"While many people are familiar with the pristine and federally protected Namekagon and St. Croix Rivers of northwestern Wisconsin, few know much about the Namekagon Barrens, a rare pine and oak barrens landscape within a mile or two of those rivers. A tiny remnant of the millions of barrens acres that once covered Wisconsin, the Namekagon Barrens Wildlife Area lies in the heart of the state's Northwest Sands. Unfathomable amounts of glacial sand and repeated fires over thousands of years shaped a land of scrub oak and jack pine, blueberries and sweet fern, wolves and sharp-tailed grouse. But more compelling is the land's surprisingly rich in history, from late Paleo-Indian hunters to Ojibwe people making their seasonal rounds, from loggers to early road builders, from immigrants whose farming efforts failed to the wildlife habitat specialists who manage it today. The book sets the land's unusual natural history as the backdrop for its dynamic |