Wisconsin North Woods Rapidly Losing Native Species, Biodiversity

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Biologists at UW-Madison have studied sites in a 1950s plant survey of Wisconsin's North Woods and found a changed world. Tramping the same parcels that famed UW-Madison botanist John T. Curtis explored 50 years ago, modern-day botany researchers have found that native species are disappearing at an alarming rate and invasive species are altering the landscape.

The findings appear in the June issue of the journal Conservation Biology. The study was done by UW-Madison botanist Don Waller and botany students Tom Rooney and David Rogers.

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They discovered:

On average, each site surveyed had lost nearly 20 percent of its native plants from 50 years ago.

Species diversity declined at 45 of the 62 sites surveyed.

Invasive species showed up on two-thirds of the sites resurveyed. Fifty years ago, they appeared only on one site.

Areas faring the worst are those where hunting is restricted, such as Brunet Island State Park in northwest Wisconsin. A native plant called the rosy twisted stalk had declined by 80 percent there, largely because of heavy deer browsing."

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http://www.madison.com/wisconsinstatejournal/local/76043.php