Butler Lake features the namesake lake and spring, as well as a short segment of the Parnell Esker. It is one of 11 SNA’s found within the Northern Unit of the Kettle Moraine State Forest. Access is easy via a large parking area at a bend in Butler Lake Road. There is a boat landing…
Tag: Kettle Moraine State Forest
Haskell Noyes Memorial Woods, SNA #11 (88/674)
Haskell Noyes Memorial Woods protects a typical southern dry-mesic forest on rolling terrain within the Northern Unit of the Kettle Moraine State Forest, one of 11 SNA’s found there. It is easy to find this SNA, with a glorified gravel pull-off from CTH GGG. A large SNA sign is noticeable from the road and a…
Johnson Hill Kame, SNA #258 (87/674)
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…
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)…