Guide to Significant Wildlife Habitat - Door County Web Map

• The Baileys Harbor Forest Corridor is in the Town of Baileys Harbor. Baileys Harbor has adopted
the county’s zoning ordinance.
• Land use is predominantly woodlots with lesser amounts of recreational public, idle cropland, other
natural area, and cropland. Soils are mostly deep, poorly drained and nearly level, and organic. A
fine sandy outwash or silt loam subsoil over stratified lake sediments underlay the top layer. (USDA
SCS 1978).
• Hidden Brook Creek has no documented steam rankings. It has an intermittent flow and is fairly
short in length. Originating within the wetland corridor, the creek is supported by surface water
runoff and an intermittent spring, and flows into Baileys Harbor (Corbisier 2000). In wet years
Hidden Brook Creek can support spawning suckers (Catostomus commersoni) from Baileys Harbor
(Corbisier 2000). Black bear (Ursus americanus) are known from this area.
• Vegetation consists of lowland swamp species such as black spruce (Picea mariana), tamarack (Larix
laricina), and white cedar (Thuja occidentalis).
North Bay Lowlands / Three Springs
The North Bay Lowlands / Three Springs site covers approximately 4,700 acres and includes
8,500 feet of frontage along North Bay. The water frontage represents a highly significant length of
pristine Lake Michigan shoreline on the Door Peninsula.
• The area contains a significant breeding population of federally endangered Hine’s emerald dragonfly
(Stomatochlora hineana). Four other rare dragonflies inhabit the site as well. Other rare animals
include the dorcas copper butterfly (Lycaena dorcas) and the Osprey (Pandion haliaetus). Important
plant species identified from the site include the federally threatened dwarf lake iris (Iris lacustris),
showy lady’s slipper orchid (Cypripedium reginae), leafy white orchis (Platanthera dilitata) and
slender bog arrow grass (Triglochin palustre)
• Based on research conducted in the late 1970’s, the waters of North Bay are an important spawning
site for lake whitefish (Coregonus clupeaformis). It is estimated that 1.1 million young are produced
annually in the coastal waters from Moonlight Bay to North Bay. North Bay, with its feeder streams,
also provides spawning habitat for northern pike, yellow perch, smallmouth bass, rainbow and brown
trout, and chinook salmon.
• The major disturbance to lands within the area has been through logging of forests. A small amount
of high land from which trees were removed prior to farming are in some stage of succession back to
forest. Lowland forest which were logged for cedar posts and lumber, were never cleared completely
for farming, and have since returned to full canopy coverage by native species, primarily white cedar
(Thuja occidentalis), tamarack (Larix laricina), balsam fir (Abies balsamea), and black ash (Fraxinus
nigra).
• The sand ridge and swale forest to the west of North Bay has recovered from historic logging to a
forest dominated by white birch (Betula papyrifera), red maple (Acer rubrum), white spruce (Picea
glauca), white cedar (Thuja occidentalis), and mountain maple (Acer spicatum).
• Tracts on the periphery of the project area remain unforested, having been most recently under
grazing. Farming has ended on most of these tracts, and they are slowly converting to shrubby old
fields.
Ephraim / Baileys Harbor Forest Corridor & North Bay Lowlands 111