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 Forest Transition Ecological Landscape, based on the findings in the Wisconsin Wildlife Action Plan.

Community opportunities

Natural community management opportunities

The Forest Transition 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

Once almost completely forested, the Forest Transition's largest blocks of forests are now limited to certain areas. Portions of two large forested areas, the Lakewood-Laona District of the Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest (CNNF) and the Menominee Indian Reservation, comprise the easternmost and most densely forested end of the landscape. These are largely mesic forests, and the forests of the Menominee Reservation have retained some old forest attributes, including large trees, coarse woody debris and multi-layered canopies. Unlike many other parts of Wisconsin, eastern hemlock remains abundant in some areas, and both it and northern white cedar can be found reproducing here. These forests provide important habitats that are rare or absent elsewhere and offer excellent opportunities for monitoring and research.

Roughly two hundred miles west of the Menominee Reservation, at the westernmost end of the landscape, forests also occur in large blocks. These very different forests are generally less contiguous and are largely dry-mesic. They can contain a strong red and white oak component, and scattered areas contain significant amounts of white pine. These forests offer opportunities to identify high conservation value areas, reduce fragmentation, are known to support rare forest interior birds and may be important for long-term monitoring since they can contain species at their northernmost range limits.

Much of this landscape is now quite open and dominated by intensive agricultural use. A few open areas of surrogate grassland (non-native grasses) and adjacent wetlands embedded within agricultural lands are large enough to support declining grassland birds, including the WI Threatened Greater Prairie Chicken. There are opportunities to maintain, enlarge and connect these habitats to better support area sensitive species. However, other open areas provide re-forestation opportunities to increase the size of forested blocks, provide habitat, improve water quality, reduce hard edge and help local economies over the long-term.

Protecting undeveloped lakes, ponds and streams is a major opportunity. Lakes and wetlands on the CNNF associated with the Green Bay Glacial Lobe can be somewhat calcareous, and some of these alkaline waters and wetlands support rare or otherwise unusual plants. The Polk County portion of the landscape contains numerous lakes associated with the St. Croix Moraine. Extensive wetlands, most of them forested, occur at the southern margins of several end moraines.

Maintaining intact river corridors is a major opportunity in the Forest Transition. A number of rivers cross the landscape from north to south, including the Wolf, Chippewa and St. Croix, all of which support high aquatic biodiversity and many rare species. Wetlands and forests forming the corridors of these rivers are used heavily by migratory birds and may be important for other species traveling between northern and southern Wisconsin. Habitats such as floodplain forest and marsh are better represented along the large rivers than elsewhere in the landscape.

Bedrock exposures, though localized and uncommon, can provide specialized habitats. Significant outcroppings of Precambrian rock in the Forest Transition include exposures of granites, quartzite and basalt as cliffs, glades and talus slopes in certain areas. Cambrian sandstone exposures occur at a few locations such as the south central part of the landscape.

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

Maps

Forest Transition 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

Forest Transition 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 Forest Transition Ecological Landscape. The Forest Transition 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.

• 212Qa04. Frederic Knolls
• 212Qa03. Polk Basalt Moraines
• 212Qb01. Poskin Moraines
• 212Qb02. Barron-Dobie Plains
• 212Qb04. Chetek Plains
• 212Qa02. Centuria Plains
• 212Qb03. Sumner Moraines
• 212Qc03. Merrill Outwash Plain
• 212Qc04. Antigo Flats
• 212Qb06. New Auburn Moraines
• 212Qa01. Late St. Croix Moraines
• 212Qd01. Ackley Plains
• 212Qc02. Medford-Hamburg Moraines
• 212Qc01. Abbotsford Moraines
• 212Qd05. DuBay Plains
• 212Qd02. Marathon Uplands
• 212Qb05. Greenwood Moraines
• 212Qb07. Mead Lake Eroded Moraines
• 212Qd04. Rib Mountain
• 212Qd07. Peplin Uplands
• 212Qd06. Mead Marsh
• 212Qd03. Milladore Uplands
• 212Ta01. Lakewood Plains and Moraines
• 212Ta03. Hatley Moraines
• 212Ta04. Upper Plover River Plains
• 212Ta06. Elderon-Bowler Drumlins and Moraines
• 212Ta07. Birnamwood-Rosholt Plains
• 212Ta08. Rabe Knolls
• 212Ta09. Neopit-Tilleda Plains and Drumlins
• 212Ta11. Stockbridge-Tigerton Plains
• 212Ta12. Ogdensburg Plains
• 212Ta13. Amherst -Waupaca Moraine Complex