Guide to Significant Wildlife Habitat - Door County Web Map

• Near the Green Bay shoreline, soils are deep, poorly drained, nearly level and underlain by fine sand
outwash or silt loam subsoil over stratified lake sediments (USDA SCS 1978).
• Renard Creek and portions of Silver Creek provide a drainage function for the swamp and hardwood
areas.
• Vegetation consists of silver maple (Acer saccharinum), green ash (Fraxinus pennsylvanica), willow
(Salix spp.), wood nettle (Laportea canadensis), ferns, sedges (Carex spp.) and dense stands of
Canada yew (Taxus canadensis) on the edge of the swamp and on adjacent ridges. The habitat is
considered high quality and diverse (SWIS 1992). Numerous standing dead trees are present
affording good wildlife habitat.
• Renard Swamp is a good breeding habitat for frogs. Songbirds, woodpeckers, nuthatches, finches,
orioles, and waterfowl use the wet woodland during the summer months. White-tailed deer, wild
turkey (Meleagris gallopavo), coyote (Canis latrans), and red fox (Vulpes vulpes) have been known
to reside in this area.
• Plant and animal inventories have not been completed and are needed to determine if threatened or
endangered species are in the area.
Renard Creek
Renard Creek is approximately 6 miles in length, and is part of the 11.5 square mile Renard
Creek subwatershed. This perennial stream is a warm water forage fishery. The upper section of the
stream flows intermittently and floods easily; the lower reach flows continuously and is more stable.
Renard Creek flows into Green Bay about 3 miles north of the Door County line (Sweeney et al., 1996).
The fair to poor habitat ranking of the stream is possibly due to the many small dairy farms along the
length of the stream (Corbisier 2000).
• The surrounding land use is primarily pastured or cropped with very little buffering along the stream
course. At the point where the two branches converge and extending to where Renard Creek empties
into the waters of Green Bay, the primary land use is wooded residential.
• Soils are deep, moderately well drained, and nearly level to sloping soils with a loamy sand to silt
loam subsoil over sandy loam or loam till (USDA SCS 1978).
• Renard Creek is considered a warm water forage fish community, indicating that waters are capable
of supporting an abundant diverse community of forage fish and other aquatic life (Sweeney et al.
1996).
• Vegetation has not been documented, however filamentous algae has been seen in the creek
(Corbisier 2000).
• Spring runs of suckers (Catostomus spp.) occur annually along with intermittent use of the stream by
smelt (Osmerus mordax) and occasionally northern pike (Esox lucious). Otters (Lutra canadensis)
have been seen near the mouth of Renard Creek and the Bay of Green Bay (Corbisier 2000).
• It is unknown if threatened or endangered plant and animal species are present, as biological
inventories are incomplete.
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Renard Swamp