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Phone: 608-565-2551
V/TTY: 800-947-3529
Address:
N11385 Headquarters Road
Necedah, WI 54646
Visitor Center Hours:
6 days a week, 7:30am - 4:00pm, Closed Sundays.
Closed December 24-26, 31 and January 1-2, 2012 to observe federal holidays.
Visitor Center trails and the refuge are open sunrise to sunset.
After-hours bathrooms are available on the southwest end of the visitor center.
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Reintroductions & Whooping Cranes
Fisher
Some reintroduced species found their way to Necedah National Wildlife Refuge. The fisher (large member of weasel family) is one such species.
Fishers from New York and Minnesota were release in northern Wisconsin between 1956 and 1967. This was a cooperative project between the U.S. Forest Service and Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources. The fisher population expanded south and by the mid-1990s fisher tracks were found on fresh snow in the refuge. Although fisher trapping isn't permitted in Necedah National Wildlife Refuge, the central Wisconsin fisher population has increase to the point that limited take through trapping is allowed.
Wolf
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Much like the fisher, timber wolves reintroduced themselves to Necedah National Wildlife Refuge. Wolves were seen on the refuge by Refuge Manager Burns Carter, and his family
into the early 1940s. Wolf populations continued to decline and are assumed to have disappeared from
Wisconsin by the 1950s. Wolves began wondering back into Wisconsin along the
Minnesota and Michigan borders in the 1970s. |
Wolves from Michigan and Minnesota along with newly formed packs in Wisconsin supplied surplus wolves to expand southward. The return of wolves to Necedah National Wildlife Refuge occurred in January of 1996 when wolf tracks were confirmed in the middle of the refuge. Within three years, the refuge staff confirmed that a pack had formed and was reproducing. The status of wolves on the refuge is constantly changing as dispersing animals come and go. Generally speaking, two wolf packs usually use the refuge and number between six to ten adults per pack.
Karner Blue Butterfly
No one knows the history of Karner blue butterflies on the Necedah National Wildlife Refuge because no one looked for them prior to the early 1990s. The benefits of the refuge's savanna restorations where quickly realized when Karner blue butterfly surveys were initiated in 1993. All but three of the refuge's Karner blue butterfly populations occur within the restorations that took place in the 1960s. The other two occur within areas that were burned by wildfires; one in the 1950s the other in the 1960s. |
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Restoring Canada Goose
| It is nearly impossible to imagine Wisconsin without nesting Canada geese. However, the precipitous decline of nesting Canada geese in the state was the inspiration for Necedah National Wildlife Refuge's first wildlife reintroduction. During 1939, refuge employee, Burns Carter, hand raised forty-three Canada geese
near Sprague-Mather Flowage. The geese came from Bear River Migratory Bird
Refuge in Utah. The geese were eventually released on Sprague-Mather Flowage and
observed nesting on the refuge in subsequent years. |
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Reintroducing Turkey
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Wisconsin's first successful turkey reintroduction occurred at Necedah National Wildlife Refuge. This reintroduction took place between 1954 and 1957. During that period, more than 700 game farm-raised turkeys from Pennsylvania were released. The reintroduction had some setbacks including a disease (blackhead disease)
outbreak in 1958 and die-offs from sever winters in the late 1950s and late
1960s. |
This population rebounded from the setbacks to the point that hunting seasons were held in 1966, 1967, and 1968. During the mid-1960s birds from this population were used for unsuccessful reintroductions in eight other Wisconsin counties. The central Wisconsin turkey population persisted in isolation through the 1970s and 1980s. In 1974 wild-caught turkeys from Missouri were released in Vernon County. This reintroduction was very successful and turkeys from this population quickly expanded across the state. The expanding population reached the Necedah National Wildlife Refuge in the late 1980s. It is unclear if the "Missouri" turkeys mixed with the out-competed "Pennsylvania" birds. Regardless, the turkey population moved through central Wisconsin and continuous its northward expansion to the present.
Mallard Release
The North American mallard population dropped dramatically between 1960 and 1967. In an attempt to increase the number of nesting mallards on Necedah National Wildlife Refuge, 2,952 captively-raised mallards were released in 1968. This was the refuge's third wildlife reintroduction project.
Costume-rearing Gets Its Start At Necedah
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Wildlife reintroduction took a strange turn in the 1980s when Rob Horawich conducted a sandhill crane reintroduction at Necedah National Wildlife Refuge. The strange part of this project was that Horawich decided to act as the cranes' parent. This project was not only successful it laid the foundation for all future wildlife reintroduction involving costume rearing. Examples include three subsequent reintroductions (trumpeter swans, sandhill cranes, and whooping cranes) on Necedah National Wildlife Refuge. |
| **NOTE: Currently a costume-rearing technique is in use at Necedah known as Direct Autumn Release; a technique used in addition to the primary ultralight aircraft-led technique for whooping cranes. |
Trumpeter Swan Reintroduction
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Trumpeter swans were released on Necedah National Wildlife Refuge between 1994 & 1997. The reintroduction involved many cooperators including the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, Milwaukee County Zoo, and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. |
During 1994, cygnets (young swans) were imprinted on decoys painted to look like adult swans. Cygnets were then transported to three release locations on the refuge. During the day, the cygnets followed the imprint decoy that was towed by a handler in a camouflaged, mobile muskrat hut. The handler's job was to teach the cygnets where to eat and how to avoid predators. From 1995 to 1997, hard-releases of 1 ½ year old swans occurred on the refuge. These birds were raised in isolation at the Milwaukee County Zoo, transported to the refuge, and released. The state-wide population of trumpeter swans continues to increase and descendents of released swans nest on Necedah National Wildlife Refuge to this day.
Costume-rearing Migratory Sandhill Cranes
| Expanding on its successful sandhill migration in 2000, the Whooping Crane Eastern Partnership (WCEP) attempted a whooping crane migration in 2001. This project was building on the experiment of Kent Clegg and Ultra Air Research who migrated whooping cranes from Idaho to New Mexico in 1997. WCEP completed its first migration with whooping cranes in 2001. Like the sandhill cranes a year before them, the whooping cranes returned on their own the following spring. In following years more whooping cranes were lead to Florida and just like their wild sandhill cranes from the area, most return to Wisconsin while some summer in Michigan. |
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A Journey of Survival
About 1,400 whooping cranes existed in 1860. Their population declined because of hunting and habitat loss until 1941, when it reached an all-time low of just 15 birds. In 1967 the species was officially listed as "Endangered" by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and offered protection under the Endangered Species Act. Since then, the population has slowly increased so that currently there are over 500 whooping cranes in North America.
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In December of 2001, the Gulf coast of Florida witnessed the arrival of an experimental population of the world's rarest crane species: the Whooping Crane. After more than a century of silence, eastern North America welcomed the return of these migrating cranes to the Chassahowitzka National Wildlife Refuge in Florida. The following spring, in 2002, the cranes returned to their wetland habitat at the Necedah National Wildlife Refuge. This historic migration represents the culmination of efforts on behalf of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Whooping Crane Eastern Partnership in the recovery of this endangered species.
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