Upper Fox Headwaters State Natural Area

Upper Fox Headwaters contains three distinct units: Zinke Lake, Upper Chaffee Creek Meadow, and Caves Creek.

Zinke Lake is a small hard water spring lake with a tamarack-dominated shore. The water is deep, clear, and cold with limited aquatic vegetation that includes common horsetail, common pondweed, chara, and water milfoil. The spring outlet has a soft sandy bottom and contains white water crowfoot. Other plants include marsh-marigold, lousewort, cow parsnip, ironweed, bulbet water-hemlock, showy goldenrod, and Missouri goldenrod. The lake’s outlet stream is also used by brook trout for spawning.

Upper Chaffee Creek Meadow contains a wetland complex of fen, wet-mesic, and wet prairie with over 100 native plant species present. Running through the site is Chaffee Creek. The creek valley varies between very wet sedge meadow through fen-like areas along the gentle slope north of the creek and grading to wet-mesic prairie. Grasses include big and little blue-stem, blue-joint grass, and slender wheat grass. Featured forbs are marsh pea, Michigan lily, western sunflower, pale-spike lobelia, Kalm’s lobelia, grass-of-parnassus, marsh fern, and swamp lousewort.

Caves Creek contains spring seeps and runs, a two acre spring pond, sedge meadow and tamarack swamp, and oak barrens. The spring seeps are floristically rich and are surrounded by a diversity of wetlands. The barrens lies on a south-facing slope and contains a good diversity of prairie species including little blue-stem, June grass, flowering spurge, and bird’s-foot violet. A state endangered species, western slender glass lizard has been found at the site.

A segment of the Ice Age Trail and associated information kiosks are located on the site and are maintained to Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources standards. Upper Fox Headwaters is owned by the DNR and was designated a State Natural Area in 1998.

Sources: WDNR