Nature Walk

The Missus and I, along with some of our neighbors, indulged in a guided hike of a Door County Land Trust property situated at the southeast end of the Sturgeon Bay ship canal.

It's an interesting piece of property on a number of different levels.  The topography is a consequence of the retreat of the last glaciation when glacial lake Nipissing was formed.  As the ice cap receded fro the Great Lakes Basin  the water level was considerably higher by a measure of fifty feet.  

As the earth's crust rebounded from the weight of all of that ice the water levels on lakes Michigan, Superior and Huron dropped.  With the rebound, Lake Michigan is receding beneath the ground with the regular appearance of new beaches, and new parallel dune ridges created, one after the other over a period of thousands of years.  

Today we are witness to the remnants of ancient beaches in the form a several dozen parallel ridges and swales as evidence of the beach shoreline.

The resulting (cooler near the lake) micro-climate is also home to any number of post-glacial plant species - several of which are endangered.   

It was home to native people prior to European settlement and there is evidence of their ancestral portages to be found among the sandy ridges. 

Beach ecology is interesting stuff.  And today you can witness the processes that created the ridge and swale topography in action.  As new beach sand is exposed, wind blows the sand into the line of vegetation that parallels the lake.  It is here that the sand collects forming a parallel.

The dunes shelter many rare and endangered plant species and are a fascinating study on species succession starting with hardy beach grasses and plants that set the table for larger plants to succeed as you move further inland.

Dune Goldenrod

Beach Pea  

Fringed Gentian

A mature pine-dominated forest results as the apex ecosystem.  The abundance of hemlocks along with the cooling effects of Lake Michigan has created a forest ecosystem that is more similar of the boreal forests of Canada found hundreds of miles to the north.

Moving inland the species continue to change both in complexity and uniqueness. 

Ground Pine

Running Pine

 Wintergreen (edible and reminiscent of Life Savers)

Dwarf Lake Iris (Blooms in spring)

And from the forest's sinister garden there is Destroying Angel Amanita

You can learn more about Door County Land Trust and places to explore here.