Covering nearly 1,000 acres along the Clinton-Scott County line, Barber Creek Wildlife Area offers a mix of timber, wetlands and prairie, with fire breaks to walk and plenty of space to chase turkeys and deer or to hunt mushrooms.
Much of the area is in the Wapsipinicon River floodplain, offering wetlands or oxbows seemingly around every corner. Wildlife flock to wetlands and on this mid-August morning, great blue herons are hunting in the shallow, still water; a trumpeter swan is loafing by taller vegetation; and a flock of wood ducks nervously take flight as the truck slowly approaches on the gravel road.
“You can hunt pretty much everything in the state here,” said Nick McClimon, wildlife biologist with the Iowa Department of Natural Resources (DNR) Maquoketa Unit. “Fishing can be good in the sloughs, too. If you like to paddle, the larger sloughs are good for a quiet, unique experience.”
Three parking lots provide a lot of access to Barber Creek. With more than 250,000 Iowans living within 25 miles of the area, Barber Creek does attract attention.
The parking lot on the north edge of the property provides a good view of a four-year-old prairie seeding on a 30-acre parcel that had previously been overtaken by volunteer trees. Some prairie flowers, like goldenrod, have shown up.
“We’re pretty aggressive on management to keep the willows and cottonwoods out of the grassland,” McClimon said.
Rainfall has been plentiful this summer and the river and wetlands are running pretty high. A long, narrow oxbow snakes along the Barber Creek’s western boundary, mostly hidden by trees. With a maximum depth of about 10 feet and a fishing community made up of crappies, bluegills, northern pike and largemouth bass, it gets a lot of use and provides an opportunity for ice fishing, when Mother Nature allows.
“It’s also a good spot to hunt wood ducks early in the season,” he said.
Barber Creek – the stream and wildlife area – is named for the Barber family, who’s history dates back hundreds of years to when the area was homesteaded. The family sold the initial parcel to the Iowa Conservation Commission in the 1970s.
The floodplain habitat and proximity to the Wapsipinicon and Mississippi rivers makes Barber Creek a priority area for herps and home to Blanding’s turtles and central newts. The DNR received a grant a few years ago for tree removal to enhance the grassland to benefit the herps.
The Iowa DNR’s Multiple Species Inventory and Monitoring program conducts surveys of wildlife species here annually. This survey has confirmed the endangered Indiana bat; the tri-colored bat which is currently being considered for endangered listing. Other species calling Barber Creek home and considered threatened or endangered at the state level are red shouldered hawks, Blandings turtles, central newts, rusty patched bumble bees, grass pickerel and more.
“Much of our habitat maintenance occurs in the winter because it allows us to get equipment on wet soils and it protects the northern long-eared bats and Indiana bats because those species will have migrated,” McClimon said.
He said staff has developed and the wildlife unit is implementing a forest stewardship plan to promote oaks.
Two tree plantings about a decade apart provide a young tree component to the timber – both on the area’s east side. The most recent planting includes swamp white oaks, sycamores, pin oaks, northern pecans and bottomland bur oaks that was part of an Alliant Energy grant. The older planting of sycamores and oaks in the 2010s are also doing well.
The DNR has also partnered with the local Pheasants Forever chapter to improve habitat, including removing trees next to the wetland on the small parcel north of the gravel road.