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