Tom's Blog

Saturday, March 18, 2017

Prairie remnants along Wisconsin highways

The original Wisconsin highways were cut through vast acreages of remnant prairies. Of course, once a highway is created, development follows.

The information below came from the Wisconsin DOT web site, which can be reached at this link. I reformatted the table to make it more legible.


County
Hwy.
Name
 Begin
End
Length
(Miles)
Side of Road
Adjacent
Owner
Burnette
STH 77
Danbury Prairie
Lakes Rd./Riverside Cutoff Rd.
Deer Lake Rd./Bear Lake Rd.
2.5
S
WisDOT
Columbia
STH 16
Lewiston Prairie
Wolfram Rd.
Weyh Rd.
1.55
S
CP-Amtrak
Dane
STH 69
Belleville Prairie
Old 69
CTH A (E)
1.65
E
WisDOT
Dane
USH14
Cross Plains Prairie
0.4 mile W of Kahl Rd.
0.3 mile E of CTH KP
4.15
S
WisDOT
Dunn
USH 12
Elk Mound Prairie
970th St. -0.75 mile
Vollendorf Rd. +0.6 mile
4.05
N
UP
Dunn
STH 170
Wheeler Prairie
CTH F -3.5 miles
Morton Rd. +0.35 mile
7.15
N
CP
Eau Claire
STH 27
Augusta Prairie
CTH V
CTH SD
1.9
E&W
WisDOT
Eau Claire
STH 37
Eau Claire Prairie
37/94 interchange
37/94 interchange
All
WisDOT

Eau Claire
USH 12
Fall Creek Prairie
CTH D
CTH AF +0.7 mile
8
N
CP
Grant
STH 133
Muscoda Prairie
Johnson St.
Leaches Crossing Rd.
18.5
N&S
WisDOT
Jackson
STH 27
Fall Hall Prairie
Mills Rd./Fall Hall Rd.
7th St./Castle Mound Rd.
6.3
E&W
WDNR
Jackson
STH 95
Hixton Prairie
Sand Prairie Rd.
CTH FF +0.6 mile
1.35
S
Wis. Central
Jackson
USH 12
Millston Prairie
Browns Crossing Rd.
Woodland Rd. +1.4 miles
4.8
N
UP
Jackson
USH10
Osseo Prairie
CTH R (N)
Shaky Ln.
5.3
N
WDNR
Jefferson
STH 59
Scuppernong Prairie
1/2 mile east of Co. line
1/2 mile west of Co. line
1 S
WisDOT

Juneau
USH 12
Lyndon Station
Industrial Ave.
Southern Rd. +1.35 miles
2.75
N

Juneau
USH 12
New Lisbon Remnant
O'Connor Rd./6th Ave.
1.2 miles E of 6th Ave.
1.2
S
CP-Amtrak
Monroe
STH 16
Sparta-Tomah Prairie
CTH A -1.2 miles
Hazel Ave. +0.2 mile
6.8
N&S
WisDOT
Portage
USH 10
Amherst Prairie
Custer Rd./CTH T
Lake Rd./Morgan Rd.
7.4
N&S
Wis. Central
Portage
STH 54
Rapids-Plover Prairie
90th St. +1/2 mile
Intersection with RR
6.5
S
Wis. Central
Racine
STH 11
Barnes Prairie
66th Rd.
Old STH 11
2.3
N
CP
Richland
USH 14
Lone Rock Prairie
0.4 mi. W of Whispering Pines
STH 130 (N)
4.5
N&S
Richland Co.

I don't guarantee that all of these remnants still exist, although even without restoration work or burns a few more vigorous prairie species may still be present. I have only been to a few of them. I have been watching the remnant west of Cross Plains for many years, where prairie dock and a few other species have been able to hold their own among onslaughts of wild parsnip and spotted knapweed.

Note that the data are only from Wisconsin or U.S. "numbered" highways. There are lots more remnants on county and town roads.

If you visit any of these sites, park carefully and keep an eye out for traffic!

1 Comments:

Blogger Michael Nied said...

Is there a way to report smaller prairie remnants and protect them? I live in La Crosse County and I know of at least 4 small patches of remnant prairie along my drive home.

March 20, 2017 at 6:26 AM  

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