Regional Landscape Ecosystems of Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin
SUBSECTION VII.3. Newaygo Outwash Plain
DISCUSSION: Subsection VII.3, about 100 miles long, consists of several outwash plains with excessively well drained, sand soils. The climate is intermediate between the highly lake-moderated Manistee subsection (VII.4) to the west and the inland Highplains subsection (VII.2) (Albert et al. 1986).
ELEVATION: 700 to 1,210 feet (213 to 369 m).
AREA: 2,023 square miles (5,244 sq km).
STATES: Michigan.
CLIMATE: Intermediate between that of the Manistee subsection (VII.4) and the Highplains subsection (VII.2). Growing season ranges from about 120 to 140 days (Eichenlaub et al. 1990). Late spring freezes are a danger because the subsection forms a cold air drainage from the adjacent high plains. Thermal satellite imagery shows a large frost pocket near Baldwin, a town known for its low temperatures. Extreme minimum temperature ranges from -32½F at the northern and southern edges to -48½F near the center of the subsection at Baldwin. Average annual precipitation is 32 inches. Average annual snowfall ranges from 70 to 140 inches, decreasing rapidly to the east; these heavy snowfalls are lake-effect snows off Lake Michigan.
BEDROCK GEOLOGY: No bedrock exposures; glacial drift is 300 to 600 feet thick (Akers 1938). Underlying bedrock is primarily of Paleozic age, Pennsylvanian, Mississippian, and Devonian sandstone, coal, shale, and limestone (Dorr and Eschman 1984, Milstein 1987). In the extreme southeast, there is also Mesozoic bedrock, Jurassic red beds consisting mainly of sandstone, shale, and clay, with minor beds of limestone and gypsum.
LANDFORMS: Subsection consists primarily of outwash plain, but some areas of sand lake plain are in the northern part. Portions of the outwash are pitted with ice-block depressions. These ice-block depressions are frost pockets, which often support dry prairie vegetation rather than forests. Some of the largest ice-block depressions in the outwash are seasonally or permanently flooded.
LAKES AND STREAMS: Several large rivers flow through the subsection, including the Betsie, Manistee, Little Manistee, Big Sable, Pere Marquette, and White. Most of these rivers originate in Subsection VII.2 to the west. Most of these ground water fed streams have trenched deeply into the outwash sand and gravel, creating steep, eroding banks.
Scattered kettle lakes are within the subsection, both on outwash and on end-moraine ridges, which are isolated within the outwash. There are almost no lakes on the sand lake plain.
SOILS: Most of the outwash and lacustrine sands are excessively drained. Somewhat poorly drained and poorly drained soils are more common on the lake plains than on the outwash plains. Soils are classified as gently sloping Haplorthods plus Glossoboralfs (USDA Soil Conservation Service 1967).
PRESETTLEMENT VEGETATION: Forests and savannas of white pine and white oak dominated much of the outwash. Jack pine and northern pin oak grew on the flattest, most fire-prone parts of the outwash and lake plains. Ice-block depressions on the outwash (and occasionally on the lake plain) were often frost pockets that supported either dry sand prairie or, if seasonally flooded, marsh or wet prairie vegetation and localized conifer swamp.
A few portions of sand lake plain in the northern part of the subsection originally supported sugar maple and beech-dominated forests, probably as a result of fire protection.
NATURAL DISTURBANCE: Fire.
PRESENT VEGETATION AND LAND USE: Following logging of the white pine and the severe post-logging fires, white pine regeneration was generally poor. The resulting forests are dominated by white oak and black oak, often with white pine regeneration forming the understory. The driest jack pine-northern pin oak barrens did not change significantly after logging.
Early settlers attempted to farm some of the sandy outwash and lake plain, resulting in rapid loss of soil fertility and abandonment. Wind erosion also occurred.
Many of the seasonally flooded ice-block depressions on the outwash plain support herbaceous disjunct species of the Atlantic and Gulf Coastal Plains. However, the coastal plain flora is much less diverse than those in Subsection IV.3.
Present land use includes recreation and forest management. Several of the streams are fine trout and canoeing streams.
RARE PLANT COMMUNITIES: Coastal plain marshes and dry sand prairies.
RARE PLANTS: Cirsium hillii (Hill's thistle), Eleocharis tricostata (three-ribbed spike-rush), Geum triflorum (prairie-smoke), Linum sulcatum (furrowed flax), Rhynchospora macrostachya (tall beak-rush), Rhexia mariana (Maryland meadow-beauty), and Prunus alleghaniensis (Allegheny or sloe plum).
RARE ANIMALS: Buteo lineatus (red-shouldered hawk), Hesperia ottoe (Ottoe skipper), Incisalia irus (frosted elfin), Lepyronia gibbosa (Great Plains spittlebug), Lycaeides melissa samuelis (Karner blue).
NATURAL AREAS: Manistee National Forest: Newaygo Prairie Research Natural Area; The Nature Conservancy Preserves: Ore-Ida Prairie; Michigan Nature Association Preserves: Newaygo Prairie; Other: Pere Marquette National Scenic River, South Island Environmental Education Study Area.
PUBLIC LAND MANAGERS: Manistee National Forest, Pere Marquette State Forest.
CONSERVATION CONCERNS: The dry sand prairies and jack pine barrens of the southern half of the subsection provide important habitat for the Karner blue butterfly; the Forest Service is working with The Nature Conservancy and the Michigan Heritage Program to develop management plans for the species and its habitat. The Forest Service is also attempting to protect coastal plain marshes in the subsection.
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