The refuge was established in 1989 to help the recovery of two federally listed species: the endangered Iowa Pleistocene Snail and threatened plant Northern Wild Monkshood.

Although the refuge was established to protect the snail and flower, an entire rare community of plants and animals is preserved on these sites.

The karst region, referred to as the "Driftless Area", escaped the last glaciers leaving the Paleozoic-age bedrock subject to erosion.

Typically growing in a colder more northern climate, yews, balsam fir, Showy lady's slipper and golden saxifrage can be found on the cool slopes.

The snail was known only from fossil records and thought to be extinct until 1955, when a scientist discovered it alive in leaf litter in northeast Iowa, eating birch and maple leaves.

[3] The threatened Northern Wild Monkshood, belonging to the buttercup family, grows on 114 algific talus slopes and similar cool moist habitats in Iowa, Wisconsin, Ohio and New York.

In the past, the impacts of logging, grazing, road building, quarries, agricultural runoff, and sinkhole filling reduced the number of algific talus slopes.

Today, these habitats are still threatened by logging, grazing, agricultural runoff, and sinkhole filling activities and invasive species like garlic mustard.