Paul Olson State Wildlife Area

Site Description

This 1,650 acre property in central Wisconsin is one of the four core management areas for greater prairie-chicken. The flat, largely agricultural landscape contains pastures, row crops, oldfield, and upland shrub. Sedge meadow, shrub swamp, and woodland also are found.

Ornithological Importance

Olson contains the second-largest population of greater prairie-chicken in the state, and functions as a key property in facilitating dispersal of prairie-chickens between the Buena Vista/Leola area and the rest of the prairie-chicken range to the north. Other species of grassland birds, such as sedge wren, clay-colored sparrow, savannah sparrow, vesper sparrow, bobolink, and eastern meadowlark, are found here. The site also hosts small numbers of bitterns, herons, and rails.

Photo Credit: Andy Paulios