Guide to Significant Wildlife Habitat - Door County Web Map

• Agricultural practices including runoff of pesticides and fertilizers are a threat. Grazing of streamside
pastures and sedge meadows can result in streambank erosion and direct input of manure into
waterways, increasing stream turbidity, phosphates, and coliform bacteria (Grimm 2001B).
• Surrounding Thorp Pond lowland area, agriculture is the primary land use, however, residential
development is beginning to appear. The most notable threat from development is seen near
Juddville and Quarterline Roads where subdivision is taking place at a rapid rate.
• The viability of the natural communities and species of North Kangaroo Lake area faces its largest
threat from the construction of single family units on the developable forest and lakeshore lands
within the project site. Residential unit construction with the associated road and utility construction
is the major cause of habitat loss, habitat fragmentation and possible alteration to the hydrology of the
shallow aquifer in the Piel Creek watershed.
• Inappropriate and poor logging practices are a moderate threat to the natural features of the site,
which could alter the plant community and destroy the natural balance of biodiversity in the area.
Destruction of forests could open the canopy and create additional forest edge (Grimm, 2001B).
While several tracts are under Managed Forest Law contracts with the state, other tracts are not.
Currently pressure to log the area is low due to the higher recreational and home development
potential of wooded tracts.
• Recreational vehicle use is a threat to discrete areas within the project boundary, especially in the
headwater marshes of Piel Creek. Trespass with ATVs has occurred sporadically into this marsh. The
landowner continues to have difficulty controlling the problem.
• Note that while the causeway and Kangaroo Lake dam could be listed as threats, their net
ecological effect on the site should probably be considered positive. The causeway provides a
barrier to motorized boat traffic, restricting such activity to the southern part of the lake. The
dam at the outlet, while stabilizing the water level in the lake to some degree also prevents carp
from entering the lake from Lake Michigan.
• Exotic plant species invasion is not a major problem at this time as no purple loosestrife (Lythrum
salicaria), garlic mustard (Alliaria petiolata), Japanese knotweed (Polygonum cuspidatum),
buckthorns (Rhamnus cathartica, R. frangula), or Eurasian water-milfoil (Myriophyllum spicatum)
have been found within the project site. These species are in the surrounding landscape however and
may become a concern in the future. Eurasian water milfoil has been found in the southern basin of
the lake. Efforts by the Kangaroo Lake Association and WDNR to control this population with native
herbaceous beetles (Euhrychiopsis lecontei) is underway. Exotic honeysuckle (Lonicera tatarica, L.
morrowii, L. x bella) are present on the uplands west of the lake.
INFORMATION NEEDS / GAPS:
• Develop list of individuals and supportive groups interested in land conservation efforts.
• Completed inventories of plant and animals species.
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Bay to Lake Wildlife Corridor