Guide to Significant Wildlife Habitat - Door County Web Map

• The beach area has many dry and wet sand areas and interdunal swales. One large swale includes an
unusual community of plants preferring wet calcareous soils (Merryfield 2000).
• Common plant species include brook lobelia (Lobelia kalmii) shrubby cinquefoil (Pentaphylloides
floribunda), Arctic primrose (Primula mistassinica), low calamint, slender bog arrow-grass
(Triglochin palustris), bladderworts (Utricularia spp.), and various sedges.
• Drier dunes contain drought resistant plants like bearberry (Arctostaphylos uva-ursi), junipers
(Juniperus spp.), and sand coreopsis (Coreopsis lanceolata). Behind the dunes is a mixed coniferhardwood
forest of red and white pines, white cedar, balsam fir (Abies balsamea), and American
beech (Merryfield 2000).
• Other plants common at Jackson Harbor are Seneca snakeroot (Polygala senega) and Iceland moss
(Cetraria islandica).
• A sand spit at the entrance point to Jackson Harbor attracts gulls, terns, shorebirds and waterfowl
(Merryfield 2000). Many species of songbirds are common in Jackson Harbor (Zimmerman 1989).
Big and Little Marsh
Together Big and Little Marsh are approximately 570 acres located halfway up the eastern coast
of Washington Island. Percy Johnson County Park is 5 acres located near a sandy barrier beach mostly
developed with unpaved roads and houses. The park contains good quality remnant Great Lakes Beach
and Lake Dune communities with several rare plants. Behind the beach is undeveloped open wetland and
wooded swamp called Big Marsh. Northeast of Big Marsh is Little Marsh also known as Wickman
Marsh (Corbisier 2000). It includes swamp hardwoods and an ephemeral pond (Merryfield 2000).
• Both Big and Little Marsh are privately owned, and there is some residential development
(Zimmerman 1989).
• Big Marsh has sections containing patches of nearly bare marl with pavements of dolostone gravel
and cobbles exposed when water levels are low (Merryfield 2000).
• Water depth in Big Marsh ranges from 2 feet in the spring to completely dry in the fall. Water levels
are also dependent on Lake Michigan (Merryfield 2000). Little Marsh contains 14 acres of open
water segmented by woodland creating a north and south basin. Maximum depth is 1.5 feet
(Corbisier 2000).
• Big Marsh is a combination of boreal rich fen, and relatively high quality northern wet-mesic forest.
A 38-acre emergent aquatic marsh is located on marl substrate dominated by softstem bulrush
(Schoenoplectus tabernaemontani). Southwest is a 60-acre northern wet-mesic forest or white cedar
swamp of high quality. Northwest of the marsh is a 7-acre boreal rich fen dominated by wire-leaved
sedges, sweet gale, shrubby cinquefoil, and swamp buckthorn (Rhamnus alnifolius). Little Marsh
contains lower quality communities, predominantly a northern hardwood swamp dominated by black
ash (Fraxinus nigra), and an ephemeral pond (Merryfield 2000).
• Little Marsh provides resting habitat for waterfowl during migration (Corbisier 2000).
• Several rare plant species occur in Big Marsh and its surrounding area.
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