Guide to Significant Wildlife Habitat - Door County Web Map

Appendix B
Door County’s Rare Species
& Natural Communities
The state of Wisconsin is replete with natural beauty. Our state contains a large diversity of native
plant communities ranging from eastern deciduous, northern coniferous and boreal forests to prairies and
savannas. Wisconsin's glacial past left the soils that support these diverse communities, including a
legacy of aquatic features including bogs, lakes, spring ponds, and wetlands. These landscapes host an
array of native species, many of which we observe and cherish while others are yet to be discovered and
studied.
People are part of the Wisconsin landscape as well. The natural wealth of our state has provided
generations of farmers with fertile soils for crops. The northern and southern forests are a key resource for
the building and manufacturing economy so important to the livelihood of many of Wisconsin's citizens.
The enjoyment that people receive from outdoor activities, such as hunting and fishing, hiking and
camping, and observing nature, is part of our culture. Thus, the ties that bind people to nature are diverse
and deep.
But much of this natural splendor has been lost through human use of the landscape and its
natural resources. How much of the remainder can and should be preserved? This is one of the biggest
questions facing the people of Wisconsin and Door County today. In order to make decisions about what,
where, and how much can and should be saved, we must first know what remains, where it is, and
whether or not something threatens its continued existence. Wisconsin’s Natural Heritage Inventory
(NHI) is one of the critical tools that can be used in making these decisions.
The NHI is a statewide inventory of known locations and conditions of rare and endangered
species. Users need to recognize that parts of the state have not yet been inventoried. Thus an "absence of
evidence is not evidence of absence". Nor does the presence of one element imply that other elements
were surveyed for but not found.
Despite these limitations, the NHI is the state's most comprehensive database on biodiversity and
is widely used. In most cases, locations for species and natural communities that are tracked in the NHI
are available down to a township level. The exceptions are those species whose locations are considered
to be sensitive. Their locations are available down to a county level.
Wisconsin’s Natural Heritage Inventory program’s full-time staff of biologists, as part of an
international network, conduct inventories, identify rare species, and describe natural community
occurrences. These are the individuals who endure tired feet and irritating insect bites to search the state
for rare species and their habitats. A variety of part-time and temporary employees, other science
professionals, and volunteers supplement data collection efforts.
Appendix B – Door County’s Rare Species & Natural Communities 159