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 high quality wetlands that compose the central element of the area contain a variety of rare or<br />
endangered species. This includes ten rare plants. Two are listed as federally threatened, the dwarf lake<br />
iris and dune thistle. The latter is also listed as a state threatened plant, as is western fescue. Fifteen bird<br />
species not commonly found elsewhere in the state nest in the Mink River / Rowley’s Bay complex.<br />
Most notably are the Yellow Rail and Black-crowned Night Heron (Nycticorax nycticorax). The<br />
endangered Caspian Tern also uses the area as foraging habitat. During fall migration waterfowl are<br />
attracted <strong>to</strong> the area for forage on a variety of seed producing plants. Finally, two or more rare<br />
invertebrates including the federally endangered Hine’s emerald dragonfly thrive in the sedge meadows.<br />
The estuary, where the waters of the river and the lake meet, is the focal point of much of the high<br />
quality natural habitat and is an important spawning habitat for fish, particularly northern pike and<br />
smallmouth bass. The variety of community types found in this relatively small landscape almost<br />
comprises a representative sample of those natural communities found on the <strong>Door</strong> Peninsula. Newport<br />
State Park and the Newport Conifer-Hardwoods State Natural Area as contiguous landscapes enhance the<br />
ecological significance of the site.<br />
NOTEWORTHY CULTURAL AND HISTORICAL FEATURES:<br />
The area witnessed significant lumber shipments in 1870, when 1,500 cords of wood, 6,000<br />
railroad ties, 8,000 telegraph poles and 60,000 cedar posts were shipped from Rowley’s Bay. The<br />
following year shipments included 16,000 telegraph poles, 60,000 cedar posts, 6,000 ties and 15,000<br />
cords of wood (Peterson 1991).<br />
By the 1880’s, many sawmills were being moved <strong>to</strong> places where trees still s<strong>to</strong>od. Many of the<br />
large lumber operations had been established in Upper Michigan and Northern Wisconsin. There were<br />
many trees left in the inland areas of the Peninsula. However, for most mill owners the problem of<br />
getting lumber <strong>to</strong> the coastal piers made harvesting <strong>to</strong>o costly (Lotz 1994).<br />
All of the lumber business centered in cedar trees, which were large enough <strong>to</strong> cut. But there<br />
were millions of cedars <strong>to</strong>o small <strong>to</strong> even make fence post. About 1885, J.H. Mathews of Milwaukee,<br />
who unders<strong>to</strong>od the process of making cedar oil for furniture polish, built a fac<strong>to</strong>ry on the northeast side<br />
of Rowley’s Bay. The distillery lasted only two years and closed when the trees were used up (Lotz<br />
1994).<br />
The area’s his<strong>to</strong>ry reflects both Indian settlement and American’s pioneer movement. Logging<br />
and farming, followed by a burgeoning <strong>to</strong>urism industry has put its strains on the area over the years. Yet<br />
one of the most dramatic influences on the quality of the estuary is the change in lake level. As the marsh<br />
goes from exposed sediment <strong>to</strong> deep water and back again, the mix of vegetation keeps any one natural<br />
community from being preeminent.<br />
Despite development and use, changing fortunes and careful local conservation over time helped<br />
protect this fresh water estuary in much the same condition as when it was inhabited by the Potawa<strong>to</strong>mi<br />
Indians more than a century ago (Peterson 1991).<br />
SITE FEATURES:<br />
Natural Communities of the Mink River / Rowley’s Bay area<br />
• The Mink River landscape comprises a mosaic of wildlife habitats. The uplands of the watershed<br />
hold scattered patches of forest, abandoned agricultural fields and orchards interspersed with active<br />
agricultural lands and low density residential development. Although most of the upland forest had<br />
been removed by the early 1900’s and replaced with open agricultural fields and orchards, the low<br />
wet forest immediately surrounding the marsh and river, while cut extensively for timber, and<br />
significantly altered as a result, was not replaced with a different land use.<br />
• The estuary, where the waters of the river and the lake meet, is an important spawning habitat for fish,<br />
particularly northern pike and smallmouth bass. These two species as well as yellow perch and black<br />
bullheads make up the bulk of the fishery according <strong>to</strong> interviews with fishery biologists and<br />
116<br />
Mink River / Rowley’s Bay System