Crex Meadows State Wildlife Area
It snowed a lot in 2019. I couldn’t find a decent place to walk outside until I realized I could do so easily in the Crex Meadows State Wildlife Area. The roads in Crex were well-plowed and almost deserted. I started to walk there one or two times a week.
My walking turned into a photography project: “A Winter At Crex Meadows.” I knew when I started that the project would be challenging. There are no dramatic landforms in Crex. It’s mostly marsh and shallow ponds. There is only one low ridge that cuts across the northern section of the area. It’s visually prominent only because it’s surrounded by flat terrain. In the winter of 2019, the thick blanket of snow made the area even more featureless.
I responded to the challenge by focusing on the sky, good light, storms, and sunsets. I often used the terrain only as a foreground to give the photos some depth.
When spring arrived, bringing with it cranes, swans, geese, other waterfowl, and songbirds; I couldn’t end the project. It eventually extended over all seasons and several years.
This video contains my favorite photos from the project. It includes images from the Fish Lake State Wildlife Area. The Wisconsin Department Of Natural Resources manages Crex, Fish Lake, and the Amsterdam Sloughs State Wildlife Area as a single unit.
I will quote from the website of the Friends Of Crex:
Crex Meadows encompasses 30,000 acres. The Crex Carpet Company began harvesting marsh grasses that were used to make rugs. The company went out of business in 1933. There were further attempts to drain and put the area to use; all failed. The state bought 12,000 acres, the first piece of the wildlife area.
The Department Of Natural Resources restored the wetlands and brush prairie. Crex’s marshes and large, sandy plains were left behind by the last glacier. Crex is the state’s biggest part of the Wisconsin Pine Barrens, an endangered ecosystem. Over 280 species of birds, 720 species of plants, 96 species of butterflies, and many reptiles, amphibians, and insects live in Crex.
Crex’s marshes and large, sandy plains were left behind from the last glacier. The wildlife area is part of a larger system known as the Northwest Wisconsin Pine Barrens which extends from northern Polk County to southern Bayfield County.