Details

This watershed includes the eastern half of Bayfield Peninsula and all except Sand Island among the Apostle Islands. All of the Apostle Islands except for Madeline Island are under the management of the National Park Service, which operates an office in Bayfield. The U.S. Forest Service manages a significant central core of the peninsula as part of the Chequamegon National Forest, and the Red Cliff Band of Lake Superior Chippewa manage the Red Cliff Indian Reservation tipping Bayfield Peninsula. Other significant land holders in the watershed include Bayfield County forest lands. This watershed sports the highly erodible red clay soils typical of the southern Lake Superior basin. Any land use that disturbs soil or soil cover can contribute to severe erosion. Best-management practices applied to forestry and agricultural uses are necessary in these soils. Additionally, silvicultural activities should be even more curtailed in riparian areas to prevent severe erosion. Several streams draining Bayfield Peninsula have coastal wetlands at their mouths. Two sites in the Bayfield Peninsula Southeast watershed that drain to Chequamegon Bay, Pikes Creek and the Sioux River, are part of the South Shore Fish and Wildlife Area, a WDNR land acquisition project. The project was approved in 1992 with an acquisition goal of 8,690 acres. The project aims to maintain and enhance highly valuable coastal wetlands and watersheds supporting migratory trout and salmon species. These three rivers are threatened by degradation from land use practices. Several communities discharge effluent directly to Lake Superior in this watershed. These include the city of Washburn, the Pikes Bay Sanitary District, the city of Bayfield and Madeline Island. Some 900 permit applications for 40 acre Chequamegon Bay bottom parcels have been made for the purpose of removing submerged, waterlogged wood that was lost during the region's intensive logging past. As of January, 1998, no permits had been issued or activity ongoing (Liebenstein). WDNR foresees few problems as long as Alogging@ does not disturb contaminated sediments (Liebenstein) and if enough logs remain behind to provide a substrate for the organisms upon which fish feed (Olivo). The Lake Superior Binational Program identified several areas important to the integrity of the Lake Superior ecosystem. Most are discussed under individual narratives for streams. In Chequamegon Bay north of Washburn, whitefish spawn in the fall off the exposed scenic and rocky cliffs of Houghton Point. The area is deemed important for its fish and wildlife habitat and nursery grounds.

Date  1999

Ecological Landscapes

The Bayfield Pennisula Southeast Watershed is located within two ecological landscapes: the Northwest Sands and the Superior Coastal Plains. The Northwest Sands Ecological Landscape is a large glacial outwash system consisting of two major landforms: flat plains or terraces along glacial meltwater channels, and pitted or "collapsed" outwash plains containing kettle lakes. Soils are deep sands, low in organic material and nutrients. Historic vegetation at the time of the General Land Office survey was dominantly jack pine and scrub oak forest and barrens. White and red pine forests were also a sizable component of the Ecological Landscape. Numerous barrens occurred in the southwest half of the Ecological Landscape, and a few large barrens within the northeast half. Most of the trees in the barrens were jack pine, but oak savannas also occurred in the south central part of the Ecological Landscape. Current vegetation is a mix of forest, agriculture, and grassland with some wetlands in the river valleys. Pine, aspen-birch and oak equally (27% each) dominate the forested area of the Ecological Landscape. The maple-basswood, spruce-fir, and lowland hardwood forest type groups occupy small percentages of the Ecological Landscape. Within the open lands, there is a relatively large proportion of grassland and shrub land, a small but locally significant amount of emergent/wet meadow and open water, and very little row-crop agriculture. The Superior Coastal Plain is Wisconsin's northernmost Ecological Landscape, bordered on the north by southwestern Lake Superior and on the south by the Northwest Sands, the Northwest Lowlands, and the North Central Forest. The climate is strongly influenced by Lake Superior, resulting in cooler summers, warmer winters, and greater precipitation compared to more inland locations. Exposed coastal areas are subject to significant disturbance from windstorms, waves, ice, currents, and periodic water level fluctuations. These disturbance regimes play a significant role in determining both the landform and vegetation characteristics of the shoreline ecosystems. The major landform in this Ecological Landscape is a nearly level plain of lacustrine clays that slopes gently northward toward Lake Superior. The clay plain is separated into two disjunct segments by the comparatively rugged Bayfield Peninsula. An archipelago of sandstone-cored islands, the Apostles, occurs in Lake Superior just north and east of the Bayfield Peninsula. Wave carved sandstone cliffs bracket stretches of the Peninsula and also occur along the margins of several of the islands. Sand spits are a striking feature of the Lake Superior shoreline, typically separating the waters of the lake from inland lagoons and wetlands. The spits support rare and highly threatened natural communities such as beaches, dunes, interdunal wetlands, and pine barrens, and these in turn are inhabited by specially adapted plants and animals. The mouths of many of the streams entering Lake Superior are submerged, creating freshwater estuaries. A ridge of volcanic igneous rock, primarily basalt, forms the southern boundary of portions of this Ecological Landscape. Historically the Superior Coastal Plain was almost entirely forested. A distinctive mixture of white pine, white spruce, balsam fir, paper birch, balsam poplar, trembling aspen, and white cedar occurred on the lacustrine clays. White pine was strongly dominant in some areas, according to mid-nineteenth century notes left by surveyors of the US General Land Office. Mesic to dry-mesic forests of northern hardwoods or hemlock hardwoods were more prevalent on the glacial tills of the Bayfield Peninsula and throughout the Apostle Islands. Large peatlands occurred along the Lake Superior shoreline, often associated with drowned river mouths and well-developed sand spits. The most extensive of these wetland complexes were on the Bad and St. Louis rivers. A few large peatlands also occurred at inland sites, such as Bibon Swamp, in the upper White River drainage, and Sultz Swamp on the northern Bayfield Peninsula. The present clay plain forest has been fragmented by agricultural use, and today approximately one-third of this landscape is non-forested. Most of the open land is in grass cover, having been cleared and then subsequently pastured or plowed. Aspen and birch forests occupy about 40% of the total land area, having increased in prominence over the boreal conifers. On the Bayfield Peninsula, second-growth northern hardwood forests are interspersed among extensive early successional aspen stands. Older forest successional stages are now rare throughout the Superior Clay Plain.

Date  2010

Ecological Landscapes

RESOURCES OF CONCERN - WDNR's Natural Heritage Inventory Database indicates that the following water-dependent endangered, threatened or special concern species and/or communities have been sighted in this watershed within the last 20 years. VASCULAR PLANTS Adder's Tongue Ophioglossum vulgatum var. pseudopodum Otter Island, North Twin Island, South Twin Island Auricled Twayblade Listera auriculata Lower Pikes Creek, Sioux River Slough Autumnal Water-Starwort Callitriche hermaphroditica Sioux River Beautiful Sedge Carex concinna Devil's Island Cliffs Bird's-Eye Primrose Primula mistassinica Raspberry Bay, York Island, Stockton Island Tombolo Broad-Leaved Twayblade Listera convallarioides Oak Island, Raspberry Bay Brown Beakrush Rhynchospora fusca Outer Island Sandspit, Outer Island, Big Bay Sandspit & Bog, Amnicon Bay Bog Lake, Stockton Island Tombolo, Michigan Island Bog, Raspberry Bay Chilean Sweet Cicely Osmorhiza chilensis Gull Island, Michigan Island, Hermit Island, North Twin Island, Basswood Island, Outer Island, Cat Island, Ironwood Island, Manitou Island, Stockton Island, Oak Island, Otter Island, York Island, Raspberry Island, Little Sand Bay Bog & Beach, Boundary Hemlocks, South Twin Island, Devil's Island, Bear Island, Rocky Island

Date  1999

Ecological Landscapes

Coast Sedge Carex exilis Stockton Island Tombolo Common Bog Arrow-Grass Triglochin maritimum Bayview Beach Bog, Big Bay Sandspit and Bog, Raspberry Bay Common Butterwort Pinguiculua vulgarus Outer Island, Ironwood Island, Otter Island Cliffs, Devil's Island Crinkled Hairgrass Deschampsia flexuosa Big Bay Point, Big Bay Sandspit and Bog, Michigan Island, North Twin Island, Hermit Island, Basswood Island, Raspberry Bay, Outer Island, Stockton Island Tombolo, Cat Island Sandspit, Raspberry Island, York Island, Little Sand Bay Beach & Bog, South Twin Island, Devil's Island, Stockton Island Cuspate Foreland Downy Willow-Herb Epilobium strictum Sioux River Slough Drooping Sedge Carex prasina Oak Island Fir Clubmoss Lycopodium selago Hermit Island, Little Sand Bay Uplands Large Roundleaf Orchid Platanthera orbiculata Bayfield Peninsula East, Brickyard Creek, Michigan Island, Hermit Island, Basswood Island, Stockton Island, Stockton Island Tombolo, Otter Island, Raspberry Island, Oak Island, Little Sand Bay Uplands, South Twin Island, Rocky Island, Bear Island, Bayview Beach -Sioux River Slough Limestone Oak Fern Gymnocarpium robertianum Michigan Island, Basswood Island Livid Sedge Carex livida var. radicaulis Bayview Beach Bog, Big Bay Sandspit and Bog, Marsh Grass-of-Parnassus Parnassia palustris Outer Island Marsh Horsetail Equisetum palustre Lake Superior County Park, Bayfield Peninsula East, Rocky Island, Lower Pikes Creek Marsh Willow-Herb Epilobium palustre Sioux River Slough Michaux Sedge Carex michauxiana Sunken Camp Lakes, Big Bay Sand Sandspit & Bog, Raspberry Bay, Stockton Island Tombolo

Date  1999

Ecological Landscapes

Narrow False Oats Trisetum spicatum Big Bay Sand Spit and Bog, Presque Isle Point - Stockton Island Tombolo, Steamboat Point, Hermit Island, Basswood Island, Outer Island, Stockton Island-Trout Point, Ironwood Island, Manitou Island, Otter Island, York Island, Eagle Bay Cliffs, Raspberry Bay, Bear Island New England Northern Reed Grass Calamagrostis stricta ssp inexpansa Manitou Island Northeastern Bladderwort Utricularia resupinata Outer Island Sandspit, Stockton Island Tombolo Northern Black Currant Ribes hudsonianum Bayfield Peninsula North One-Flowered Broomrape Orobanche uniflora Lower Pikes Creek Pale Sedge Carex pallescens var. neogaea Big Bay Campground Plains Ragwort Senecio indecorus Rocky Island. Outer Island, North Twin Island Robbins Spikerush Eleocharis robbinsii Michigan Island Bog, Outer Island Sandspit, Stockton Island Tombolo Rugulose Grape-Fern Botrychium rugulosum Barksdale Depression Satiny Willow Salix pellita Cat Island Sandspit, Otter Island Schweinitz's Sedge Carex schweinitzii Sioux River Shore Sedge Carex lenticularis Outer Island Sandspit, Stockton Island Tombolo, Stockton Island - Quarry Point, Presque Isle Point, Stockton Island - Presque Isle Bay, Devil's Island Slenderleaf Sundew Drosera linearis Big Bay Sandspit and Bog Sparse-Flowered Sedge Carex tenuiflora Bayview Beach Bog, Big Bay Sandspit and Bog Spreading Woodfern Dryopteris expansa Stockton Island, Oak Island, Rocky Island Swamp-Pink Arethusa bulbosa Bayview Beach Bog, Amnicon Bay Bog Lake, Raspberry Bay, Outer Island Sand Spit, Stockton Island - Quarry Bay, Stockton Island Tombolo, Little Sand Bay Bog & Beach, Sioux River Tea-Leaved Willow Salix planifolia Cat Island, Outer Island, Devil's Island Torrey's Bulrush Scirpus torreyi Birch Grove Campground Tufted Hairgrass Deschampsia cespitosa Presque Isle Point, Stockton Island Tombolo Variegated Horsetail Equisetum variegatum Sioux River Rapids, Oak Island, Rocky Island Woodland Cudweed Gnaphalium sylvaticum Outer Island Beaver Woods Yellow Evening Primrose Calylophus serrulatus Bayfield Peninsula East,

Date  1999

Ecological Landscapes

Alder Thicket Bayview Beach - Sioux River Slough, Stockton Island Tombolo This tall shrub wetland community is dominated by speckled alder. Common sites include stream and lake margins, the interface between open and forested wetlands communities, the interface between open wetlands and upland communities and depressions where there is movement of groundwater through the soil. Black Spruce Swamp Big Bay This forest wetland community occurs primarily in acid peatlands of insular basins. Black Spruce is the dominant tree. As the sphagnum peat accumulates, the canopy may break up and a very acid muskeg will result. Boreal Forest Eagle Point Shoreline Forest, Big Bay, Stockton Island Tombolo Threats to these communities include logging, increased development, invasive species and suppression of natural disturbance regimes. Coastal (Poor) Bog Red Cliff Reservation, Bayview Beach - Sioux River Slough, Big Bay, Stockton Island Tombolo The coastal bog is considered an herbaceous wetland community. The surface layer of this open peatland community, which occurs as part of the coastal sand spit-lagoon complexes, is comprised of Sphagnum mosses. The mats are typically quite firm and may be "grounded" along the margins of the uplands adjoining the wetland complexes. At larger sites, the coastal bogs grade into a sedge fen community toward the open lagoon waters and to tamarack toward the uplands. Coastal (Sedge) Fen Red Cliff Reservation, Bayview Beach - Sioux River Slough, Big Bay, Stockton Island Tombolo This sedge-dominated wetland community occurs in coastal areas on the margins of shallow lagoons that are protected from the wind, wave and ice action on Lake Superior by sand spits. Emergent Aquatic: shrub swamp, sedge meadow, emergent marsh, small ponds Bayview Beach - Sioux River Slough, Big Bay, Stockton Island Tombolo Emergent marshes are important to many nesting and migratory waterfowl, mammals, invertebrates and fish. Great Lakes Barrens Stockton Island Tombolo Very rare community. This is an excellent example. Interdunal Wetland Stockton Island Tombolo This herbaceous wetland community is extremely rare, occurring only within dune systems of the Great Lakes. Northern Dry-Mesic Forest Stockton Island Tombolo Threats to these communities include logging, increased development, invasive species and suppression of natural disturbance regimes. Northern Mesic Forest Nourse's Sugar Bush, Frog Bay Hemlocks, Oak Island, Red Cliff Reservation Threats to these communities include logging, increased development, invasive species and suppression of natural disturbance regimes. Northern Sedge Meadow Red Cliff Reservation Along margins of low-gradient streams and drainage lakes are found a sedge meadow dominated by tussock sedge and bluejoint grass. Open Bog Raspberry Bay, Big Bay This peatland type herbaceous wetland community is dominated by deep layers of Sphagnum mosses that isolate the other members of the community from the influence of nutrient-rich groundwater or runoff. Often a pronounced hummock-hollow micro-topography exists. Submergent Aquatic Pike's Creek Delta, Stockton Island Tombolo The aquatic plant community occurs in bodies of permanent water, usually where there is some protection from excessive wave action and strong currents. Tamarack Swamp Stockton Island Tombolo This forest wetland community is dominated by the conifer tamarack. This is a one-generation forest type as the tamarack cannot reproduce under its own shade.

Date  1999

Ecological Landscapes

PRIORITY WETLAND SITES Bayview Beach - Sioux River Slough The wetland complex at the Sioux River mouth includes emergent marsh and alder thicket communities. North of the river mouth is a narrow, mile-long, peaty swale between two parallel sandspits. Major swale communities are an acid coastal bog and wet coastal fen. The beach ridges are forested with white and red pine. Many rare plants and animals occur at the site. Use by migratory birds can be significant, especially in the spring. A large cliff swallow colony with about 100 active nests is present under the State Highway 13 bridge across the Sioux River. The coastal bog is composed of Sphagnum mosses, heath-like shrubs and sedges, with scattered small tamarack, plus species such as speckled alder, royal fern and bog willow. Wetter portions of the swale support a mat of wooly sedge with buckbean, sweet gale and water horsetail. The emergent marsh at the Sioux River mouth consists of bur-reed, soft-stemmed bulrush, cattails, lake sedge and water arum. Threats include the spread of giant reed gras and purple loosestrife, disruption of hydrology and water chemistry, over use by recreationists, and maintenance of activities on Highway 13. Planning by the various agencies and municipalities should provide for periodic monitoring of water quality and both rare and invasive plant species. Big Bay This large embayment on the east coast of Madeline Island contains a coastal barrier spit, beach and dunes, xeric pine forest, lagoon, and a diverse array of peatlands. The lagoon is bordered by coastal fen, coastal bog, shrub swamp and tamarack swamp. An abandoned sandspit now three-quarters of a mile inland from Lake Superior separates a much more acid complex of peatland types, including open bog, muskeg and black spruce swamp, from the more minetrophic types to the east--wetlands that receives all of its nutrients via groundwater, stream or overland flow. The floating mat around the lagoon is composed of wooly sedge, coast sedge (one of only four known stations statewide), twig rush, sweet gale and buckbean. Away from the lagoon, the more firmly grounded mat consists of Sphagnum mosses, heath-like (ericaceous) shrubs, and a different complement of sedges. Small tamarack are present, and closer to the interior spit they form a nearly closed forest. To the west of the interior spit, which supports a boreal conifer-hardwood forest, is an oddly patterned acid peatland. The interior is quite open, with deep, hummocky Sphagnum mosses, heaths, and a depauperate (stunted) flora representative of a truly ombrotrophic community--a bog in which all of the nutrients come from precipitation, and thus a very nutrient-poor waterbody. Among the few herbs present are sedges, cotton grass and round-leaved sundew. Stunted black spruce are abundant. To the east of the more open muskeg, there is a closed stand of mature black spruce. The sphagnum carpet is nearly level, and except where blowdowns have occurred, this stand was easy to traverse. Deep accumulations of sphagnum peat have apparently raised the surface of this bog enough to isolate it from the influence of the more alkaline, mineral-rich waters of either Lake Superior, the substrate underlying the peatland, or runoff from the uplands. Large tamarack ring the bog and spruce swamp, and a wet zone of alder, black ash and lake sedge occurs at the upland margins. This may be the only coastal wetlands where the fens adjoin a true ombrotrophic bog.

Date  1999

Ecological Landscapes

Big Bay .....The coastal spit is mostly forested, with all three pine species native to Wisconsin present. A narrow but extensive strip of unvegetated beach, and a dune with marram grass and beach pea, borders the shoreline. Breeding bird surveys yielded sightings for merlin, American bittern, northern harrier and LeConte's sparrow. The conifer swamp and muskeg supported, among many others, palm warbler, Lincoln's sparrow, red crossbill and yellow-bellied flycatcher. This site is rich in rare and uncommon species and contains excellent examples of many natural communities. As it falls within Big Bay State Park, also a designated State Natural Area, the major tasks are to ensure that inappropriate used does not occur and to monitor periodically for invasive species. Most of the watershed is forested, but there are also scattered small farms and residences. Working with local landowners to maintain forest block size and dispersal corridors, and prevent damage from runoff, would be worthwhile. Outer Island Sandspit And Lagoon The attenuated southern tip of the remote, 8,000-acre Outer Island, part of the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore, forms a long sandspit that encloses a large lagoon and wetlands. The spit features extensive unvegetated beach, lake dunes and a xeric pine forest. The open peatlands surrounding the lagoon are sedge-dominated to the south, more boggy to the north. Thickets of tall shrubs and small, scattered stands of conifers add structural diversity to the site's wetlands. The sedge dominated mat around the southern end of the lagoon is composed primarily of woolly sedge, twig rush, beak-rushes, buckbean and sweet gale. To the north, the mat is boggier, becoming Sphagnum-dominated, with heath-like shrubs such as leatherleaf, bog rosemary and small cranberry, as well as few-seeded sedge, scheuchzeria and pitcher plant. Of the terrestrial communities, the dunes are vegetated with marram grass, beach pea and sand cherry. The second-growth, maturing xeric forest has a canopy of red and white pines and paper birch. Jack pine occurs in a few locations but is uncommon. Balsam fir is present in gaps and scattered throughout the forest understory. The groundlayer includes bracken fern, bunchberry, cow-wheat, wintergreen, blueberry and club mosses. At least five rare plant species have been documented here. Three rare birds have been observed during breeding season. The site hosts notable concentrations of migratory birds in the fall, especially among the passerines (songbirds) and raptors. Loons, grebes and cormorants congregate in the waters off of the spit, and there are frequent visits from southbound shorebirds. Gulls and terns commonly Aloaf@ on the tip of the spit. Outer Island has been designated a State Natural Area. There are no immediate threats to this site, but it should be monitored periodically for invasive species, changes in abundance of rare species and human use (currently light).

Date  1999

Ecological Landscapes

RED CLIFF RESERVATION The Reservation of the Red Cliff Band of Lake Superior Chippewa occupies the northeastern margin of the Bayfield Peninsula. Surveys were not initiated until July, 1996, when a number of sites within the Reservation boundary were inventoried for natural communities and rare flora. As of the date of the report, the department was working with the Red Cliff Band on developing a data-sharing agreement. Until that agreement occurs, none of the new data will be catalogued. Data mentioned in the Resources of Concern that list sites that fall within the boundaries of the reservation existed in the Natural Heritage Inventory database prior to the coastal wetlands evaluation. Among the outstanding features within the reservation boundary, several are especially important. These include two undisturbed wetland complexes containing coastal fen, coastal bog, northern sedge meadow, lagoon and dry pine forest. Each of these sites harbors a diverse flora with significant populations of rare plants. Though animals were not formally surveyed, incidental records of rare birds and butterflies were made. Wave-sprayed sandstone cliffs and ledges are prominent characteristic features of the northern Bayfield Peninsula. Some of the most extensive and ecologically significant outcroppings occur within the reservation. These sites are inhabited by a number of rare plants, most of which are habitat specialists and do not grow in other habitats. Also of regional significance are the mature stands of hemlock-hardwoods. Most stands have been severely altered due to repeated and intensive logging. Many stands have entirely lost their complement of native conifers, as well as their structural diversity. A number of uncommon and/or geographically restricted plants, several of them of Special Concern in Wisconsin, occur primarily in these mature stands, especially when associated with deep ravines. The Red Cliff Reservation and Apostle Islands National Lakeshore presently maintain the majority of the older hemlock-hardwoods forest remaining in the region. Such stands include species absent from this forest type in other regions, such as white spruce, white cedar, white pine, showy mountain ash and thimbleberry. Future analysis may indicate that the Lake Superior hemlock-hardwoods warrant recognition as distinct natural communities, or, at least, as important regional variants.

Date  1999

Ecological Landscapes

STOCKTON ISLAND TOMBOLO The tombolo--the sandspits connecting Presque Isle Point to mainland Stockton Island--is an exceptionally diverse and complex association of rare landforms and natural communities on the southeast end of the 10,000-acre island. Presque Isle Point was historically an island. Two sandspits joined it to the main body of the island, enclosing a large wetland and lagoon that are traversed by a series of narrow, parallel, sand ridges. The swales between the ridges support a variety of wetlands, including submergent aquatic, emergent aquatic, coastal fen, coastal bog, alder thicket and tamarack swamp. Communities associated with the sandspits are beach, lake dune, Great Lakes barrens, dry boreal forest, northern dry-mesic forest and interdunal wetland. Several small streams drain the island's interior and reach Lake Superior via an outlet through the eastern sandspit into Julian Bay. The fen mat is composed of woolly sedge, the very rare coast sedge, twig rush, beak-rushes, sweet gale and buckbean. A boggier mat of Sphagnum mosses, heath-like shrubs, sedges and scattered small tamarack occurs in the drier swales and along the upland margins of the wetland. An interdunal pond supports an unusual flora that includes shore rush, Robbins spikerush, twig rush and the carnivorous bladderworts. A large, isolated portion of the wetland in the northwestern section of the tombolo is quite acid, dominated by heath-like shrubs, especially leatherleaf, few-seeded sedge and beaked sedge. Speckled alder is locally common here. Terrestrial communities in close association with the wetlands include extensive unvegetated sand beach and a lake dune system of marram grass and beach pea. The southeastern corner of the tombolo supports a small but excellent example of the very rare Great Lakes barrens community. Open-grown red and white pines are interspersed among patches of open heath, of blueberry, bearberry, false heather, grasses and lichen. Large colonies of moccasin flower grow under the pines. The forked sandspit bordering Presque Isle Bay on the west side of the tombolo is forested with mature pines. The canopy on the eastern fork is dominated by red pine, with a subcanopy of black spruce and balsam fir. Common groundlayer species are bracken fern, trailing arbutus, wintergreen, cow-wheat, blueberries and huckleberry. Mosses and lichens form a significant ground cover, and several lichen species are abundant on the lower branches of the conifers. The other part of this spit supports a mixed mature forest of white and red pines, with less of the spruce-moss-lichen component that gave the boreal feel to the other stand. Presque Isle Point is vegetated with a mature, mesic hemlock-hardwood forest, also with a distinct boreal flavor. The shoreline of the point is rocky, with frequent sandstone ledges and low cliffs. The main body of the island is forested, but much of it is still recovering from past catastrophic logging. The eastern coast is also rocky, with long expanses of substantial sandstone cliffs. A very high concentration of rare species has been documented here, mostly plants and birds. Apart from the many rare species, the diversity, extent, and quality of the natural communities are reflected in the very high overall species diversity at this site. The National Park Service maintains a dock, several buildings, and a small campground on the southwestern edge of the tombolo. Other than a few foot trails, these are the only developments at the site. The only problems to watch for at this time would be over use by visitors and the appearance of invasive species. Stockton Island Tombolo is a designated State Natural Area within the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore.

Date  1999

Wildlife and Habitat

BIRDS American Bittern - Botaurus lentiginosus Big Bay Bald Eagl - Haliaeetus leucocephalus Big Bay, Apostle Islands (various), Bayfield Peninsula (various) Blackburnian Warbler - Dendroica fusca Stockton Island, Outer Island, Oak Island, Devil's Island Blue-Winged Teal - Anas discors Big Bay Cape May Warble - Dendroica tigrina Stockton Island, Oak Island Caspian Tern - Sterna caspia Sioux River Slough Common Goldeney - Bucephala clangula Stockton Island Common Loon - Gavia immer Big Bay Common Merganser - Mergus merganser Stockton Island, Big Bay, Sioux River Slough Common Tern - Sterna hirundo Washburn Dock Connecticut Warbler - Oporornis agilis Devil's Island, Bayview Beach - Sioux River Slough Golden-Winged Warbler - Vermivora chrysoptera Sioux River Slough LeConte's Sparrow - Ammodramus leconteii Big Bay Merlin - Falco columbarius Washburn AS at Curve, Sioux River, Memorial Park (Washburn), Big Bay Sandspit and Bog, Bayfield, Michigan Island Light, Red Cliff-Buffalo Bay, Outer Island Lagoon, Outer Island North, Stockton Island, York Island, North Twin Island, Devil's Island, Rocky Island Northern Harrier - Circus cyaneus Stockton Island, Big Bay Red-Breasted Merganser - Mergus serrator Devil's Island, Stockton Island Tombolo, Outer Island Sandspit & Lagoon Swainson's Thrush - Catharus ustulatus Stockton Island, Outer Island, Devil's Island Tennessee Warbler - Vermivora peregrina Oak Island Veery - Catharas fuscescens Sioux River Slough Wilson's Warbler - Wilsonia pusilla Big Bay Yellow-Bellied Flycatcher - Empidonax flaviventris Big Bay Sandspit and Bog, Stockton Island, Outer Island

Date  1999

Wildlife and Habitat

BUTTERFLIES AND MOTHS Bog Copper - Lycaena epixanthe Big Bay, Bayview Beach - Sioux River Slough Bog Fritillary - Boloria eunomia Pine Lake Bog, Bayview Beach - Sioux River Slough Inornate Ringlet - Coenonympha tullia Raspberry River Prairie Jutta Arctic - Oeneis jutta ascerta REPTILES AND AMPHIBIANS Four-Toed Salamander - Hemidactylium scutatum Stockton Island Tombolo MUSSEL - Eastern Elliptio, Elliptio complanata Whittlesey Creek Mouth, Lake Superior - Red Cliff Bay RARE MACROINVERTEBRATES Trichoptera; Family Dipseudopsidae - Phylocentropus placidus Sioux River Trichoptera; Family Limnephilidae - Onocosmoecus unicolor Pikes Creek, Sioux River Trichoptera; Family Limnephilidae - Psychoglypha subborealis Birch Run Creek Trichoptera; Family Philopotamidae - Dolophilodes distinctus Chicago Creek Trichoptera; Family Psychomyiida - Lype diversa Sioux River

Date  1999

Lakes and Impoundments

Impaired Waters

Projects including grants, restoration work and studies shown below have occurred in this watershed. Click the links below to read through the text. While these are not an exhaustive list of activities, they provide insight into the management activities happening in this watershed.