Preserving Wisconsin’s elusive prairie chicken, whose population has steeply declined

In central Wisconsin, an elusive bird called the greater prairie chicken lives in the grasslands of Portage County.

They are generally only visible during the breeding season in spring, when people can watch the males compete over females. The birds will stomp their feet and inflate orange air sacs on the side of their neck that release a deep billowing call.

Conservationists have been trying to help the prairie chicken, going back to the 1920s. However, over the past 70 years the population has steeply declined. Today, it’s considered a threatened species, mainly due to fragmentation and loss of habitat.

The birds require vast areas of grassland to roam and hide. And the 12,700-acre Buena Vista Wildlife Area in Portage County is one of the last remaining habitats for prairie chickens in Wisconsin. It is one of three habitats managed by the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, where they’re monitoring the chicken’s population.

During the latest annual prairie chicken survey, the DNR counted the number of males on a “booming ground” and found 210 at Buena Vista. Although this number is a slight increase from previous years, the survey authors concluded the numbers are not indicative of the population. 

Senior wildlife biologist Lesa Kardash is the DNR’s statewide program manager for prairie chicken conservation. She has been working to preserve the prairie chicken for nearly two decades. 

She spoke with WPR’s “Wisconsin Today” about what the future holds for these birds and why they should be protected. 

The following has been edited for clarity and brevity. 

Kate Archer Kent: Why are prairie chickens significant to Wisconsin?

Lesa Kardash: Prairie chickens are a native grouse species in Wisconsin, and they’ve been around since before settlement. Back in the 1800s, we had prairie chickens in the southern half of Wisconsin in the prairie and oak openings. They’re just an amazing bird and a great symbol for grasslands, which are a very important habitat that we have here in Wisconsin. 

Prairie chickens are considered an “umbrella species” because they require so much habitat to meet their life needs. When we manage for prairie chickens, we are supporting an abundance of so many other grassland species. 

KAK: This booming or breeding time is like a ceremony that pits bird against bird, as male chickens compete for females and claim their territory. What is this behavior like? 

LK: In late February into March, the males will end up coming onto the booming grounds, which are their breeding grounds. These are areas that are very flat, very open, with low vegetation so they can see around them. Typically, the males will come out to defend their little territories that they have on these booming grounds to ensure that they have what might be considered the best spot. The females end up coming in early to mid April and that becomes the peak of the breeding season. 

But on these grounds, it’s just amazing to see what they do. The males have an elaborate display so that they can attract the females to them, to hopefully have one of the females select them for mating. The males will inflate those orange-yellow air sacs that are on the sides of their neck and they force the air through them to produce this beautiful, deep, three-syllable call. The air sacs — they basically act as resonating chambers, and they amplify this call. 

Then, they raise those long neck feathers. They raise their tails. They put their head down. And they’ll stomp their feet rapidly on the ground, and sometimes they’ll turn around in a circle that’s been described as looking like a mechanical toy. 

KAK: The DNR created a 10-year plan to help manage prairie chickens, and you recently held an advisory committee meeting to review the progress. How is it going?

LK: We feel we’re doing pretty good from where we started, back when the plan was approved in 2022. We set a lot of really big goals for management both on public lands and private lands. 

For public land management, some of our goals were to increase the amount of brush removal, to create that open vista that prairie chickens prefer.

We’ve got conservation grazing that we do with private landowners on our public lands and private lands. It’s a form of grazing that we can manage to provide habitat for grassland species, while also providing forage for the livestock.

In addition to that, we do a lot of control of invasive species that we have on the property like spotted knapweed, Canada goldenrod and wild parsnip. We also hold some farming leases on the properties where we can do some farming that helps us maintain an open grassland condition. But it’s also bird-friendly. For example, we have late season hay harvest or some rotational row cropping where needed.

KAK: What impact is climate change having on your work to preserve and protect the prairie chicken? 

LK: Climate change is definitely a threat to a lot of our grassland species. It’s a big concern for us and certainly for greater prairie chickens. We have projected increases in spring precipitation and the frequency and magnitude of severe weather events, such as increases in summer temperatures. 

Prairie chickens are very sensitive to weather extremes, so things like heavy rain or cold wet springs or heat stress can end up reducing prairie chicken survival. Also with loss of grassland, which is another very important concern for us, it’s a threat for prairie chickens. If they don’t have that grassland habitat to provide them those protections to keep them safe from changes in climate change, it makes them more vulnerable. 

Prairie chickens also have very limited dispersal, and so they’re less likely than many other species to leave in response to unfavorable climate change within the areas that they currently reside.