Battle Creek Hemlocks

State Natural Area (No. 497)

Location: Within the Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest. Oconto County. T33N-R16E, Sections 11, 14. 99 acres.

Access: The site is located 4.5 miles northeast of Lakewood, Wisconsin. From Lakewood, go east and north on County F about 4.5 miles to an un-named gravel road on the west side of the highway. Go west and travel less than 0.5 miles to a gated snowmobile trail. The trail leads into the site.

Description: Situated on hilly terrain along the North Branch of the Oconto River, Battle Creek Hemlocks features a northern mesic forest of large hemlock and super-canopy white pine. Canopy associates include white cedar, yellow birch, sugar maple, red oak, and beech. Small maples are frequent and there is a diverse representation of size-age classes among the canopy trees. The community has a very sparse mid-story and shrub layer but a relatively diverse herbaceous layer including downy yellow violet, large-flowered trillium, baneberry, rosy twisted stalk, and intermediate wood fern. Understory shrubs include American fly honeysuckle and hazel. Canopy gaps, snags, den trees, and coarse woody debris are uncommon here despite the large diameter trees. At the base of a steep-sided esker is a small spring-fed trout stream bordered by a northern wet-mesic forest. Medium to large diameter white cedar (8-20 inches) and smaller black ash form a closed canopy over the stream. Large amounts of coarse woody debris are both in the stream and on its banks. The herbaceous layer includes mountain wood-sorrel, small white violet, small enchanter’s-nightshade, bunchberry, crested shield fern, common oak fern, northern tree club-moss, and abundant mosses. The North Branch of the Oconto River is a hard-water stream having slightly alkaline water. The entire stream is classed as trout water with brook, brown, and rainbow trout inhabiting the waters. Numerous warblers use the forest including blackburnian, black-throated green, black and white, ovenbird, and northern parula. Battle Creek Hemlocks is owned by the US Forest Service and was designated a State Natural Area in 2007.