Flora and Fauna
Remote areas of uplands, bogs, wetlands, muskegs, rivers, streams, pine savannas, meadows and many glacial lakes are found throughout these forests. Native tree species include Acer saccharum (sugar maple), Acer rubrum (red maple), and Acer spicatum (mountain maple), white, red, and black oaks, aspen, beech, basswood, sumac, and paper, yellow, and river birch. Coniferous trees, including red, white,and jack pine, white spruce and balsam fir are abundant due to a dense second growth. Eastern hemlock are also present as this is the westernmost limit of its distribution. Tamarack/black spruce bogs, cedar swamps and alder thickets are common. Blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, cranberries, serviceberries, ferns, mosses, cattails, and mushrooms also grow here, as well as many more shrubs and wildflowers.
White-tailed Deer are numerous and many are hit by motorists on roads in northern Wisconsin year-round. Black bears, foxes, raccoons, rabbits, beavers, otters, squirrels, chipmunks, pheasants, grouse and wild turkeys are popular game in these northwoods. Elk have been reintroduced and there have been sightings of moose, marten. http://dnr.wi.gov/org/land/er/publications/pdf/raremammal.pdf] Bird species include northern cardinal, blue jay, gray jay, common raven, boreal and black-capped chickadees, black-backed and pileated woodpeckers, red-winged blackbirds, owls, ducks, common loons, bald eagles, evening grosbeaks, red and white-winged crossbills and many species of thrushes, sparrows and warblers. Brook trout, rainbow trout, and brown trout are found in many miles of excellent streams. Walleye, small and largemouth bass, crappie, northern pike, and many species of panfish make the area's lakes famous for freshwater fishing. A record muskellunge, Wisconsin's state fish, was caught in these waters. The beauty, heritage, and opportunities of these majestic forests draw thousands of tourists to the Chequamegon-Nicolet annually.
These national forests are best known for recreation, including camping, hiking, fishing, cross country skiing and snowmobiling.
The Chequamegon National Forest was also home to one of the two extremely low frequency antennae in the United States.
Read more about this topic: Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest
Famous quotes containing the words flora and/or fauna:
“A man’s interest in a single bluebird is worth more than a complete but dry list of the fauna and flora of a town.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“The whole fauna of human fantasies, their marine vegetation, drifts and luxuriates in the dimly lit zones of human activity, as though plaiting thick tresses of darkness. Here, too, appear the lighthouses of the mind, with their outward resemblance to less pure symbols. The gateway to mystery swings open at the touch of human weakness and we have entered the realms of darkness. One false step, one slurred syllable together reveal a man’s thoughts.”
—Louis Aragon (1897–1982)