Quincy Bluff and Wetlands is a large, landscape-scale natural area featuring a mosaic of communities including northern wet and wet-mesic forest, northern and southern sedge meadow, shrub-carr, pine barrens, and sand prairie. This unique area is located in the Central Sand Plain ecoregion of Wisconsin, the bed of extinct Glacial Lake Wisconsin and features a vast wetland complex with low sandy ridges, wetlands, and seepage ponds situated between sandstone mesas and buttes that rise 100-200 feet. Quincy Bluff, which rises 200 feet high and extends for approximately two miles, contains northern dry forest and open cliff communities. Lone Rock, an excellent example of a Driftless Area mesa, features one hundred-foot Cambrian sandstone cliffs. The uplands are forested with jack pine and Hill's oak with a shrub layer dominated by huckleberry, American hazelnut, and early low blueberry. Pennsylvania sedge is the dominant herb with wild lupine and spreading dogbane common constituents of the understory. Grasses and forbs characteristic of barrens and sandy prairies are found here including big blue-stem, June grass, needle grass, poverty grass, goat's-rue, prairie coreopsis, and rough blazing-star. Due to its large size and heterogeneous landscape, Quincy Bluff and Wetlands contains essential habitat for a great diversity of species. Within this vast ecosystem are numerous rare plant and animal species including cross milkwort (Polygala cruciata), Virginia meadow beauty (Rhexia virginica), fragile prickly pear (Opuntia fragilis), ringed boghaunter dragonfly (Williamsonia lintneri), ebony boghaunter dragonfly (Williamsonia fletcheri), warpaint emerald dragonfly (Somatochlora incurvata), and a tiger beetle (Cicindela patruela huberi). Quincy Bluff is owned by the DNR and was designated a State Natural Area in 1993.
In 2013, the Nature Conservancy donated its remaining 1,700 acres at Quincy Bluff to the state. In addition, the Conservancy also donated a permanent endowment to supplement management costs at the preserve, with the funds to be managed by a qualified foundation. This gift of land will better enable the DNR to streamline management across the natural area, particularly the use of prescribed fire to restore rare oak barrens.
