Location: Oconto County

Area protected: 320 acres

Protection strategy: conservation easement

Hidden Lake property encompasses a 36 acre, clear, kettle lake, rated "high quality" by the Wisconsin Department of Natural resources.

Some unique characteristics include:

• drumlins, plains and moraine
• northern hardwood forests
• aspen/birch forests
• spruce/fir and hemlock forests
• two small spruce bogs
• large quartzite erratics
• one-quarter mile stretch of the Oconto River, a high quality trout stream

Completely surrounded by the Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest, this property is managed to: retain and promote large diameter trees, provide wildlife habitat for game and non-game species, practice land stewardship that is compatible with the surrounding landscape and which protects and restores biological diversity through land management based on ecological relationships.

Hidden Lake is a haven for numerous species. These, and dozens of other species, have chosen the Hidden Lake Conservancy as their home:

• trout
• pygmy shrew - endangered in this area
• Northern blue butterfly - endangered in this area
• showy lady's slipper - endangered in this area
• Canada lynx
• bald eagle
• cerulean warbler - threatened
• wood turtle
• black bear

"Nature is not a place to visit, it is home"
- Gary Snyder