General information

Provisional. A provisional ecological site description has undergone quality control and quality assurance review. It contains a working state and transition model and enough information to identify the ecological site.

MLRA notes

Major Land Resource Area (MLRA): 092X–Superior Lake Plain

The Wisconsin portion of the Superior Lake Plain (MLRA 92) corresponds very closely to the Superior Coastal Plain Ecological Landscape published by Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (WDNR 2015). The following brief overview of this MLRA is borrowed from that publication.

The Superior Coastal Plain is bordered on the north by Lake Superior and on the south by the Northwest Sands, Northwest Lowlands, and North Central Forest Ecological Landscapes. The total land area is approximately 1.2 million acres, which mostly consists of privately-owned forestland. The climate is strongly influenced by Lake Superior, resulting in cooler summers, warmer winters, and greater precipitation compared to more inland locations. The most extensive landform in this ecological landscape is a nearly level plain of lacustrine clays that slopes gently northward toward Lake Superior. The coastal plain is cut by deeply incised stream drainages and interrupted by the comparatively rugged Bayfield Peninsula.

During the Late Wisconsin glacial period, this area was covered with the advancing and retreating lobes of Superior and Chippewa. The landscape was rippled with moraines, but they were subdued by deposition of lacustrine materials. As the glaciers receded, glacial lakes riddled the landscape—most notably, Glacial Lake Duluth. The glacier receded eastward, exposing the western Lake Superior Basin. The ice covered the eastern basin, blocking the outlet of the lake, and continued to recede and contribute meltwaters that filled the glacial lake. The deep, red clays were deposited during this period of glacial lakes. The meltwaters from the glacier also contained sands which were deposited along the edge of the glacial lakes as beach deposits. Deep, narrow valleys have since been carved by rivers and streams flowing north into Lake Superior.

Historically, the Superior Coastal Plain was almost entirely forested. Various mixtures of eastern white pine (Pinus strobus), white spruce (Picea glauca), balsam fir (Abies balsamea), white birch (Betula papyrifera), balsam poplar (Populus balsamifera), quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides), and northern white-cedar (Thuja occidentalis) occurred on the fine-textured glacio-lacustrine deposits bordering much of the Lake Superior coast. Sandy soils, sometimes interlayered with clays, occur in some places. Such areas supported forests dominated by eastern white pine and red pine (Pinus resinosa). Eastern white pine was strongly dominant in some areas, according to mid-19th century notes left by surveyors of the federal General Land Office (Finley, R. 1976). Dry-mesic to wet-mesic northern hardwoods or hemlock-hardwood forests were prevalent on the glacial tills of the Bayfield Peninsula. Large peatlands occurred along the Lake Superior shoreline, associated with drowned river mouths.

Classification relationships

Habitat Types of N. Wisconsin (Kotar, 2002): Two sites in this ES key out to Acer rubrum – Abies balsamea / Vaccinium spp. – Cornus canadensis [ArAbVCo], and one site keys out to Acer saccharum / Sanicula spp. - Mitchella repens [ASnMi]

Biophysical Setting (Landfire, 2014): This is ES is mapped as Larentian – Acadian Northern Hardwoods Forest – Hemlock, Laurentian – Acadian Sub-boreal Mesic Balsam Fir-Spruce Forest, Laurentian – Acadian – Northern Pine – (Oak) Forest, and Laurentian – Acadian Sub-Boreal Aspen – Birch Forest. The ES is not well represented by any of these, but most similar to Sub-Boreal Mesic Balsam Fir - Spruce Forest.

WDNR Natural Communities (WDNR, 2015): This ES is not well represented by any of the described natural communities, but bears some resemblance to Northern Wet-Mesic Forest and Boreal Forest.

USFS Subregions: Superior-Ashland Clay Plain Subsection (212Ya); May contain small areas of Ewen Dissected Lake Plain Subsection (212Jo), Winegar Moraines Subsection (212Jc), Gogebic-Penokee Iron Range Subsection (212Jb), and NorthShore Highlands Subsection (212Lb)*

Major Land Resource Area (MLRA): Superior Lake Plain (92)

Ecological site concept

Moist Sandy Lowlands appear throughout MLRA 92, but are most common in the southern portion of Douglas county. This site occurs on plains, drainageways, terraces, and footslopes located on lake plains and outwash plains. Landform shape is predominantly linear, but can be slightly concave. These sites are characterized by very deep, somewhat poorly drained soils formed in a sandy outwash mantle overlying silty, loamy, and sandy glaciofluvial deposits. The stratified deposits typically occur below 100 cm. The underlain finer materials cause episaturation in the profile, perching a seasonally high water table in the spring, and sometimes in the fall. Water is primarily received through precipitation, but runoff and groundwater discharge are common. The soil ranges from slightly to very strongly acid.

Based on historic records, ecological and soils literature, and scattered examples of old forest stands (Curtis, 1959; Finley,1976; Wilde, 1976; Schulte and Mladenoff 2001; Kotar et al. 2002) we can conclude that this Ecological Site historically was dominated primarily by coniferous forests. Balsam fir and white spruce were major dominants, but there were considerable admixtures of white and red pine. Mesic hardwoods, especially sugar maple and basswood, find soil conditions on this Ecological Site to be sub-optimal and they occur only sporadically. The 19th and early 20th century logging and associated fires have drastically altered the forest composition and structure. Today’s stands are most often dominated by varying mixtures of aspen, white birch, red maple and balsam fir. Ground flora includes bunchberry, Canada mayflower, American starflower, and hazelnuts.

This ES is somewhat poorly drained, making it wetter than Sandy Sandstone Uplands and Sandy Uplands, but not as wet as Wet Sandy Depressions. This ES has coarser texture and is more acidic than Moist Loamy Lowlands and Moist Clayey Lowlands. Moist Sandy Lowlands often do not remain as saturated as long as the Moist Loamy or Clayey Lowlands.

Associated sites

Similar sites

Table 1. Dominant plant species