Wiese Slough is one of those places where the locals go when they need to get their outdoors “fix.”
At nearly 1,900 acres, it’s easy to find, too, conveniently located just off Hwy. 6, between Atalissa and Moscow, in Muscatine County. Wiese Slough Wildlife Area began in the 1940s as an old oxbow off the Cedar River and was pieced together over decades because its sandy soil was challenging to farm.
Today, the area is mostly timber with a patchwork of sloughs, potholes, grasslands and prairie. Timber consists of floodplain friendly river birch, hickory, oaks, pecan and sycamores. The wetlands are mostly ground fed, but are often affected by flooding from the Cedar River.
“It’s well known locally,” said Andy Robbins, wildlife biologist with the Iowa Department of Natural Resources. “It’s one of our most heavily hunted areas for morels. Some kayakers come out to paddle, too. The Big River Long Beards NWTF chapter out of Davenport helped with a tree planting and it seemed like they all had a hunting story or connection to the area.”
A small remnant prairie is tucked into the timber, at just high enough elevation to be out of the floodplain. Prickly pear cactus grows there. Cleft phlox – a rare, sandy soil wildflower – is also found here. On this August morning, partridge pea with its little yellow flowers was in bloom seemingly everywhere.
Management on Wiese Slough is a battle against encroachment and from invasive plants and the staff from the Odessa Wildlife Unit will use a combination of row crops to prepare fields to be converted to prairie, and prescribed fire to try to keep it that way.
Standing on the dike near the boat ramp in the middle of Wiese Slough, two wood ducks fly over the tree tops toward the upper end. A great blue heron leaves its hunting spot for a less busy slough. Water lilies covering the water will be gone at first frost. Button bush is found here in pockets.
Waterfowl hunting is good early in the season and can host big migration days when conditions are right. Hunters wanting to be on the water will need a skiff or kayak as most sloughs are shallow. Given its size, Wiese Slough receives a fair number of phone calls from nonresident deer hunters looking for more information.
Sandhill cranes nest here, but, strangely, trumpeter swans, do not.
“Hundreds of trumpeter swans migrate through here in the spring and trumpeters have been released here to try to establish a nesting pair, but for some reason, won’t nest here,” Robbins said.
It is also a popular place to bird watch.
The slough is split in half by the Cedar River and accessing parts of Wiese south can be challenging.