Guide to Significant Wildlife Habitat - Door County Web Map

The site boundaries include some of the privately owned lands along either side of the county
park. These areas will serve several purposes; expanding the area of protection and act as a buffer where
compatible land use practice may be promoted.
• Meridian Park is in the Town of Jacksonport, which has adopted the county’s zoning ordinance.
• The surrounding land use is primarily natural lands.
• The soils are generally of shallow depth overlaying dolostone bedrock that is occasionally exposed.
Bedrock, where exposed, is covered with mosses and lichens.
• The area situated between the southwest corner of Kangaroo Lake and the northwest side of the high
sand dune of the lake holds two permanently flooded basins. Shallow water emergents dominated by
wire sedge and twig rush surround both basins.
• The Meridian Park site lies between the southern shore of Kangaroo Lake and the Lake Michigan
shoreline. The site is dominated by wooded sand dunes and ridges along with associated wetlands
characteristic of the ridge-swale complexes found in Door County. Here a set of parallel forested
ridges are interspersed with low swales of varying wetness. The forest cover on the ridges varies
from cedar and balsam fir to a mix of hardwoods and conifers.
• Dry-mesic woodlands are confined to the western side of the site between the agricultural fields along
Logerquist Road and the ridge-swale complex. The dominant trees are sugar maple and beech with
some scattered white ash and ironwood. The understory is composed of balsam fir, ironwood, sugar
maple, beech, maple leaf viburnum (Viburnum acerifolium), and hazelnut (Corylus spp.).
• The characteristic groundcover species are downy yellow violet (Viola pubescens), wild leek (Allium
tricoccum), trout lily (Erythronium spp.), sharp-lobed hepatica (Anemone acutiloba), large flowered
trillium (Trillium grandiflorum), blue cohosh (Caulophyllum thalictroides), and big-leaved aster
(Aster macrophyllus).
• The ancient sand dunes at the southern end of Kangaroo Lake rise up to 60 feet over the level of
Kangaroo Lake and hold a mixture of sugar maple, beech, and hemlock with occasional black cherry
and white ash. Understory varies from sparse to moderately dense and is composed of sugar maple
and beech saplings with scattered balsam fir and hemlock. Groundcover has low diversity but ranges
from light to dense coverage. Lowland areas are dominated by Canada yew.
• Adjacent to this high dune is a ridge-swale complex composed of a series of parallel ridges
interspersed with swales of varying wetness. The complex follows the contour of the Lake Michigan
shoreline and occupies most of the central portion of the site. The ridges are covered with dead or
dying white birch mixed with white cedar, sugar maple, and balsam. Characteristic species of the
understory include mountain maple, white birch, balsam, and occasional black spruce (Picea
mariana), and hemlock. There is abundant downed woody material. The groundcover is abundant
and dense with such characteristic species as wild sarsaparilla, star flower, bluebead, wintergreen,
Canada yew, and Canada mayflower. The major swale within the unit is large and open with standing
water most or all of the year.
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Bay to Lake Wildlife Corridor