Guide to Significant Wildlife Habitat - Door County Web Map

• Rock Island has excellent quality state significant rare species and plant communities including a
Great Lakes dune community. The flora of 359 species is surprisingly rich considering the near-total
lack of wetlands (Judziewicz and Kopitzke 1999).
• The aesthetic value of Rock Island is its remote setting away from the mainland of Door County and
receives less human disturbance than other areas. The island is state owned and people can visit and
enjoy the island’s scenic attributes through low disturbance recreational activities.
Chambers Island
Chambers Island is 5 square miles and the second largest of Wisconsin’s Lake Michigan Islands.
It is located approximately 3.1 miles northwest of Fish Creek and 3.9 miles from the Michigan shoreline.
The island’s dunes, beaches, and forests remain relatively intact. This island is privately owned except
for a 40 acre Town of Gibraltar Park at the lighthouse (Judziewicz and Kopitzke 1999).
• Chambers Island is in the Town of Gibraltar. Gibraltar has adopted Door County’s zoning ordinance.
• Land use is primarily small estate residential and recreational and commercial near the dock and
retreat center. Town roads are low-specification “tunnels” in the woods. This helps to discourage the
invasion of the forest by cowbirds. Cooperation between the WDNR and Chambers Island
Landowners Association (CILA) benefits the plant and animal community.
• Issues of concern include continuing responsible forestry practices (there is a select cut for sawtimber
every 15 years) maintaining “low-spec” town roads, and assuring logging equipment is free of garlic
mustard seeds (Judziewicz and Kopitzke 1999).
• The Island is composed of sand, clay and gravel, with a maximum elevation of only 17-m above
Green Bay. Although the underlying bedrock is mapped as Silurian dolostone, it is nowhere exposed
on the island and the sandy-clayey soils give general indications of being nutrient-poor and somewhat
acidic. Topography is more similar to Marinette County than that of Door County (Judziewicz and
Kopitzke 1999).
• Several wetlands are found on the island. Lake Mackaysee is a large 374 acre shallow lake with a
maximum depth of 27 feet. The lake is thought to be spring fed. A 1994 survey showed no evidence
of exotic plant species (Corbisier 2000). There are aquatic macrophytes and several ridges and
swales on the western shore. Approximately 0.4 miles south of Lake Mackaysee is a wetland area
dominated by small leatherleaf (Chamaedaphne calyculata).
• Krause or Mud Lake is 3.7 acres with a maximum depth of 24 feet (Corbisier 2000). It is surrounded
by acidic oak-pine-aspen woodlands including huckleberry (Gaylussacia baccata) and blueberry.
Adjoining wetlands contain three-way sedge (Dulichium arundinaceum) and sweet flag (Acorus
americanus) (Judziewicz and Kopitzke 1999).
• Forests are of variable quality and are extensive. They include second growth mixed beech, hemlock,
sugar maple, red oak, basswood, red maple, birch, and an occasional bitternut hickory (Carya
cordiformis). Other vegetation is predominantly white pine, red pine (Pinus resinosa), and juniper
(Juniperus communis). Understory is comprised of violets (Viola spp.), wood anemone (Anemone
quinquefolia), hog peanut (Amphicarpa bracteata), wide-leaved panic grass (Panicum latifolium),
smooth aster (Aster laevis), and pale vetch (Lathyrus ochroleucus).
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Grand Traverse Islands