A Globally Important Landscape Right in Your Own Backyard
When most people think of southern Wisconsin, they think of cheese, beer, and farmland. But a quick drive east from Madison can take you to a unique place that’s just as deserving of being a Wisconsin icon.
The Southern Kettles area, located roughly halfway between Madison and Milwaukee, was sculpted by ancient glaciers into a dramatic landscape of hills, kettles (glacial depressions), and wetlands. Today, it contains an extraordinary mosaic of habitats that supports many rare and threatened species.
The most notable habitats of the Southern Kettles are wet prairies, sedge meadows, bogs, fens, oak savannas, and woodlands. These habitats are not only rare in Wisconsin, but also in the Midwest, and the combination of these habitats found in the Southern Kettles is rare worldwide.
Chief among these communities are the prairies and oak savannas of the Southern Kettles, where excellent examples of these ecosystems can be found scattered throughout the undulating hills. According to the DNR, prairie and oak savanna natural communities are the most endangered natural communities in Wisconsin and across the Midwest. They’re also among the most decimated in the world. Their rarity can be attributed in large part to plowing and tilling for agriculture during European settlement and to forest succession due to lack of fire on the landscape. Today, there’s continued pressure from developing nearby population centers.
“The Southern Kettle Moraine Conservation Opportunity Area is a landscape-sized island of biodiversity situated between our state’s capital and our largest city,” says Pete Duerkop, a biologist with the Wisconsin DNR.
Publicly owned lands, like state natural areas, are crucial refuges for rare species in the Southern Kettles, but 65 percent of the area is privately owned. This combination of private and public land is ripe for collaborative stewardship, conservation, and care.
The Southern Kettles is a hidden gem to the public, but among conservationists, it’s quite well-known. The Wisconsin DNR’s Wildlife Action Plan highlighted the Southern Kettles as a “Conservation Opportunity Area of Global Significance.” The Wisconsin Wetland Association has identified three Wetland Gems in the area. The Nature Conservancy and the Center for Resilient Conservation Science have ranked it highly on their Resilient Land Mapping Tool. National Audubon has designated several Important Bird Areas in and around the area.
Because of its universally recognized importance, great conservation work has been happening in the Southern Kettles and across southeastern Wisconsin for decades. Land trusts, local friends-of groups, the DNR, and others have been actively working to protect key local sites. Recently, a group of conservation organizations have come together to expand this work and care for the entire Southern Kettles landscape.
Undeveloped state-owned lands provide key wildlife habitat at the core of the Southern Kettles. “The Kettle Moraine State Forest and Lulu Lake State Natural Area are the backbone of this area,” says Pete. “They provide critical habitat for rare species and natural communities that have largely disappeared from the landscape otherwise.”
The glacial hills, kettle lakes, and verdant prairies of the Southern Kettles are full of wildlife. Wisconsin hosts its share of endangered and threatened species, and many are found here, including one of Wisconsin’s largest concentrations of hooded warbler, which is listed as threatened.
The area has always been important to its human inhabitants as well. The hill that European settlers named Bald Bluff, located within the Kettle Moraine Oak Opening State Natural Area, is an environmentally and culturally important feature of the region. At 1,050 feet above sea level, Bald Bluff is one of the highest points in this part of Wisconsin. It’s been used by the Potawatomi and other Indigenous peoples as a landmark and gathering place.
Nowadays, 1.5 million people enjoy hiking, birding, biking, paddling, camping, hunting, and more in the Southern Kettles every year. Few of them likely realize that their favorite fishing spot is in a globally important region. When you visit the Southern Kettles, take a moment to realize that you’re enjoying one of Wisconsin’s most precious contributions to global biodiversity.
Shelly Torkelson is communications director at the Natural Resources Foundation of Wisconsin.
Natural Resources
Foundation of Wisconsin
211 S. Paterson Street, Suite 100
Madison, WI 53703
(608) 409-3122
wisconservation.org