Guide to Significant Wildlife Habitat - Door County Web Map

herbivory, and garlic mustard (Alliaria petiolata) first seen in 1997, and now under active management.
Dunes and beaches on the south shore of the island have been severely degraded by visitors so that
remnant dune and beach communities are probably no longer viable (Judziewicz and Kopitzke 1999).
• Land use is primarily natural area with low-key recreation and tourism.
• Like all previously mentioned islands, soils are of Summerville-Longrie-Omena association (USDA
SCS 1978).
• Vegetation includes old growth beech and sugar maple forests. Hop-hornbeam is a common
understory tree along with yellow birch (Betula allgheniensis). Spring ephemeral plants are
predominately wild leeks with interspersed Virginia waterleaf (Hydrophyllum virginianum), Carolina
spring beauty (Claytonia caroliniana) and Dutchman’s-breeches.
• Deer herbivory has selected beech seedlings rather than sugar maple throughout the entire forest. The
northern one-third of the island displays small colonies of broad-leaved wood sedge (Carex
platyphylla).
• West of Fernwood Trail in the center of the island are hardwood seeps, a unique feature to the island
as well as Door County. A small wet clearing in the beech forest contains dense concentrations of
ostrich fern (Matteuccia struthiopteris) and state threatened drooping sedge (Carex prasina).
Included here are spring ephemerals such as wild leeks, Dutchman’s-breeches, and bishop’s-cap
(Mitella diphylla). Other plants present in this wet clearing are meadow horsetail (Equisetum
pratense), hairy-leaved sedge (Carex hirtifolia), and black snakeroot (Sanicula gregaria).
• Dolostone escarpments break-up the interior forest. Scree slopes are covered with a variety of ferns,
such as bulblet fern (Cystopteris bulbifera) and marginal fern. Less frequent is walking fern
(Asplenium rhizophyllum) and Steller’s cliffbrake (Cryptogramma stelleri). Climbing fumitory also
occurs here. The forest canopy contains white cedar, balsam fir, and sugar maple, and dense
concentrations of mountain maple (Acer spicatum) comprise the understory. One slope is comprised
of beech and maple, and is carpeted with broad-leaved sedge.
• The north, east, and west shores house white cedar dominated dolostone cliffs. Other plants found in
such areas include buffalo-berry (Shepherdia canadensis), white camass, ebony sedge (Carex
eburnea), hairy goldenrod (Solidago hispida), rock whitlow-grass, and moss (Hyclominum
splendens).
• The beach ridges inland of the south coast contain white pines, white spruce, blueberries (Vaccinium
spp.), and wintergreen (Gaultheria procumbens). A remnant Great Lakes dune community along the
beach is dominated by beach-grass (Ammophila breviligulata), Canada wild-rye (Elymus canadensis),
and beach-pea (Lathyrus japonicus). Several rare plants found here are thick-spike wheat grass
(Elytrigia dasystachya), dune goldenrod, and seaside spurge. A small abandoned gravel pit located
approximately 100 meters from the old Viking hall contains many calciphilic species. Dominant
plants include cattails, soft-stemmed bulrush, brook lobelia, Ohio goldenrod, and purple false
foxglove (Agalinis purpurea).
• Common exotic plants found in lawns and clearings of the old Thordarson estate don’t seem to
impact the island. Three dominant exotic plants are “Icelandic” thyme (Thymus praecox), saxifrage
pink (Pertorhagia saxifraga), and snow-in-summer (Cerastium tomentosum) (Judziewicz and
Kopitzke 1999).
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