Wisconsin Important Bird Areas

Conserving the most important places for birds

Upper Wisconsin River Wetlands-Pines

Site Description

This IBA is an area of extensive conifer wetlands and upland deciduous and mixed forests, mainly on Vilas County Forest lands.  Flat basins host extensive muskegs of sphagnum, leatherleaf, sedges, and scattered small black spruce, tamarack, and jack pine, as well as a nearly continuous corridor of alder thicket along the Wisconsin River, which drains the center of the site.  The barely rolling uplands have sandy soils and forests of white, red, and jack pine, aspen, and other hardwoods, with many “islands” of mature trees.

Ornithological Importance

This site is important to lowland conifer breeding birds including spruce grouse, black-backed woodpecker, Nashville warbler, and Connecticut warbler.  Deciduous and mixed forest species such as black-throated blue, black-throated green, Cape May, and Canada warblers also breed here.

Upper Wisconsin River Wetlands-Pines, photo by Andy Paulios

Upper Wisconsin River Wetlands-Pines, photo by Andy Paulios