A place where wolves howl and whooping cranes cavort
     You might not expect to find much wildlife in a place that has streets laid out in a grid pattern, with names like 7th Ave. N, 16th St. W and Speedway Rd., but the 48,000-acre Necedah National Wildlife Refuge has just such a road system – and at the same time is home to two packs of gray wolves, whooping cranes and the largest population anywhere of the endangered Karner Blue butterfly. 
    With 67 miles of public roads and limited number of marked hiking trails, the refuge is the perfect place for a drive-by look at spring wildflowers and emerging foliage as you watch for migrating birds and other wildlife, which the refuge has in abundance. More than 220 bird species have been seen at the refuge, as well as timber wolves, black bear, bobcats, fishers, porcupines, beaver and badgers. The refuge’s two wolf packs are the southernmost established wolf packs in the United States, according to Larry Wargowsky, refuge manager. 
    "We have a large block of land that is undeveloped, so a lot of the wildlife from northern Wisconsin is getting established here," he told us last fall.   
    With that in mind, I made the 45-minute drive to to the refuge on a recent evening to see if I could see some wolves or maybe even a bear, since they are much more prevalent in this part of the state this year. 
    I parked at the headquarters building (no one else was around) and hiked north for a ways, past Rynearson Pool No. 1 on the east to a high point east of Rynearson Pool No. 2, which was off to my west.  
    I never saw a wolf or a bear, but I did see three deer and several cranes that I couldn't identify in the twilight.  I'm still dying to see a wolf, and to see a whooping crane.  I can remember growing up in the 1950s and learning about whooping cranes in school when there were fewer than 20 surviving.  Now there are more than 400, still a very fragile number, but Wisconsin and the International Crane Foundation have played a big role in the comeback.
    Although it is easy to just drive through the refuge, for those who just can’t stay in the car, there are three short, well-marked hikes, too. Observation Tower Trail is only eight-tenths of a mile, and the tower is just a short walk from the parking area. Hikers can take a loop through hardwoods and pines, and if you’re there on a quiet day you might surprise a whitetail deer or a sunning garter snake along the way. Both the tower and a blind at the halfway point on the trail give the visitor a view of hundreds of acres of wetlands, where you can see a variety of ducks and geese and, if you’re lucky, maybe a trumpeter swan or even a whooping crane.     
    The 20-foot tower overlooks what is  Rynearson Pool 1, a favorite spot for migrating sandhill cranes during the fall. According to the trail guide, visitors may also see herons, bald eagles, owls, turkeys and the gray or timber wolf.
    The Pair Ponds trail makes a 1.3-mile loop around and across two small ponds known as potholes, surrounded by grasslands that make a good nesting site for ducks. A third trail, the Lupine Loop, is eight-tenths of a mile through a savannah that is home to numerous butterflies and birds, but the trail closes Sept. 15-Dec. 15 to insure that migrating waterfowl can rest undisturbed.     
    A new $6 million visitor center has been approved, which will expand the appeal of the refuge by including an exhibit hall and two trails with floating boardwalks to let visitors get out into the marsh more readily. The center is expected to be open in 2010. 
    The only restrooms on the refuge are in the office and visitor center, which is open Monday through Friday from 7:30 a.m. to 4 p.m., so visitors need to plan accordingly. The new facility is scheduled to be open on weekends, too, and will have restrooms available during normal refuge hours, from sunrise to sunset. There is no camping allowed at the refuge.

More information: Call the refuge at (608) 565-2551 for general information or visit the website www.fws.gov/midwest/necedah.
                             -- updated 12/10/09

Sunset at the refuge over the romantically named Rynearson Pool No. 2.  

 

A bridge crosses a creek along one of the hiking trails in Necedah National Wildlife Refuge.