Great Nature Wisconsin LLC has created this information for use by Land Trusts and others involved in Wisconsin land protection, free of charge. Please use this data as necessary and provide feed-back regarding its usefulness.

 

Outstanding conservation has occurred over the past century, but resources for continued protection programs are becoming scarce. Public agencies are required to develop narrowly defined and oft times politically motivated priorities.

 

This information package examines how well we have done and what still needs to be done to accomplish the full range of conservation for Wisconsin. The values presented utilize published big picture and conservation biology data with a primary focus on Wisconsin’s responsibility. For example, if we have a plant or animal that lives only in our state, then we have the ultimate responsibility for its perpetuation. Conversely, if we pass on purchasing a 100-acre aspen woodlot, it is effect on the global conservation of aspen is negligible.   A more detailed description of the methods is found on the Natural Treasures page.

 

The data is provided in three forms.

1. A generalized accounting of our ecological landscape areas conservation is presented. A summary of the landscapes values comes from the WDNR’s Ecological Landscapes of Wisconsin book. Current projects fitting into the important landscape features categories, which have significant past conservation are described. Each area has an accounting of features and a generalized location map.

2. Areas containing important landscape features with minimal or no conservation success are found in the focal sites sections and have individual pages dedicated to the feature. These are presented as pdfs to permit easy of printing and accessibility for land owners interested in their properties landscape values.

3. More local features important in individual landscapes are presented in one document. A generalized map and a brief description are included for most sites. In a few cases where the feature is very small only a listing of the feature and its location are presented.