09184 - Wheeler Lake Islands

Wheeler Lake Islands encompasses 5 acres of lowland terrain within the Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest, centered on two small islands—Deer Island and Virgin Island—that rise to approximately 1,200 feet within the North Branch Oconto River watershed. The area's hydrology is defined by Knowles Creek and its connection to the North Branch Oconto River, which flows through a complex of wetland features including an open bog, alder thicket, sedge meadow, and emergent marsh. Water movement through this landscape is slow and deliberate, pooling in shallow basins and filtering through organic soils before draining northward into the larger river system.

The islands and surrounding wetlands support a mosaic of distinct forest and wetland communities shaped by moisture and elevation gradients. Higher ground on the islands supports Northern Dry-Mesic Forest dominated by red pine (Pinus resinosa) and sugar maple (Acer saccharum), with eastern hemlock (Tsuga canadensis) and yellow birch (Betula alleghaniensis) present in the understory. Transitional areas grade into Northern Mesic Forest, while lower elevations and saturated soils support Northern Wet Forest, Alder Thicket, and Northern Sedge Meadow communities. In these wetter zones, leather-leaf (Chamaedaphne calyculata) and American woolly-fruit sedge (Carex lasiocarpa) dominate the shrub and herbaceous layers, with tussock sedge (Carex stricta) and blue joint grass (Calamagrostis canadensis) forming dense mats across the meadow floor. Emergent marsh vegetation includes northern blue flag iris (Iris versicolor) and white water-lily (Nymphaea odorata), rooted in the shallow waters of Wheeler Lake and connected wetlands.

The aquatic and terrestrial food webs here are tightly linked. Walleye (Sander vitreus), northern pike (Esox lucius), and largemouth bass (Micropterus nigricans) occupy the lake and deeper channels, while rusty crayfish (Faxonius rusticus) inhabit the substrate, supporting both fish predators and wading birds. Black terns (Chlidonias niger) hunt insects over open water, and common loons (Gavia immer) dive for fish in deeper basins. Bald eagles (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) patrol from above, while sandhill cranes (Antigone canadensis) wade through sedge meadows and shallow marshes. The federally endangered gray wolf (Canis lupus) ranges through the forest canopy and understory, and the monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus), proposed for federal threatened status, migrates through the area, relying on milkweed and other nectar sources in forest openings and meadow edges.

A visitor moving through these islands experiences distinct transitions in forest structure and soundscape. Walking from higher ground on Deer Island through Northern Dry-Mesic Forest, the canopy opens gradually as elevation drops and moisture increases, revealing the dense understory of the alder thicket. The sound of water becomes audible—first as distant flow in Knowles Creek, then as the subtle movement of water through sedge meadow. Emerging into the open bog or sedge meadow, the landscape opens dramatically, with distant views across Wheeler Lake and the North Branch Oconto River valley. The call of a sandhill crane or the sharp dive of a black tern punctuates the wetland soundscape. Returning to forested ground, the transition is equally marked: the canopy closes, light dims, and the forest floor shifts from wet peat to drier mineral soil, with bunchberry (Cornus canadensis) and wild sarsaparilla (Aralia nudicaulis) appearing in the understory.

The Menominee are the oldest continuous inhabitants of this region, with ancestral ties to the Oconto River watershed dating back thousands of years. Their traditional territory once encompassed approximately 10 million acres, including the lands surrounding Wheeler Lake. The name "Oconto" derives from the Menominee word for "black bass" or "place of the pickerel," reflecting the area's importance for fishing. The Ojibwe established a major spiritual and economic center on Madeline Island in Chequamegon Bay approximately 400 years ago. The Potawatomi, part of the Council of Three Fires with the Ojibwe and Odawa, moved into northeastern Wisconsin in the 17th century. The shallow lakes and wetlands here provided critical habitat for harvesting wild rice, fishing for sturgeon, bass, and pickerel, and hunting waterfowl and large mammals. Indigenous groups used the region's diverse timber—white cedar, hemlock, and birch—for constructing wigwams and birchbark canoes. Archaeological evidence, including Old Copper culture sites near the Oconto River dating back roughly 6,000 years, is associated with the ancestors of the Menominee. Through a series of treaties in the mid-19th century, including the Treaty of 1854, these lands including Wheeler Lake were ceded to the United States. The Menominee were relocated to a permanent reservation along the Wolf and Oconto Rivers, though their total land base was drastically reduced from millions of acres to approximately 235,000 acres. Today, eleven American Indian tribes retain hunting, fishing, and gathering rights in this treaty-ceded territory.

The region surrounding Wheeler Lake was heavily logged during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Initial harvests focused on virgin white pine from approximately 1835 through the 1860s, followed by hardwoods such as maple and oak. Before the arrival of railroads, "tote roads" and river drives were used to move logs. The Lakewood District used local waterways to drive pine logs to mills in Green Bay and Oconto between 1840 and 1860. In the 1910s, an industrial logging operation operated north from a connection with the Chicago & North Western Lakewood Spur directly into the John and Wheeler Lakes area. The Holt Lumber Company operated a specific line known as the Wheeler Spur, which ran a few miles south from Townsend toward the lake region. By the 1920s, the land was described as "over-cut, burned-over, and farmed-out." Much of the land became tax-delinquent and was abandoned by owners.

The federal government acquired these lands under the Weeks Act of 1911, which authorized the purchase of "cutover" and "burned-over" lands for forest restoration and watershed protection. The Nicolet National Forest was officially proclaimed on March 2, 1933, by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Before formal proclamation, the lands were acquired as "Purchase Units": the Moquah, Flambeau, and Oneida units in December 1928; the Mondeaux and Chequamegon units in 1931; and the Oconto unit in 1932. This roadless area became part of the Nicolet National Forest and was later included within the Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest upon its administrative merger in February 1998. The forest area has grown from approximately 409,000 acres in 1929 to more than 1.5 million acres today.

During the 1930s, the Civilian Conservation Corps was active throughout the Nicolet National Forest starting in 1933, responsible for fire protection and the reforestation of the "cut-over" lands surrounding Wheeler Lake. The current forest cover is largely the result of massive replanting efforts by the CCC in the 1930s. Most trees in the area are even-aged second-growth forest resulting from this era. This roadless area is protected under the 2001 Roadless Area Conservation Rule.

Vital Resources Protected

Headwater Wetland Complex and Stream Connectivity

This small but hydrologically significant area encompasses the headwaters of Knowles Creek and the North Branch Oconto River, a system that drains into the broader Oconto watershed. The open bog, alder thicket, and northern sedge meadow form an integrated wetland complex that regulates water flow, filters sediment, and maintains the cool, stable streamflow conditions required by coldwater-dependent species downstream. The roadless condition preserves the intact hydrology of these wetlands—their ability to absorb, store, and gradually release water—which would be disrupted by fill, culverts, or drainage associated with road construction.

Northern Forest Interior Habitat for Gray Wolf Recovery

The area's northern dry-mesic and northern mesic forest stands provide unfragmented interior forest habitat within the Chequamegon-Nicolet landscape. The federally endangered gray wolf (Canis lupus) requires large, continuous territories with minimal human disturbance and infrastructure; roads fragment habitat, increase human access and mortality risk, and create edge effects that reduce the functional size of available territory. Maintaining this roadless area preserves connectivity within the broader forest matrix that supports wolf recovery in the Great Lakes region.

Monarch Butterfly Migration and Breeding Habitat

The open bog, sedge meadow, and alder thicket provide nectar and host plant resources for the monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus), proposed as federally threatened. Road construction would remove or degrade these open wetland habitats through fill, drainage, and vegetation clearing, directly eliminating breeding and refueling habitat for a species whose populations depend on continuous, undisturbed corridors across the landscape during spring and fall migration.

Lowland Wetland-Upland Transition Integrity

The mosaic of forest types—from dry-mesic to wet forest—and wetland communities represents a functional gradient that supports distinct plant and animal assemblages adapted to subtle shifts in soil moisture and hydrology. This ecological complexity is maintained by the area's roadless condition; road construction would fragment this gradient, alter local hydrology through drainage and compaction, and introduce invasive species via disturbed soil and fill material, degrading the ecological distinctiveness of each community type.

Threats from Road Construction

Sedimentation and Hydrological Disruption of Headwater Wetlands

Road construction requires cut slopes, fill placement, and drainage infrastructure that destabilize soils in this lowland terrain. Erosion from exposed cut banks and compacted fill would deliver sediment into the open bog, alder thicket, and sedge meadow, smothering the fine organic soils and plant roots that these wetlands depend on and altering the water table through drainage ditches or culverts. This sedimentation and hydrological disruption would degrade the water-storage and water-filtering functions of the headwater complex, reducing the ability of Knowles Creek and the North Branch Oconto River to maintain stable, cool flows downstream.

Habitat Fragmentation and Edge Effect Expansion for Gray Wolf

Road construction would bisect the northern forest interior, creating a linear corridor of human access, vehicle traffic, and edge habitat that reduces the effective size of available territory for the federally endangered gray wolf. Wolves avoid roads due to increased hunting and vehicle mortality risk; fragmentation by roads isolates populations and increases the likelihood of inbreeding and local extinction. The small size of this roadless area (5 acres) means that even a single road would eliminate its value as interior habitat, severing connectivity within the broader forest landscape that supports wolf recovery.

Direct Habitat Loss and Invasive Species Colonization in Wetland Communities

Road construction would directly remove or severely degrade the open bog, sedge meadow, and alder thicket through grading, fill placement, and vegetation clearing. Disturbed soil and roadside edges create ideal conditions for invasive plant species—particularly aggressive competitors like glossy buckthorn and common reed—that would colonize the exposed wetland margins and outcompete native sedges, forbs, and shrubs that provide nectar and host plants for the monarch butterfly and food resources for other wetland-dependent species. Once established, invasive species are extremely difficult to remove from wetlands and persist indefinitely, permanently altering the community composition and ecological function of these habitats.

Canopy Removal and Microclimate Disruption in Forest Stands

Road construction requires clearing of forest canopy along the roadbed and sight lines, removing the shade and moisture-moderating effects that northern mesic and wet forest species depend on. This canopy loss would increase solar radiation and evaporation in adjacent forest stands, raising soil temperature and reducing soil moisture—conditions that favor dry-adapted species and invasive plants over the shade-tolerant, moisture-dependent native understory. The resulting microclimate shift would degrade habitat quality for forest interior species, including those that depend on cool, moist conditions for breeding and foraging.

Wheeler Lake Islands is a 5-acre roadless area within the Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest in Oconto County, Wisconsin. The area encompasses Deer Island and Virgin Island, which rise to approximately 1,194–1,198 feet and anchor a 281-acre lake surrounded by a complex of open bog, emergent marsh, alder thicket, and northern wet forest. Access to the islands and lake is by water only, via the public boat launch on the southwest side of Wheeler Lake off National Forest Road 3850 or the U.S. Forest Service public beach on the west side off County Highway F. The roadless condition preserves the remote character of the site and maintains the undisturbed wetland habitat that supports the area's primary recreation opportunities.

Fishing is a primary draw. Wheeler Lake supports largemouth bass, smallmouth bass, walleye, northern pike, rock bass, and panfish including bluegill, yellow perch, black crappie, and pumpkinseed. Walleye populations are sustained by natural recruitment; panfish are stocked in coordination with the Wisconsin DNR. Regulations include a daily bag limit of 3 walleye (18-inch minimum), 5 northern pike, and 10 panfish. The North Branch Oconto River, accessible from nearby put-ins, holds wild brook trout, brown trout, and rainbow trout. Motor trolling with up to 3 hooks per angler is permitted on the lake. No-wake hours (6:00 PM to 11:00 AM Thursday–Tuesday; 8:00 PM to 11:00 AM Wednesday) apply to motorized boats. The lake's very clear water and natural fish populations depend on the absence of shoreline development and road access that would degrade water quality and habitat.

Hunting follows Wisconsin DNR regulations and licensing requirements. The area is designated as Wisconsin State Natural Area No. 456 and is open to hunting and trapping on U.S. Forest Service land. White-tailed deer and black bears are documented in the surrounding forest. The site is located on the Mississippi Flyway, a major migration corridor for waterfowl and shorebirds; the lake and islands support waterfowl hunting during migration seasons. Hunters must maintain a 150-yard buffer from developed recreation sites and trails. The remote, poorly roaded character of the islands and surrounding wetlands provides primitive hunting access that would be compromised by road construction.

Birding opportunities center on the lake's breeding and migratory bird populations. The area supports a documented breeding colony of black terns, as well as common loons, gray jays, bald eagles, sandhill cranes, swans, geese, and great blue and green herons. Boreal chickadees have been historically recorded. The site lies on the Mississippi Flyway; spring and summer bring peak activity during breeding season and migration. Birding is conducted from watercraft—kayak or canoe—with a recommended 200-foot distance from wildlife to maintain nesting and feeding habitats. The roadless condition preserves the quiet, undisturbed shoreline and wetland margins essential for loon nesting and tern colony stability.

Paddling on Wheeler Lake offers quiet-water recreation in a shallow bog lake surrounded by wetlands. The lake is accessible throughout the open-water season via the public boat launch. Nearby, the North Branch Oconto River provides whitewater paddling with Class I–II rapids and more difficult sections at Bagley Rapids; this section requires medium-high water levels, typically available in early spring and after heavy rains. The absence of roads and shoreline development preserves the lake's remote setting and the river's natural flow and riparian character.

Photography subjects include the lake's wetland complex, older-growth hemlock and red pine stands on the islands (some dating to the 1920s), and aquatic flora including white water-lily, yellow water-lily, northern blue flag iris, and spotted joe-pye weed. Black terns, common loons, and gray jays provide wildlife photography opportunities. The upland islands offer scenic views across the wetland landscape. The roadless condition maintains the primitive, undeveloped character that defines the site's visual and ecological integrity.