Douglas County Wildlife Area

History

In 1925, the Northern States Amateur Field Trial Association (NSAFTA) conducted its first dog trial on land that would become the Douglas County Bird Sanctuary in 1935. NSAFTA held its first U.S. Chicken Champion Dog Trial in 1937. Trials continued until the early 2000s. When this trial began, prairie chickens were present on the property, giving the trials their name. Prairie chickens are no longer present in the area.

In 1947, the Wisconsin Conservation Commission established the "Douglas County Grouse Management Area." The property was used for research and experimental work on sharp-tailed grouse, prairie chickens and bobwhite quail. In 1948, the state entered into the first of several successive land leases with Douglas County.

The Wisconsin Conservation Department (precursor to the current Wisconsin DNR) negotiated an agreement with Douglas County to lease approximately 3,000 acres in 1953 to expand habitat management opportunities to promote the globally rare pine barrens habitats. The lease was renewed in 2003 for an additional 25 years. Unique to Douglas County, the lease is paid for by Pittman-Robertson funds, and the revenue is used by Douglas County to maintain the clubhouse and stables that were originally built by the dog-trialing groups nearly 100 years ago.

Management

The property is managed for a savanna-type plant community called pine barrens habitat. Savannas are plant communities dominated by grasses and interspersed with trees. In the pine barrens ecosystem, the shrub component is much more extensive than in other savanna types. Pine barrens are a transitional ecosystem between forest and prairie, born of fire and maintained by fire. While sharp-tailed grouse is a focus species of pine barrens habitat and a primary objective of this property, many other birds, plants and animals require or use this habitat type to meet their life cycle requirements.

Prescribed fire is the primary tool used to replicate natural disturbance that once occurred here. Mowing, occasional timber sales and fire break maintenance complement the burns and provide for safer and more effective burns. Horseback riding has a long history here, dating back to the original users, and the department maintains approximately 12 miles of horse trails across all areas of the property.  

While all areas of the property are suitable for dispersed hiking, the North Country Trail offers premier hiking opportunities with several overlooks and a remote campsite on Rover’s Lake. The North Country Trail is maintained by local volunteers.

For more information on master planning for this and other wildlife areas around the state, visit the property planning page.

Importance Of Pine Barrens

Historically, pine barrens covered about 2,340,000 acres in Wisconsin and were found in four regions of the state. The northwestern Wisconsin pine barrens is an area of sandy soils approximately 12-15 miles wide and 125 miles long from the Sterling Barrens in Polk County in the southwest to the Moquah Barrens in the Bayfield peninsula to the northeast. These pine barrens have been divided into three geographic sections: the northeastern hill section, the pitted sand plain section and the southwestern marsh section.

Three major factors: fire, soils and topography dominate the development and maintenance of the pine barrens community. Humans have had a very large influence on the fire factor. Intensive control of fire has virtually eliminated the large, frequent fires that once naturally occurred in the pine barrens community. In the absence of fire, natural plant succession coupled with an intensive tree-planting program has turned almost all of Wisconsin's northwestern pine barrens into forest.

Today, there is less than one percent of the original pine barrens community remaining in Wisconsin. Most of the remaining pine barrens habitat in northwestern Wisconsin is found in four public wildlife management areas: Crex Meadows, Namekagon Barrens, Douglas County and Moquah Barrens. Pine barrens are an imperiled resource in Wisconsin. They are less common than many other habitat types, including wetlands and old-growth forests, which are universally recognized as scarce, valuable and meriting increased protection and management.