Creek Hills
• 222Kd03. Poynette Hills
• 222Kd06. Moon Valley Plains
• 222Kd09. Roxbury Hills