Regional Landscape Ecosystems of Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin
SUB-SUBSECTION IX.3.2. Winegar Moraine
DISCUSSION: Much of this sub-subsection is characterized by irregular ice-disintegration topography, with steep, sandy ridges, kettle lakes, and wetlands.
ELEVATION: 1,275 to 1,846 feet (389 to 563 m).
AREA: 2,516 square miles (6,520 sq km).
STATES: Michigan and Wisconsin.
CLIMATE: Continental, with heavy snows and extremely cold winters. See subsection.
BEDROCK GEOLOGY: The Archean-age metamorphic and igneous rocks include granite, metavolcanics (including wacke, conglomerate, and iron formation) and metamorphosed mafic-intermediate volcanic rock (including greenstone, gneiss, and amphibolite) (Morey et al. 1982). In most of the sub-subsection, glacial drift is generally thick, 200 to 300 feet over the Precambrian bedrock.
LANDFORMS: Ice-stagnation features, end moraines, ground moraine, and outwash. Irregular lobes of end moraine, in which kettles and steep ridges make up most of the landscape, are characteristic of both the Michigan and Wisconsin part of this sub-subsection.
LAKES AND STREAMS: Drainage system is poorly developed due to the irregular topography. In large areas, there are almost no streams; instead, ground-water flow is important for water movement. Kettle lakes are quite common. The water of the kettle lakes is acidic and low in nutrients.
SOILS: The glacial drift of the entire sub-subsection is acidic, rocky, red sandy loam or loamy sand, derived from the iron-rich, local Precambrian bedrock. Soils are podzolized sandy loams and loamy sands. Fragipans are common throughout (Hole 1976, Spies 1983, Albert 1983, Spies and Barnes 1985). Most of the soils are classified as Fragiorthods and Haplorthods (Hole 1976).
PRESETTLEMENT VEGETATION: Northern hardwood forests of sugar maple, hemlock, yellow birch, red maple, and basswood dominated the uplands. Forests of hemlock and white pine occupied the more fire-prone lake margins on steep south and west aspect slopes. Bogs and low productivity black spruce and tamarack swamps are common wetland types in the kettles. The forested ecosystems of the Sylvania Recreation (Wilderness) Area, a large tract of virgin forest, are described in detail by Spies (1983), Spies and Barnes (1985), Voice (1983), Hix (1983), and Hix and Barnes (1984).
NATURAL DISTURBANCE: Windthrow common. Individual windthrows were often relatively small on the stagnation moraine due to the irregularity of the landscape and the smallness of the ridge tops. In contrast, windthrows were probably much larger on the rolling ground moraine of adjacent Sub-subsection IX.3.1.
PRESENT VEGETATION AND LAND USE: Major land uses are forestry and recreation. Following logging, the upland forests are dominated by hardwoods, primarily sugar maple and red maple, with very little hemlock or white pine present, although stumps and the soils characteristic of these conifers remain.
RARE PLANT COMMUNITIES: None identified to date.
RARE PLANTS: Michigan and Wisconsin: Botrychium mormo (goblin moonwort), Calypso bulbosa (Calypso or fairy-slipper), Dryopteris expansa (expanded woodfern), Dryopteris fragrans (fragrant cliff woodfern), Potamogeton confervoides (alga pondweed). Wisconsin only: Polystichum braunii (Braun's holly fern), Tiarella cordifolia (foamflower). Michigan only: Botrychium hesperium (western moonwort), Botrychium psuedopinnatum (grapefern), Gratiola lutea (hedge-hyssop).
RARE ANIMALS: Michigan: Gavia immer (common loon), Erebia discoidalis (red-disked alpine (butterfly), Martes americana (marten).
NATURAL AREAS: Michigan: Wilderness Areas (Ottawa National Forest): Sylvania; The Nature Conservancy Preserves: Ford Eagle. Wisconsin: State Natural Areas: High Lake Spruce-Balsam Forest, Moose Lake Hemlocks, Sajdak Springs, Dunn Lake Pines, Moose Lake, Mary Lake; Wilderness Areas (Chequamegon National Forest): Porcupine Lake, Rainbow Lake.
PUBLIC LAND MANAGERS: Michigan: National Forests: Ottawa; State Forests: Copper Country, Escanaba River. Wisconsin: National Forests: Nicolet, Chequamegon; State Forests: Northern Highland.
CONSERVATION CONCERNS: The Sylvania Wilderness Area is a large preserve characteristic of the northern part of the sub-subsection. Smaller State natural areas are scattered throughout the sub-subsection in Wisconsin. Most of the sub-subsection is managed as State or National Forest land; these lands provide important habitat for both large mammals and migratory song birds. Fragmentation of the landscape is not generally an important issue, except around some of the lakes that have recreational and residential development. The numerous lakes provide important habitat for bald eagles, ospreys, and common loons.
BOUNDARIES: Sub-subsection IX.3.2 includes parts of the Ottawa National Forest and Chequamegon National Forest. The Chequamegon National Forest classification extends this sub-subsection further to the south based on soil characteristics; sandier soils without a silt cap (loess) are included within this unit and separated from soils with a silt cap to the south. I chose to emphasize landform instead and included steep, irregular ice-contact topography in this sub-subsection, as distinct from the drumlinized ground moraine separated by outwash deposits in Sub-subsection IX.3.3 to the south. The general pattern of upland and wetland vegetation, plus major differences in wetland vegetation, corresponds well to the difference in landform. The sandier soils at the northern edge of Sub-subsection IX.3.3 can be treated at the next, more local level of the hierarchy. See ECS mapping units of the Ottawa and Chequamegon National Forests for further detailed classification and mapping.
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