Guide to Significant Wildlife Habitat - Door County Web Map
Guide to Significant Wildlife Habitat - Door County Web Map
Guide to Significant Wildlife Habitat - Door County Web Map
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Appendix D<br />
Natural Areas – A Definition and Status Report<br />
Natural Area: A working definition<br />
A natural area is a site largely unaltered by modern human activity, where native vegetation is<br />
distributed in naturally occurring patterns. These patterns change over time under the influences of natural<br />
processes such as winds<strong>to</strong>rms, drought, flooding cycles, and wildfires, as well as interactions between<br />
plants and wildlife that inhabit or periodically use a site. A natural area may be host <strong>to</strong> one or more<br />
natural community types such as boreal forest, open bog, talus forest or calcareous fen, the existence and<br />
extent of which are determined by fac<strong>to</strong>rs such as climate, soil composition, and a site's unique his<strong>to</strong>ry.<br />
Many natural areas do include some evidence of modern human activity, such as small areas of former<br />
croplands in a site largely dominated by native prairie, or occasional decayed stumps in a forest that was<br />
logged long ago. However, natural areas are characterized by being primarily in a natural state, with only<br />
minor evidence of disturbance from modern human activity.<br />
Where natural areas are found<br />
Natural areas occur on private as well as public land, and across political jurisdictions. They may<br />
be found in designated preserves, within existing parks, or may be interspersed throughout developed and<br />
managed environments such as farms, ranches, commercial and industrial areas, and residential<br />
communities.<br />
How natural areas fit in<strong>to</strong> the larger landscape<br />
Of course, <strong>to</strong>day's landscape looks very different from the way it looked 150 years ago. Many<br />
natural processes, such as large-scale fires and the presence of large herds of bison, are no longer present<br />
on most of the landscape. Natural areas <strong>to</strong>day, ranging in size from a few acres <strong>to</strong> several thousand acres,<br />
are generally within larger landscapes that have been highly altered. Because all natural areas are an<br />
integral part of the larger landscape in which they exist, it is important <strong>to</strong> pay careful attention <strong>to</strong> wise<br />
stewardship of adjacent and nearby lands.<br />
All natural areas may be considered "open space", but many types of open space are not<br />
natural areas. Golf courses, baseball fields, pine plantations, parks with maintained lawns that are<br />
landscaped with exotic species, all could be described as open space, but are places where natural<br />
features have been partially <strong>to</strong> <strong>to</strong>tally displaced. While some such areas offer a degree of habitat <strong>to</strong><br />
native plants and wildlife, others have been highly altered, leading <strong>to</strong> dramatic declines in diversity<br />
of species.<br />
In many parts of the state, it is often not practical or even possible <strong>to</strong> protect natural areas large<br />
enough <strong>to</strong> include the natural patterns that once existed on the landscape. Nevertheless, even small natural<br />
areas are important, and sometimes represent the only opportunity <strong>to</strong> protect natural communities or rare<br />
species in an area. For example, a ten-acre prairie in western Wisconsin that is surrounded by croplands<br />
bears little resemblance <strong>to</strong> the huge expanse of prairie that once existed on the landscape. However, if it<br />
were of good quality, it would still be considered a natural area.<br />
The surrounding land could be planted <strong>to</strong> native prairie using seeds from the natural area, or could<br />
be kept in other kinds of open space that might help buffer the land from activities that could lessen the<br />
integrity of the site. Similarly, a forty-acre old-growth forest is a natural area, even if it is surrounded by<br />
recent clearcuts. Allowing the clearcut forest <strong>to</strong> regenerate naturally would be one alternative that would<br />
help buffer the natural area and eventually add <strong>to</strong> its size.<br />
Appendix D – Natural Areas: A Definition &Status Report 179