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.

 

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.