Minnesota Seasons - Expandere WMA


	About

	Ownership


	Links
	Minnesota DNR

	Overview
	Expandere Wildlife Management Area (WMA) is an 896-acre reserve in intensively farmed southwestern Minnesota. It has what may be the state’s largest population of small white lady’s slipper (Cypripedium candidum), a species of special concern. A survey in 2005 found more than 6,000 plants here. Another survey in 2012 counted 9,373 plants. Poweshiek skipperling (Oarisma poweshiek), a small, federally endangered butterfly, has also been recorded on this site. A survey in 1993 and 1994 found 5 individuals on this site. However, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the skipperling “may have been extirpated from the Dakotas, Minnesota and Iowa within the last 10 years…”. Surveys in 2014 found the skipperling only at a few sites, and only in a single county in Michigan. Expandere WMA has two separated units which lie on an area of glacial till, an unsorted aggregate of clay, sand, gravel, and boulders. It is mostly wet prairie. It is bisected by an unnamed stream and has large areas of cattail marsh to the east. There is also an elevated ridge of moderately moist (mesic) prairie to the south. The low areas are subject to flooding in the spring with snow melt and throughout the year after heavy rains, but experience draw-downs in the summer.

	History


	Management


	Comments


	Location

	Maps


	Printable Map(s) with GPS coordinates
	Complete		North Unit


	South Unit North Section, West Half		South Unit North Section, East Half


	South Unit Middle Section		South Unit South Section


	Size
	North Unit: 39 acres South Unit: 971 acres

	Parking
	There is no parking lot or designated parking area for this WMA. Directions on the DNR Website lead to these coordinates on 390th St. 390th St. N43 55.222, W95 20.423 There is a 100-yard “DNR Management Road open to Public Foot Travel” on 390th St. just west of 360th Ave. DNR Management Road N43 55.222, W95 21.713


	Driving Directions
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					Cottonwood County
					Southwest Minnesota


	Activities

	Hiking Trails
	No maintained trails

	Hunting
	Deer, small game, pheasant, and waterfowl. See Hunting and Trapping Regulations (MN DNR) for details.


	Ecology

	Ecological Classification
	Ecological Province			Prairie Parkland Province
	Ecological Section			North Central Glaciated Plains
	Ecological Subsection			Coteau Moraines
	Land Type Association			Slayton Moraine

	Native Plant Communities*
	Mesic Prairie (Southern) Prairie Mixed Cattail Marsh Seepage Meadow/Carr Southern Basin Wet Meadow/Carr Wet Prairie (Southern)
	* Source: The Minnesota Biological Survey, Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, Division of Ecological Resources

	Natural Features


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