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Natural History / Travel / Wisconsin



Wisconsin's Natural Communities
How to Recognize Them, Where to Find Them
Randy Hoffman


Cattails grow in a marsh, pitcher plants grow in a bog, jewelweed grows in a swamp, right? Do sandhill cranes live among sandy hills? What is a pine barrens, an oak opening, a calcareous fen?

Wisconsin's Natural Communities is an invitation to discover, explore, and understand Wisconsin's richly varied natural environment, from your backyard or neighborhood park to stunning public preserves.

Part 1 of the book explains thirty-three distinct types of natural communities in Wisconsin—their characteristic trees, beetles, fish, lichens, butterflies, reptiles, mammals, wildflowers—and the effects of geology, climate, and historical events on these habitats. Part 2 describes and maps fifty natural areas on public lands that are outstanding examples of these many different natural communities: Crex Meadows, Horicon Marsh, Black River Forest, Maribel Caves, Whitefish Dunes, the Blue Hills, Avoca Prairie, the Moquah Barrens and Chequamegon Bay, the Ridges Sanctuary, Cadiz Springs, Devil's Lake, and many others.

Intended for anyone who has a love for the natural world, this book is also an excellent introduction for students. And, it provides landowners, public officials, and other stewards of our environment with the knowledge to recognize natural communities and manage them for future generations.

Randy Hoffman is a natural areas management specialist with the Bureau of Endangered Resources, Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources. A past president of the Wisconsin Society for Ornithology, he was the first person in Wisconsin to record sightings of more than 300 species of birds in one calendar year. He lives in Waunakee, WI.

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cover of Hoffman's book has four photos of Wisconsin's natural environments

FIRST PAPERBACK EDITION
July 2002

464 pp. 6 x 9
16 color photos, 34 b/w photos, 71 maps, 58 illus.    

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Paper $27.95 s
ISBN
978-0-299-17084-4
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