Jay Creek Pine Forest State Natural Area

Jay Creek Pine Forest is a diverse mix of dry to wet pine woods. The uplands are northern dry-mesic forest of white and red pine, red maple, and white oak. Most significant is the excellent white pine-red maple swamp on gently sloping wet sand along Jay Creek, an unusual community found only within the bed of former Glacial Lake Wisconsin. Winterberry dominates the shrub layer with some blueberry, huckleberry, and alder present. The understory is dominated by chest-high expanses of cinnamon fern on a dense mat of sphagnum moss with three-leaved gold-thread, American starflower, Canada mayflower, and yellow bluebead-lily. Two rare plant species, northern long sedge and the Massachussetts fern, disjunct here from its nearest population in Pennsylvania, are also common.

Jay Creek is a fast, cold soft water stream inhabited by brook trout with plant species including American eelgrass and floating-leaved bur-reed. Black spruce is a common component near the stream with paper birch, yellow birch and occasional tamarack.

Bird life includes northern goshawk, broad-winged hawk, pileated woodpecker, veery, ovenbird, red-breasted nuthatch, and pine, Canada, and black-throated green warblers.

The Area is managed as a reserve for white pine-red maple swamp, an aquatic reserve, and as an ecological reference area. Natural processes will primarily determine the structure of the forest. The Area also provides opportunities for research and education on the highest quality native white pine-red maple swamp.

Jay Creek Pine Forest is owned by the DNR and was designated a State Natural Area in 1990.

Source: WDNR