ABSTRACT
The 1970 Parks and Open Space Plan identified two Natural Resource Areas: Cherokee Marsh, the largest wetland in Dane County; and Token Creek, a major tributary to Madison's iconic chain of lakes. The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR) conducted a three-year inventory of the special natural places that, as the report puts it, make Wisconsin Wisconsin. The Southwest Grasslands project aims to protect and conserve cultural and historic resources as well as grassland, savanna, streams, and rural farmland throughout southwestern Wisconsin, including portions of the townships of Blue Mounds and Perry, in western Dane County. The 2006 Parks and Open Space Plan maintains Dane County's support for the continuing development of the Ice Age Trail, the 1,200-mile route that traces the terminus of the Wisconsin Glacier. The Mazomanie Bottoms of the Lower Wisconsin Riverway lies in Dane County, protecting an oak barrens and a floodplain forest used by bald eagles in winter.
