Powers Bluff Maple Woods State Natural Area

Powers Bluff Maple Woods features a mature southern mesic forest perched on a 300 foot high hill of quartzite.  The 1.6 billion-year-old bluff is round-shaped due to the durability of the quartzite, which has resisted erosion. This contrasts with other less durable sandstone bluffs in the area that have weathered parallel to their vertical planes giving them very steep slopes.

Dominant trees of the Area are sugar maple, yellow birch, and bitternut hickory with scattered red oak, white ash, and basswood. The understory is quite open and there is little groundcover due to the low light levels. Some common species include plantain-leaved sedge, hepatica, blue cohosh, maidenhair fern, bloodroot, and violets. The Area supports a spectacular display of large-flowered trillium. The forest floor is strewn with boulders and two boulder trains extend southeast and southwest from the bluff suggesting that glacial ice moved over and around the bluff from at least two different directions. On the south end are quartzite outcrops with columbine and common polypody fern. Also present is little goblin moonwort (Botrychium mormo), a Wisconsin endangered plant. This tiny fern is associated with nutrient rich sites and sometimes does not appear above the leaf litter of the forest floor.

Birds found are typical mesic forest species including least flycatcher, eastern wood pewee, red-eyed vireo, ovenbird, and scarlet tanager. The site may still harbor the rare woodland vole which was present in the past.

Powers Bluff Maple Woods is owned by Wood County and was designated a State Natural Area in 1976.

Source: Wisconsin State Natural Area Program, and Great Wisconsin Birding & Natural Trail Guide