How wild is the north woods? Not very, biologists say

Biologists have constructed a new map for the north woods of Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan that they say reflects how “wild” ecological conditions are across the region.

Their map, published this week in the Natural Areas Journal, is based on several geographic databases and takes into account forest cover, similarity to original forest conditions, public ownership, population density, road density, and an area’s likelihood of supporting wolves.

The resulting map shows that less than 6 percent of the region surveyed met all five wildness criteria.

Tom Rooney, a co-author of the study and a UW–Madison botanist, says: “Conservation biologists have grown increasingly concerned with population expansion and continuing development in the north woods. Human activities are fragmenting forests and reducing the wild conditions many plants and animals need. This map both reveals the wilder areas we have left and can serve as a blueprint to promote restoring more wild conditions across our region.”

The biologists say a key finding is that many wild areas in the region remain small and isolated, preventing the easy movement of wildlife across the region. Not surprisingly, all their measures of wildness were highly correlated with each other. The map, they say, can also serve as a baseline for future studies of the region.

The study was supported in part by the Superior Wilderness Action Network and produced at UW–Madison’s Land Information and Computer Graphics Facility.