National Wildlife Refuge
|N11385 Headquarters Rd
Necedah, WI 54646 - 7531
Phone Number: 608-565-2551
|Visit the Refuge's Web Site:
|The Karner blue butterfly is just one of the endangered species that call Necedah Refuge "home."|
Necedah National Wildlife Refuge
Whooping cranes, wolves, Karner blue butterflies, and white-tailed deer call Necedah National Wildlife Refuge "home." Ringed bog hunter dragonflies live in sedge meadows, flying squirrels in upland hardwood timber. Trumpeter swans inhabit the marshes, and badgers the savanna. The habitat mosaic, maintained by prescribed burning, seasonal mowing, and timber clearing, attracts a wide range of wildlife. Each species and habitat is monitored and maintained to insure overall vigor of the ecosystem.
The 43,656-acre refuge was established in 1939 as a refuge and breeding ground for migratory birds and other wildlife.
Getting There . . .
Located in central Wisconsin, Necedah National Wildlife Refuge is 180 miles southeast of Minneapolis, Minnesota, and 150 miles northwest of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The refuge lies north of Highway 21 and west of Highway 80, with all but a few acres in Juneau County.
To reach the main entrance and office complex, travel 15 miles east on Highway 21 from Interstate 94 at Tomah, Wisconsin; or about three miles west on Highway 21 from Necedah, Wisconsin. Turn north onto Headquarters Road and travel about two miles to the headquarters.
Get Google map and directions to this refuge/WMD from a specified address:
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Biologists actively manage the refuge through water level manipulation, controlled grassland burning, and forest thinning.
Biologists adjust the water level on impoundments, drawing down the water in the spring and re-flooding in the fall. This cycle of drying and flooding increases the growth of plants that feed migratory waterfowl and shorebirds.
Controlled, or prescribed, burning maintains a diverse healthy ecosystem of wet prairie, upland grasses, and oak savanna. Prescribed fire on the refuge also reduces the potential of catastrophic wildland fire where wildland meets residential development. Approximately 2,000 acres are burned annually, mostly in the spring.
Forest thinning on the refuge brings back the native landscape. Before settlers drained wetlands and attempted farming, the landscape in central Wisconsin was open marshes or prairie with patches of oak savanna. Forest management is critical to maintain habitat for rare and endangered species, like the Karner blue butterfly.