Wisconsin's Prairie Chickens
History
Greater prairie chickens are unique to the grasslands
of North America. They are found nowhere else. These birds once
were abundant in the "New World" and were widely hunted for food and sport.
In 1853, shipments of game birds via rail to city markets, including prairie
chickens, were measured in tons.
As
farm activity and small settlements began to push westward into the prairies and
plains of middle America, the grasslands were changed. At first much of
the activity benefited the birds. The clearing of forests created new
habitat, and the transition period with a mix of both agriculture and native
grasslands tended to favor the birds. Things soon changed as market
hunting increased and as agriculture started to dominate the entire landscape. A
species closely related to the prairie chicken, the heath hen, could not survive
these changes and died out with the loss of heath and peat bogs.
The
greater prairie chicken proved more resilient; perhaps changes to its habitat
were less severe. In time, the sheer amount of open grassland lost was too great
and the market hunting too destructive. A seemingly inexhaustible supply
of prairie chickens began to dwindle.
Scarcities were noted by the 1850s and, in Wisconsin, the
first game laws were passed to limit the open season for prairie chickens to
about three months. In 1905 and 1907, new laws restricted hunting further,
and, by 1917, the state had a four-year moratorium on the hunting of this bird.
The ban lasted eight years in Portage County, home for what was to become
Wisconsin's premier greater prairie chicken habitat management effort, the Buena
Vista Grassland.
From 1921 until the last prairie chickens were hunted in
Wisconsin in 1955, the state allowed only short open hunting periods. By
then, remnants of the species were narrowing their range to areas of central
Wisconsin where the landscape still offered a chance for survival.
Buena Vista Grassland
The Buena Vista Grassland and interconnecting Leola
Marsh, located in Portage and Adams counties, consist of the best and most
extensive prairie chicken habitat left in Wisconsin. Originally the area
was a tamarack swamp with extensive portions of open marsh and alder shrubs.
In the late 1800's the timber was cut and the marsh burned repeatedly.
Later in the 1900's the area was drained by several ditches that crossed the
marsh.
After drainage, about 1/4 of the area was cultivated, 1/4
remained wet marsh or brush, and the rest was grassland habitat.
Agriculture failed because of the short growing season, severe frost, and soil
chemistry problems that were difficult to remedy at the time. As a result
of the severe frosts, bluegrass took over, leaving ample cover in the
fields for chickens since only the heads of the plants were harvested.
Eventually, the bluegrass market failed because of strong market competition
from other countries.
The next major land use was cattle grazing which can be
beneficial to prairie chickens as long as there is no overgrazing.
Recently, overhead irrigation has become popular in the area which, on a
large scale, may be incompatible and harm prairie chicken habitat.
Land Acquisition Program
Study
of prairie chickens at Buena Vista Grassland was started by the
Hamerstroms in 1935. The Hamerstroms' book, "Guide to Prairie Chicken
Management", was published in 1957. It suggested acquiring land in the
area in an "ecological scatter pattern." This scattered block pattern
integrated grasslands into the farming activities, providing nest-brood cover
and wide open spaces. The pattern took advantage of existing private
lands. The first land set aside for prairie chicken habitat had already
been acquired by
Dory Vallier and Gordy Kummer in 1954.
Two major organizations,
the Prairie Chicken Foundation and the Society of Tympanuchus Cupido Pinnatus,
Ltd., were formed to acquire land for prairie chicken habitat. Together,
theses two groups obtained 12,000 acres of land. Recently, the Wisconsin
DNR purchased the land for close to $1 million.
