Johnson Hill Kame contains northern and southern dry-mesic forests on the slopes of a conical moulin kame deposited during the last glaciation of Wisconsin. Parking here is the very narrow roadside along Shamrock Road. Walk across the agricultural field to a tree line, an area which can be quite wet with ephemeral ponds and quite…
Tag: Kettle Moraine State Forest
Eagle Oak Opening, SNA #66 (85/674)
Eagle Oak Opening, protects, as does the previous post’s Kettle Moraine Oak Opening, one of the rarest natural communities in Wisconsin, the oak opening. Once covering over 5.5 million acres (~15% of the state), oak openings have all but vanished as fire supression and reduced grazing have allowed the openings to fill in with younger…
Kettle Moraine Oak Opening, SNA #229 (84/674)
Kettle Moraine Oak Opening features oak openings amidst an oak woodland with dry prairie remnants. Access is easy with a large parking area on CTH H. From there, the Bald Bluff hiking trail leads throughout the site and doubles as a segment of the Ice Age Trail (IAT). This is one of 7 SNA’s in…
Bluff Creek, SNA #271 (83/674)
Bluff Creek is another one of my favorite SNA’s and another smorgasboard of natural communities. It consists of two parcels and can be accessed via several points including a pull-off on CTH P, typically populated by fisherman, off of Hi-Lo Road (bring your rubber boots), and off of Esterly Road. The Ice Age Trail (IAT)…
State Natural Areas of Wisconsin 