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