Habitat Education Center focuses on rare species of wildlife that indicate the presence of habitat types, conditions and features that are also rare and in decline. Typically these habitats help maintain high quality clean watersheds. Older mixed hardwood forest with hemlock and sugar maple once dominated the Northern forest of Wisconsin. These mixed hardwoods are home to Pine marten who rely on older large diameter living hollow trees for dens. Pine marten den trees are usually yellow birch. Yellow birch are having trouble reproducing or regenrerating in Wisconsin's forests. Yellow birch are most successful when they sprout from fallen dead logs on the forest floor. Pine marten also rely on fallen logs. Large logs on the forest floor create easy access underneath the snow. This saves the Marten lots of time and energy when it hunts voles and rodents that live beneath the snow in winter. Fallen logs, common in natural undisturbed forests, are rare through most of the Chequamegon Nicolet National Forest because heavy logging does not allow many trees to grow old enough to die and fall naturally. Along with robbing the forest and its wildlife of this life giving infrastructure, heavy logging takes away valuable nutrients that would decompose into soil on the forest floor. If we continue to remove the bulk of the forest's soil nutrients, it is likely that the forest will starve and eventually not grow back. Goblin fern, an endemic species living only northern Wisconsin and neighboring portions of Minnesota and Michigan, also need these older mixed hardwoods to survive.

The Hine's emerald dragonfly is in indicator of functional spring systems in healthy clean water wetlands. Being more sensitive and quicker to respond to fluctuations in hydrology and water quality than the rare species living in and around the same wetlands, scientists feel that protecting the Hine's emerald is the key to protecting clean water habitat for over 70 rare plant and mammal species that are associated with Hine's emerald and neighboring habitat.