By Norm Poulton
Ten miles away from my home near Tomahawk is a place called the Willow Flowage. On over 16,000 acres of land, the Willow Flowage encompasses 6,400 acres of water and 117 islands.
I spend a lot of time hiking around the flowage to watch the wildlife of the area. It is a great place for birding and animal observation. Eagles and ospreys are common here, along with migrating waterfowl such as cranes, and others. This is a place that people can go to get away from the noise of motorized vehicles and to enjoy the quiet and solitude.
The fact that there are lands like this that
have been set aside by a public program and will never be developed
is great for human beings, but it’s necessary for wildlife.
When I moved up to northern Wisconsin from the Lake Geneva area
sixteen years ago, I had never seen a wolf in the wild before.
I had heard wolves in Alaska and Canada, but I didn't imagine that
I’d see one here in Wisconsin. Then one night, a wolf crossed
the highway near my home. I couldn’t believe it.
 I started tracking a wolf called Lobo, and I tracked it for five years. I did that on my own for a while, and then about 12 years ago, the DNR started a volunteer tracking program, and I’ve been working with them ever since.
Three packs make their home in the Willow Flowage area: the Little Rice River Pack, the Swamp Creek Pack, and the North Willow Pack. Wolf populations have been increasing slowly in the years since I began watching them, and it is estimated that there are between 465 and 500 wolves living in Wisconsin this year. But even as wolf populations increase, we lose 25 percent of adults from year to year, and among the young, only 28 percent survive.
There are people who are anti-wolf who will tell you that wolf populations are going to explode, but that is just not true, as there is only so much territory to go around. If you know northern Wisconsin, you can see that our northern wild lands are being fragmented like never before. Wolves would need far more natural habitat than is left in Wisconsin to ever reach levels of years long past. We need to maintain the Stewardship Fund to permanently protect more wild areas like the Willow Flowage, not just for our enjoyment but to save critical habitat for all of our wildlife. There is something wonderful about seeing wild creatures in their natural habitat undisturbed by human intrusion. To hear a wolf howling in a natural setting is something you cannot put a dollar sign on.
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The great blue heron rookery on Lake 26 in Burnett County houses nearly 100 nests. Now that the nine acres surrounding the rookery have been protected, herons are expected to make their home there for another 50 to 100 years or longer. Preservation of the rookery property was made possible through the efforts of West Wisconsin Land Trust, local landowners, the Wisconsin DNR, and a $67,000 grant from the Stewardship Fund.
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