Yellow River Wildlife Area

Yellow River Wildlife Area is a 2,188 acre property contiguous to Buckhorn State Park and Buckhorn Wildlife Area located on Castle Rock Lake in east-central Juneau County. The property lies within the transition zone of northern conifer-hardwood forests and southern hardwood forests.

Prior to logging in 1900, the original vegetation was pine and oak savanna. The Area contains a floodplain forest of silver maple, green ash, swamp white oak and river birch. Canopy associates are cottonwood, red oak, box elder, yellowbud hickory, red maple, American elm, basswood and black ash. The low sandy ridges, slightly higher than the surrounding floodplain, support white oak, bur oak, shagbark hickory, black cherry and white pine. The shrub layer varies in density from sparse to impenetrable. Common species include buttonbush, gray dogwood, red-osier dogwood, prickly ash and winterberry. Near-level topography and sandy soils characterize the Yellow River watershed. The river meanders and turns frequently creating oxbow lakes, cut-off and running sloughs and small ponds within the floodplain.

The Area is managed to provide quality public hunting, wildlife viewing and other compatible recreational opportunities. It is also managed to protect, restore and maintain rare or unique ecosystems, particularly aquatic habitats, bottomland hardwoods and barrens. The vegetative management objectives for this Area focus on maintaining a floodplain forest community, and maintaining jack pine and oak on appropriate upland sites, and converting a portion of the Area to barrens in accordance with local site conditions. The management of this Area is integrated with the adjacent state park and state natural areas to provide high ecological and public use benefits.

For additional area maps visit Buckhorn State Park’s destination page.

Source: WDNR