Detroit Harbor contains a mixture of wetlands and a northern mesic forest on Washington Island in Door County. A car/passenger ferry leaves from Gils Rock at the northern tip of Door County and arrives a stone’s throw from the natural area on Washington Island. As I recall, it is not cheap as you must pay…
Tag: Northern Mesic Forest
Plum Lake Hemlock Forest, SNA #26 (162/675)
Plum Lake Hemlock Forest features an old-growth forest wedged between Plum, Star, and Razorback Lakes. A separate island parcel is found within Plum Lake. Accesss is either form the east via Hook Road or from the west via Rearing Pond Road. This is one of those sites that I don’t have a great recollection of…
Lake Laura Hardwoods, SNA #500 (161/675)
Lake Laura Hardwoods contains an old-growth northern mesic forest on the south shore of Lake Laura in central Vilas County within the Northern Highland-American Legion State Forest. A boat launch that doubles as a parking area is found at the end of Deerfoot Road. As denoted by its number, Lake Laura Hardwoods was the 500th…
Rib Mountain Talus Forest, SNA #532 (138/675)
Rib Mountain Talus Forest encompasses a second-growth northern mesic forest within Rib Mountain State Park, just southwest of Wausau. Enter the state park and follow the park road to its terminus in a large parking area. Numerous trails loop through the site, with some passing in and out of the natural area. A GPS is…
Bayshore Blufflands, SNA #377 (118/675)
Bayshore Blufflands contains a mixture of forest communities on the steep slope of the Niagara Escarpment. Access is available from above or below with parking areas off of CTH I and B, respectively. We parked below the bluff and walked the faded trail through the old field to the base of the bluff, across a…
Whitefish Dunes, SNA #175 (117/675)
Whitefish Dunes features the largest landscape of sand dunes along the Great Lakes. Found within Whitefish Dunes State Park, both active and stabilized dunes are home to various stages of succession with those dunes further from the lake being more wooded and stabilized. Parking is available near the park office. From there, we walked north along…
Toft Point, SNA #57 (115/675)
Toft Point contains a wide range of natural communities on a peninsula between Moonlight Bay and Baileys Harbor. To reach the site, take the access lane off of Ridges Road, about 1.5 miles east of the intersection of STH 57 and Ridges Road. A parking area and trailhead can be found there. Alternatively, continue on…
North Bay, SNA #381 (110/675)
North Bay features a long list of natural communities including various forest and wetland types (see table below) and certainly is more diverse than its name implies. Such is the case sometimes with SNA names. At times a site may be named X Lake and it really is just the lake. Other times it is much…
Europe Bay Woods, SNA #379 (108/675)
Europe Bay Woods is the second of two SNA’s found within Newport State Park, along with Newport Conifer-Hardwoods as previously discussed here. It features a mixed forest located on an isthmus between Europe Lake and a mile of Lake Michigan shoreline. Access is available via the Hotz and Europe Bay trails with trailheads on Europe…
Newport Conifer-Hardwoods, SNA #90 (107/675)
Newport Conifer-Hardwoods features a mixture of forest types in a parcel embedded within Newport State Park. Put your hiking shoes on because this one will require a bit of a walk from the nearest parking area. Newport State Park is a “wilderness” state park so amenities are limited and the campsite are all a couple…
Meridian Park, SNA #544 (105/675)
Meridian Park features an interesting collection of natural communities approximately equidistant between the equator and the North Pole (hence the name). It is accessible from a wayside on the west side of Hwy 57. It is an official Door County Park, though there is little more than you’d find at a smaller wayside and scant…
Peninsula Park Beech Forest, SNA #12 (101/675)
Peninsula Park Beech Forest is the second of two SNA’s found with Peninsula State Park (the other being Peninsula Park White Cedar Forest). Several parking areas are found near the observation tower (which is closed indefinitely) and from there, the Sentinel trail leads across the road toward the northern edge of the SNA. The Eagle…
Scott Lake & Shelp Lake, SNA #117 (71/674)
Scott Lake and Shelp Lake SNA contains, appropriately enough, Scott Lake and Shelp Lake. The area around the lakes is northern mesic forest consisting of mostly hemlock with a few large red and white pines. Near the lakes are areas with black spruce and tamaracks as well as open bog and shrub swamp. The site…
Argonne Experimental Forest, SNA #441 (70/674)
Argonne Experimental Forest contains a northern mesic forest and conifer swamp within the Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest. The SNA is located within a research forest of the same same which is administered by the US Forest Service. The larger experimental forest is one of 24 in the northern US and one of three in Wisconsin (Harshaw…
State Natural Areas of Wisconsin 