Guide to Significant Wildlife Habitat - Door County Web Map

(Aronia melanocarpa), motherwort (Chaiturus marrubiastrum), and catnip (Nepeta cataria)
(Judziewicz and Kopitzke 1999).
• Nesting colonies of Herring Gulls (500 pair) and Cormorants (200 pair) make up the bulk of the
fauna. Other probable nesters include Great Blue Herons and Red-breasted Mergansers (Mergus
serrator).
• Rare species have not been documented on Pilot Island.
• The aesthetic value of Pilot Island is that it is predominantly absent of human presence, a rare
occurrence for most islands.
Plum Island
Plum Island, named because it is plumb in the center of Deaths Door (Holand 1917), is
approximately 267 acres in size and has a maximum elevation of 13 meters. The island is mostly
forested, and U.S. Coast Guard facilities are present on the northeast and southwest shores. The shoreline
has 2-3 meter cliffs along the eastern shore, gravel beach on the south and west sides, and a narrow sandy
beach on the north side (Judziewicz and Kopitzke, 1999). The US Coast Guard currently owns Plum
Island. However, the Coast Guard has determined that Plum Island is surplus property, and the process to
transfer ownership to another entity is in progress.
• The U.S. Coast Guard controls land use, therefore casual visits to the island are not permitted.
• Soils are shallow to deep, well drained, and almost level to moderately steep. A sandy loam or loam
subsoil overlays sandy loam or fine sandy loam till or dolostone bedrock (USDA SCS 1978).
• A small wetland locally known as Carp Lake on the northeast tip of the island has unique
physiographic features. It is recurrently connected and separated from Lake Michigan.
• Forest communities are diverse. Sugar maple (Acer saccharum) and basswood (Tilia americana)
forests dominate the interior. White cedar is prevalent along coastal areas especially where dolostone
is near the surface. A heavy select cut opened the canopy to red raspberry and common hound’stongue
(Cynoglossum officinale). The east and south coast have white cedar along dolostone bluffs.
One-flowered cancer-root (Orobanche uniflora) and climbing fumitory (Adlumia fungosa) are
common understory plants. In sand dominated areas dune goldenrod (Solidago simplex, var.
gillmanii) is abundant.
• Near Carp Lake on the northwest section of the island plant species are diverse. During a 1999
survey when Lake Michigan was low, a meadow near the lagoon was dominated by brook lobelia
(Lobelia kalmii), rushes (Juncus spp.), and St. John’s-wort (Hypericum spp.). Southwest of the
lagoon is a 10-acre sedge meadow. Dominant plant species include bluejoint (Calamagrostis
canadensis) and tussock sedge (Carex stricta). In a strip of disturbed boreal forest near the Coast
Guard Station dwarf lake iris (Iris lacustris), alvar violet (Viola nephrophylla), and white camass
(Zigadenus elegans) are present (Judziewicz and Kopitzke 1999).
• Animals present on the island include nesting Bald Eagles (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) and whitetailed
deer (Odocoileus virginanus). Pigs (Suscrofa domesticus) were introduced sometime before
1998 (Judziewicz and Kopitzke 1999), but they are no longer present. In Carp Lake, carp (Cyprinus
carpio) are seasonally abundant.
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