Lodi Marsh Wildlife Area

This 1088 acre property is located in the town of on Dane in Dane County. It is on the Columbia County border. It is bordered by Highway Y on the west; Highway 60 at the northern tip; Riddle Road which turns into Lodi Springfield Road as it traverses south on the east and Lee Road on the South. There are plenty of private land owners on each of these boundaries, so make sure you enter at DNR access points, honor those boundaries and then enjoy this property!

This property has some of the largest contiguous grasslands in Dane County. It has high quality southern hardwood (oak-hickory) woods; it has cattail marsh, sedge marsh, shrub-carr, goat prairies and a northern hardwood component on the north side of Center Bluff. It also has many springs. Spring Creek traverses the property. This wildlife area is a mixture of bluffy areas, grasslands, wetlands, a creek and woods.

Friends Group

The Ice Age Trail (IAT) [Exit DNR] Habitat Crew volunteer countless hours on this property pulling garlic mustard each spring and monitoring every new patch that comes in on the property. They help with all other exotics such as parsnip and the very recent and extremely aggressive Japanese parsley invasion. They also help with prescribed burning. The IAT Habitat Crew discovered goat prairies overtaken by cedar and restored them. They manage the trail which traverses the property. Check it out and find some of the most beautiful views in Dane County. To volunteer on any of these projects or for sponsored events such as bird hikes and night star-lit walks, visit the Dane County Chapter [Exit DNR].

Management

Management Objective

This is a high quality property, however, area run-off threaten the creek. The property is documented to have the highest biodiversity of moths in the state. There is a Natural Area on the property. The western woods is in fairly good shape due to countless volunteer hours by IAT, but the eastern woods is being overtaken by garlic mustard and in certain areas, cedar and other exotics. Pre-settlement vegetation did not include the density of trees that occur on the bluffs currently. Most urgent in this management need is our desire to remove the cedar and garlic mustard. Again, this property shines compared to many of our wildlife areas due to the help we receive by others – but could use even more volunteers to help us broaden effort.

As funding allows we are using a forestry mover to reclaim brush and trees that have taken over grass fields and the wetlands. We hope to establish safe firebreaks with this tool and start mowing and burning on a more regular basis. This will encourage desired native vegetation. We also want to tie grasslands together to help grassland bird habitat. Increasing acres managed by burning will help to remove garlic mustard, cedar, buckthorn, etc.

Recreation

The following recreational opportunities exist at Lodi Marsh Wildlife Area:

Hunting - waterfowl, turkey, pheasant (stocked), deer, squirrel, and rabbit

Trapping - muskrat, beaver, otter

Hiking - Ice Age Trail [Exit DNR]

Pets (Note)

Berry picking - raspberry, blackberry

Firewood permits - We are trying to remove box elder along the roads. Contact the manager if you have an interest.

Wildlife Viewing

Fishing

Bird watching

Canoeing

Map

Download [PDF 218KB] a map of this property.

Useful Links

Hunting in Wisconsin
Hunting and Trapping Regulations
Season Dates
Columbia County Information [Exit DNR]
Dane County Information [Exit DNR]
Plan your trip to Dane and Columbia Counties [Exit DNR]

For more information on Lodi Marsh Wildlife Area contact the property manager.

Questions for Wildlife Management

Last Revised: Wednesday October 28 2009