Loading conditions…
Loading conditions…
700–1,400 ft · WI🚗 Directions
Black River State Forest and the surrounding north-central WI sand country — bridge between the Driftless Area to the south and the Northwoods to the north. Pine barrens (jack pine, oak savanna), oak-hickory ridges, and bottomland hardwoods (silver maple, swamp white oak) along the Black River. Spring morels in disturbed bottoms and dying elm; chanterelles in oak woodlands; matsutake-candidate Tricholoma magnivelare in jack pine; chicken-of-the-woods on red and white oak.
Updated Aug 27, 4:24 AM MT
# Black River SF / Driftless WI North — S Tier | 2026-08-27 This region is locked in S tier because soil temp, sustained moisture depth, and volumetric water content have converged into a rare sweet spot—67°F soil with seven days of threshold-exceeding conditions and stable 0.18 VWC across the board. You're looking at 70+ viable species across all functional groups: choice edibles (Chicken, Hen, Hedgehog, Chanterelles), medicinals (Chaga, Reishi analogs), and wood-decay specialists (Turkey Tail, Artist's Conk). The absence of limiting factors is itself the story—this window won't last through early September as soil cools and late-summer desiccation sets in. Watch for a moisture dip in the next 72 hours; even a light rain event will reset the clock and extend peak fruiting another week. The Driftless topography means aspen and hardwood stands above 900 ft will fruit 3–5 days ahead of valley floors. **Hot tip:** Target north-facing oak and birch slopes right now for boletes and milk caps—they're 48 hours ahead of everywhere else in the region and will hold quality longer in the cooler aspect.
Generated by Claude (Anthropic) from the structured weather, soil, and phenology data on this page. The LLM can misread edge cases — treat this as a starting hypothesis, not a guarantee. Always verify conditions on the ground before committing to a long drive.
Precip 7d
Log your find on iNaturalist to help the community and get expert ID assistance. Photos, location, and habitat notes all help with identification.
0.27"
PRISM 4km · thru 08-25
Precip 14d
Observed precipitation from PRISM 4km gridded analysis, sampled at the region centroid through 2026-08-25. Used when no SNOTEL/SCAN station is mapped to this region.0.29"
PRISM 4km · thru 08-25
Soil Temp
67°F
SWE
Snow Water Equivalent — how much water is in the snowpack vs. normal. Declining SWE means snowmelt is adding moisture to the soil.0%
Drought
None
Snowmelt
complete
All conditions met (soil 67°F, sustained 7/7 days above threshold, today 0.18 VWC, 7d avg 0.18 — moisture sustained)
All conditions met (soil 67°F, sustained 7/7 days above threshold, today 0.18 VWC, 7d avg 0.18 — moisture sustained)
All conditions met (soil 67°F, sustained 5/7 days above threshold, today 0.18 VWC, 7d avg 0.18 — moisture sustained)
All conditions met (soil 67°F, sustained 7/7 days above threshold, today 0.18 VWC, 7d avg 0.18 — moisture sustained)
All conditions met (soil 67°F, sustained 7/7 days above threshold, today 0.18 VWC, 7d avg 0.18 — moisture sustained)
All conditions met (soil 67°F, sustained 7/7 days above threshold, today 0.18 VWC, 7d avg 0.18 — moisture sustained)
All conditions met (soil 67°F, sustained 7/7 days above threshold, today 0.18 VWC, 7d avg 0.18 — moisture sustained)
All conditions met (soil 67°F, sustained 7/7 days above threshold, today 0.18 VWC, 7d avg 0.18 — moisture sustained)
All conditions met (soil 67°F, sustained 7/7 days above threshold, today 0.18 VWC, 7d avg 0.18 — moisture sustained)
All conditions met (soil 67°F, sustained 7/7 days above threshold, today 0.18 VWC, 7d avg 0.18 — moisture sustained)
All conditions met (soil 67°F, sustained 7/7 days above threshold, today 0.18 VWC, 7d avg 0.18 — moisture sustained)
All conditions met (soil 67°F, sustained 7/7 days above threshold, today 0.18 VWC, 7d avg 0.18 — moisture sustained)
All conditions met (soil 67°F, sustained 7/7 days above threshold, today 0.18 VWC, 7d avg 0.18 — moisture sustained)
All conditions met (soil 67°F, sustained 7/7 days above threshold, today 0.18 VWC, 7d avg 0.18 — moisture sustained)
All conditions met (soil 67°F, sustained 7/7 days above threshold, today 0.18 VWC, 7d avg 0.18 — moisture sustained)
All conditions met (soil 67°F, sustained 7/7 days above threshold, today 0.18 VWC, 7d avg 0.18 — moisture sustained)
All conditions met (soil 67°F, sustained 7/7 days above threshold, today 0.18 VWC, 7d avg 0.18 — moisture sustained)
All conditions met (soil 67°F, sustained 7/7 days above threshold, today 0.18 VWC, 7d avg 0.18 — moisture sustained)
All conditions met (soil 67°F, sustained 7/7 days above threshold, today 0.18 VWC, 7d avg 0.18 — moisture sustained)
All conditions met (soil 67°F, sustained 7/7 days above threshold, today 0.18 VWC, 7d avg 0.18 — moisture sustained)
All conditions met (soil 67°F, sustained 7/7 days above threshold, today 0.18 VWC, 7d avg 0.18 — moisture sustained)
All conditions met (soil 67°F, sustained 7/7 days above threshold, today 0.18 VWC, 7d avg 0.18 — moisture sustained)
All conditions met (soil 67°F, sustained 7/7 days above threshold, today 0.18 VWC, 7d avg 0.18 — moisture sustained)
All conditions met (soil 67°F, sustained 7/7 days above threshold, today 0.18 VWC, 7d avg 0.18 — moisture sustained)
All conditions met (soil 67°F, sustained 7/7 days above threshold, today 0.18 VWC, 7d avg 0.18 — moisture sustained)
All conditions met (soil 67°F, sustained 7/7 days above threshold, today 0.18 VWC, 7d avg 0.18 — moisture sustained)
All conditions met (soil 67°F, sustained 7/7 days above threshold, today 0.18 VWC, 7d avg 0.18 — moisture sustained)
All conditions met (soil 67°F, sustained 7/7 days above threshold, today 0.18 VWC, 7d avg 0.18 — moisture sustained)
All conditions met (soil 67°F, sustained 7/7 days above threshold, today 0.18 VWC, 7d avg 0.18 — moisture sustained)
All conditions met (soil 67°F, sustained 7/7 days above threshold, today 0.18 VWC, 7d avg 0.18 — moisture sustained)
All conditions met (soil 67°F, sustained 7/7 days above threshold, today 0.18 VWC, 7d avg 0.18 — moisture sustained)
All conditions met (soil 67°F, sustained 7/7 days above threshold, today 0.18 VWC, 7d avg 0.18 — moisture sustained)
All conditions met (soil 67°F, sustained 7/7 days above threshold, today 0.18 VWC, 7d avg 0.18 — moisture sustained)
All conditions met (soil 67°F, sustained 7/7 days above threshold, today 0.18 VWC, 7d avg 0.18 — moisture sustained)
All conditions met (soil 67°F, sustained 7/7 days above threshold, today 0.18 VWC, 7d avg 0.18 — moisture sustained)
All conditions met (soil 67°F, sustained 7/7 days above threshold, today 0.18 VWC, 7d avg 0.18 — moisture sustained)
All conditions met (soil 67°F, sustained 7/7 days above threshold, today 0.18 VWC, 7d avg 0.18 — moisture sustained)
All conditions met (soil 67°F, sustained 7/7 days above threshold, today 0.18 VWC, 7d avg 0.18 — moisture sustained)
All conditions met (soil 67°F, sustained 7/7 days above threshold, today 0.18 VWC, 7d avg 0.18 — moisture sustained)
All conditions met (soil 67°F, sustained 7/7 days above threshold, today 0.18 VWC, 7d avg 0.18 — moisture sustained)
All conditions met (soil 67°F, sustained 7/7 days above threshold, today 0.18 VWC, 7d avg 0.18 — moisture sustained)
All conditions met (soil 67°F, sustained 7/7 days above threshold, today 0.18 VWC, 7d avg 0.18 — moisture sustained)
All conditions met (soil 67°F, sustained 7/7 days above threshold, today 0.18 VWC, 7d avg 0.18 — moisture sustained)
All conditions met (soil 67°F, sustained 7/7 days above threshold, today 0.18 VWC, 7d avg 0.18 — moisture sustained)
All conditions met (soil 67°F, sustained 7/7 days above threshold, today 0.18 VWC, 7d avg 0.18 — moisture sustained)
All conditions met (soil 67°F, sustained 7/7 days above threshold, today 0.18 VWC, 7d avg 0.18 — moisture sustained)
All conditions met (soil 67°F, sustained 7/7 days above threshold, today 0.18 VWC, 7d avg 0.18 — moisture sustained)
All conditions met (soil 67°F, sustained 7/7 days above threshold, today 0.18 VWC, 7d avg 0.18 — moisture sustained)
All conditions met (soil 67°F, sustained 7/7 days above threshold, today 0.18 VWC, 7d avg 0.18 — moisture sustained)
All conditions met (soil 67°F, sustained 7/7 days above threshold, today 0.18 VWC, 7d avg 0.18 — moisture sustained)
All conditions met (soil 67°F, sustained 7/7 days above threshold, today 0.18 VWC, 7d avg 0.18 — moisture sustained)
All conditions met (soil 67°F, sustained 7/7 days above threshold, today 0.18 VWC, 7d avg 0.18 — moisture sustained)
All conditions met (soil 67°F, sustained 7/7 days above threshold, today 0.18 VWC, 7d avg 0.18 — moisture sustained)
All conditions met (soil 67°F, sustained 7/7 days above threshold, today 0.18 VWC, 7d avg 0.18 — moisture sustained)
All conditions met (soil 67°F, sustained 7/7 days above threshold, today 0.18 VWC, 7d avg 0.18 — moisture sustained)
All conditions met (soil 67°F, sustained 7/7 days above threshold, today 0.18 VWC, 7d avg 0.18 — moisture sustained)
All conditions met (soil 67°F, sustained 7/7 days above threshold, today 0.18 VWC, 7d avg 0.18 — moisture sustained)
All conditions met (soil 67°F, sustained 7/7 days above threshold, today 0.18 VWC, 7d avg 0.18 — moisture sustained)
All conditions met (soil 67°F, sustained 7/7 days above threshold, today 0.18 VWC, 7d avg 0.18 — moisture sustained)
All conditions met (soil 67°F, sustained 7/7 days above threshold, today 0.18 VWC, 7d avg 0.18 — moisture sustained)
All conditions met (soil 67°F, sustained 7/7 days above threshold, today 0.18 VWC, 7d avg 0.18 — moisture sustained)
All conditions met (soil 67°F, sustained 7/7 days above threshold, today 0.18 VWC, 7d avg 0.18 — moisture sustained)
All conditions met (soil 67°F, sustained 7/7 days above threshold, today 0.18 VWC, 7d avg 0.18 — moisture sustained)
All conditions met (soil 67°F, sustained 7/7 days above threshold, today 0.18 VWC, 7d avg 0.18 — moisture sustained)
All conditions met (soil 67°F, sustained 7/7 days above threshold, today 0.18 VWC, 7d avg 0.18 — moisture sustained)
All conditions met (soil 67°F, sustained 7/7 days above threshold, today 0.18 VWC, 7d avg 0.18 — moisture sustained)
All conditions met (soil 67°F, sustained 7/7 days above threshold, today 0.18 VWC, 7d avg 0.18 — moisture sustained)
All conditions met (soil 67°F, sustained 7/7 days above threshold, today 0.18 VWC, 7d avg 0.18 — moisture sustained)
All conditions met (soil 67°F, sustained 7/7 days above threshold, today 0.18 VWC, 7d avg 0.18 — moisture sustained)
All conditions met (soil 67°F, sustained 7/7 days above threshold, today 0.18 VWC, 7d avg 0.18 — moisture sustained)
All conditions met (soil 67°F, sustained 7/7 days above threshold, today 0.18 VWC, 7d avg 0.18 — moisture sustained)
All conditions met (soil 67°F, sustained 7/7 days above threshold, today 0.18 VWC, 7d avg 0.18 — moisture sustained)
All conditions met (soil 67°F, sustained 7/7 days above threshold, today 0.18 VWC, 7d avg 0.18 — moisture sustained)
All conditions met (soil 67°F, sustained 7/7 days above threshold, today 0.18 VWC, 7d avg 0.18 — moisture sustained)
All conditions met (soil 67°F, sustained 7/7 days above threshold, today 0.18 VWC, 7d avg 0.18 — moisture sustained)
All conditions met (soil 67°F, sustained 7/7 days above threshold, today 0.18 VWC, 7d avg 0.18 — moisture sustained)
All conditions met (soil 67°F, sustained 7/7 days above threshold, today 0.18 VWC, 7d avg 0.18 — moisture sustained)
All conditions met (soil 67°F, sustained 7/7 days above threshold, today 0.18 VWC, 7d avg 0.18 — moisture sustained)
All conditions met (soil 67°F, sustained 7/7 days above threshold, today 0.18 VWC, 7d avg 0.18 — moisture sustained)
All conditions met (soil 67°F, sustained 7/7 days above threshold, today 0.18 VWC, 7d avg 0.18 — moisture sustained)
All conditions met (soil 67°F, sustained 7/7 days above threshold, today 0.18 VWC, 7d avg 0.18 — moisture sustained)
All conditions met (soil 67°F, sustained 7/7 days above threshold, today 0.18 VWC, 7d avg 0.18 — moisture sustained)
All conditions met (soil 67°F, sustained 7/7 days above threshold, today 0.18 VWC, 7d avg 0.18 — moisture sustained)
All conditions met (soil 67°F, sustained 7/7 days above threshold, today 0.18 VWC, 7d avg 0.18 — moisture sustained)
Primordia readiness: Cold = mycelium dormant. Activating = soil warming, primordia building. Primed = 5+ sustained warm days at species threshold; fruiting imminent if moisture cooperates. Based on Schmidt 1983 / Mihail 2007.