Regional Landscape Ecosystems of Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin
SUB-SUBSECTION VI.2.1. Battle Creek Outwash Plain
DISCUSSION: Sub-subsection is a broad, flat outwash plain containing numerous small lakes and wetlands and small ridges of ground moraine. Major streams flow through the plain, which is divided into two parts by a band of steep ice-contact ridges.
ELEVATION: 750 to 1,050 feet (229 to 320 m).
AREA: 2,750 square miles (7,122 sq km).
STATES: Michigan.
CLIMATE: See subsection.
BEDROCK GEOLOGY: See subsection.
LANDFORMS: Outwash deposits of sand and gravel cover more than half of the sub-subsection. More than 80 percent of the outwash is in the 0 to 6 percent slope class. Small areas of end moraine and ground moraine (till plain) are scattered throughout the outwash plain. Slopes on the moraines are generally in the 0 to 6 percent or 6 to 12 percent slope classes.
Ground moraine is concentrated in the southeast portion of the sub-subsection, where numerous low drumlin ridges are oriented from northeast to southwest. The drumlins, which are commonly separated by narrow outwash deposits, are low and broad; slopes are almost exclusively in the 0 to 6 percent slope class.
LAKES AND STREAMS: Lakes are common on the outwash plain. These lakes occupy ice-block kettles or abandoned channels. Small streams are numerous; two large streams, the St. Joseph and Kalamazoo Rivers, occupy the sub-subsection. Many of the small streams originate within wetlands on the outwash plain.
SOILS: About 80 percent of the outwash sands are well or moderately well drained sands and loamy sands. Very poorly drained soils are common in the narrow outwash channels between drumlins and in ice-block kettles or abandoned stream channels. Peat accumulations can be 6 to 10 feet thick.
Soils on the end moraine and ground moraine are typically sandy loam or loamy sand, and most are well drained. A well-developed argillic horizon is common in these soils.
PRESETTLEMENT VEGETATION: Well-drained soils on the outwash originally supported tallgrass prairie or oak savannas. The prairies were located on the broadest expanses of well-drained outwash plain, where neither steep topography nor streams formed barriers to fire. Tallgrass prairie occupied areas as large as 20 square miles; nearly 50 prairies were known in the sub-subsection. Poorly drained outwash supported swamp forest. There were also wet prairies, marshes, and extensive wet meadows along streams flowing across the outwash plain.
The "islands" of sandy end moraine or ground moraine often supported savannas of either bur oak or white oak-black oak. Bur oak generally occurred on broad, gently sloping ridges, where fires were relatively frequent. White oak-black oak savanna or forest occurred on smaller, more steeply sloping features. White oak was much more common than black oak. On steep or irregular topography, oak forest and oak-hickory forest were dominant.
Sugar maple and beech dominated the drumlin ridges in the southeast. Swamp forest, often dominated by black ash, occurred in the outwash channels between the drumlins.
NATURAL DISTURBANCE: Fire was important for maintaining both the tallgrass prairie and oak savanna. The prevalence of naturally occurring fires is not clearly documented. Native Americans were reported to have used fire as a management tool here at the time of European settlement (Chapman 1984).
PRESENT VEGETATION AND LAND USE: Most of the uplands and large areas of wetland have been converted to agriculture. Drainage has allowed wetlands to be planted to row crops. Many wetlands are used as pasture, especially the grasslands along streams. Many of the large wetlands occupying glacial drainageways and ice-block depressions remain dominated by native vegetation. The shorelines of many of the kettle lakes are being developed for either recreational or residential use.
RARE PLANT COMMUNITIES: Tallgrass prairie, wet prairie, and oak savanna, all originally covering large areas, are now quite rare. Prairie fen is common within the sub-subsection. Prairie fens contain several plants characteristic of tallgrass prairies as well as several plants characteristic of calcareous fens along the northern shorelines of Lake Michigan and Lake Huron. Tamarack and poison sumac are common along the margins of prairie fens.
RARE PLANTS: Many of the rare plants found in the sub-subsection are plants of the tallgrass prairie, more common in the Prairie States further west. Amorpha canescens (leadplant), Baptisia lactea (prairie false indigo), Baptisia leucophaea (cream wild indigo), Berula erecta (cut-leaved water parsnip), Cacalia plantaginea (prairie Indian-plantain), Carex oligocarpa (eastern few-fruited sedge), Carex straminea (straw sedge), Coreopsis palmata (prairie coreopsis), Cuscuta pentagona (dodder), Cuscuta polygonorum (knotted dodder), Cypripedium candidum (white lady's-slipper), Eryngium yuccifolium (rattlesnake-master), Filipendula rubra (queen of the prairie), Gentiana puberulenta (downy gentian), Helianthus hirsutus (whiskered sunflower), Kuhnia eupatorioides (false boneset), Linum virginianum (virginia flax), Scutellaria elliptica (hairy skullcap), Silene stellata (starry campion), Silphium integrifolium (rosinweed), Sporobolus heterolepis (prairie dropseed), Stellaria crassifolia (fleshy stitchwort), Valeriana ciliata (edible valerian), Viola pedatifida (prairie birdfoot violet).
RARE ANIMALS: Dendroica cerulea (cerulean warbler), Dendroica dominica (yellow-throated warbler), Myotis sodalis (Indiana bat), Neonympha mitchelli mitchelli (Mitchell's satyr), Nerodia erythrogaster neglecta (copperbelly water snake), Oarisma poweshiek (Poweshiek skipper), Sistrurus catenatus (eastern Massasauga rattlesnake), Tachopteryx thoreyi (greyback).
NATURAL AREAS: State Natural Areas: Black Spruce Bog, Proud Lake Shadbush, Russ Forest (Michigan State University); The Nature Conservancy Preserves: Jenney Woods, Tamarack Swamp, Augusta Floodplain, Klumbis Road Prairie (AMTRAK), Thompson Road Prairie (AMTRAK), Lawton Prairie (AMTRAK); Michigan Nature Association Preserves: Pennfield Bog, Dowagiac Woods, Fish Lake Bog, Bean Creek, Flowering Dogwood, Kope Kon, White Pigeon River, Flowerfield Creek, Sauk Indian Trail Prairie, Chen Memorial Prairie, Rattlesnake Master, Shannon, Helmer Brook Prairie, Woodruff Creek, Black Cottonwood, Harvey N. Ott, Wulfenia; Other: Lansing Schools Environmental Education Center, Kellogg Bird Sanctuary, Kalamazoo Nature Center, Fernwood Nature Study Area, Camp Betz Boy Scout Camp.
PUBLIC LAND MANAGERS: State Game Areas: Barry, Crane Pond, Fulton, Gourdneck, Three Rivers; State Recreation Areas: Fort Custer, Yankee Springs; Other: Kellogg Biological Station, Kellogg Forest, Wolf Lake State Fish Hatchery.
CONSERVATION CONCERNS:
Previous Section -- Subsection VI.2. Kalamazoo Interlobate
Return to Contents
Next Section -- Sub-subsection VI.2.2. Cassopolis Ice-contact Ridges
