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Forest Management for Wildlife Habitat Demo Sites Clark County Demonstration Site

Clark County Demonstration Site

The Clark County Wildlife Habitat Demonstration Unit is part of the Clark County Forest. Clark County Forest manages 135,000 acres of land for a range of uses that include timber, wildlife habitat, recreation, and watershed protection. The CCWHD in part of a collection of wildlife habitat demonstration units where integration of timber harvest with habitat management is being highlighted.

Clark County Wildlife Habitat Demonstration Unit Management Map

Read more about the Clark County Fifteen Year Comprehensive Land Use Plan 2021-2035.

Fast Facts

  • Location: Parking area located at 44°45’28.2″N 90°52’58.7″W
  • Size: 200 acres
  • Accessibility: Open to the public year-round

Management Goals

  • Provide deer habitat to improve hunting experience for hunters.
  • Improve nesting and foraging habitat for neotropical migrant birds.
  • Create additional nesting and foraging habitat for grouse and woodcock.
  • Increase age-class and structural diversity.
  • Generate deer forage.
  • Regenerate a mix of oak and aspen.
  • Maintain cavity trees.

Focal Species

  • White-Tailed Deer
  • Ruffed grouse
  • Woodcock
  • Neotropical migrant birds
  • Mourning warbler
  • Wood thrush
  • Veery

Special Considerations

  • Care was taken to maintain ecological reserve areas of wetlands and streams.

Conditions Before Management

CCWHD was originally comprised of mature aspen, mature oak, and a riparian corridor. To learn more about the landscape before management began, see the columns below.

Mature Aspen

(52 acres)

The aspen stands were dominantly mature aspen with a mix of red maple and oak species.

Mature Oak

(139 acres)

The oak stand was a mature oak stand with a component of northern hardwoods (sugar and red maple and basswood) and pockets of aspen. 

Wetland & Riparian Corridor

(8 acres)

The wetland and riparian corridor was comprised of mixed species cover with components of aspen.

Management Practices Implemented

To incorporate elements of deer, game bird and neotropical migratory bird habitat, the forestry team focused on diversifying horizontal and vertical structure.

Aspen Coppice

(52 acres)

Aspen stands were coppiced with oak reserve trees. The oaks provide singing perches for neotropical migrant birds.

Oak Thinning

(136 acres thinned with 3 acre shelterwood)

The oak stand was thinned with a priority for reserve of white oak over red oak, where possible. Strong removal preference was used for mesic species to assist in maintenance of oak in the future regeneration of the site. Where pockets of aspen or established oak regeneration were present, group or patch selections were used to favor those species. A small shelterwood was completed in the center of the stand to develop additional pockets of young regeneration for cover. Blackberry bramble acts as a natural “fence” to protect oak regeneration. Future brush cutting will also aid in oak regeneration.

Maintain Wetland & Riparian Corridor

(8 acres)

No harvest was completed in these areas to provide and/or maintain pockets of escape cover for focal species. 

Structural Elements Created for Deer Habitat

Deer need areas of dense cover that allow for three main needs: escape from predators, locations for bedding, and cover for fawns. Additionally, these areas of cover also serve as breeding areas.

During winter in Wisconsin, extreme wind chill and snow depth can present issues for deer health. Protected areas to temporarily escape these conditions can be important for the deer population. These areas are referred to as “thermal cover” or “yarding areas.”
Examples of thermal cover or yarding areas:

  • Dense pockets of conifers like cedar or hemlock.
  • Topographically protected areas, such as coves with tree cover.
  • Dense cover of regenerating trees or frozen wetland pockets with dense vegetation.

Providing areas of thermal cover can either be achieved through preservation, such as keeping pockets of conifer cover, or through creation, such as cutting through pockets of rapidly regenerating aspen.

While deer food preferences change dramatically throughout the year, woody browse usually plays a constant role. During late spring and summer, deer feed more heavily on forbs and legumes with some use of nutritious grasses as well. During this time, there is often quite a bit of available forage for deer. As summer leads into fall, high-nutrient acorns and similar hard mast begin to play a greater role in their diet. In agricultural areas, crop residues play an important role during fall. After that resource is depleted, winter reliance on woody browse is quite heavy. Managing sites so they produce woody browse, native forbs, and legumes as well as hard mast will improve deer condition and carrying capacity for a property.

Structural Elements Created for Neotropical Migratory Bird Habitat 

Young forest provides both foraging locations for birds that use later successional habitat for nesting (such as Cerulean Warbler) and nesting habitat for some species (such as golden-winged and chestnut-sided warbler).   

While many birds use older forest for nesting cover on the ground (i.e., ovenbirds), in the canopy (i.e., scarlet tanager), in the shrubs or young regeneration (i.e., black-throated green warbler) or in cavities (i.e., great crested flycatchers), other species use it for foraging while nesting in younger forest (i.e., golden-winged warbler). Diversifying age structure through harvests that include group selections are often quite beneficial for increasing use of a broad range of bird species.

Reserve trees act as singing posts in young forests, as cavity nesting sites, and as mast producers (species dependent). Maintaining reserve trees adds a structural element for young forests but also retains an element that will contribute to stand diversity as the stands age. Retaining trees with developed cavities of a range of size and types will provide nesting locations for a range of species.

SITE MAP

PARTNERS

Thank you to the following for their support of this demonstration site: