Point Beach Ridges

State Natural Area (No. 87)

Location: Within Point Beach State Forest, Manitowoc County. T20N-R25E, Sections 31, 32. 175 acres.

Access: From the junction of State Highway 42 and County Highway O in Two Rivers, go north on O 1.3 miles to a small, unmarked pull-off on the east side of the road. (This is 0.95 miles south of the junction of County Highway O and VV). Walk due east into the site along an overgrown access lane. A Wisconsin State Park sticker must be displayed on vehicles entering the forest.

Description: Point Beach Ridges features a topography of 11 alternating ridges and swales paralleling the present Lake Michigan shoreline. Formed through the protracted lowering of glacial Lake Nippissing, the ridges and swales are actually old beaches deposited during the last 8,000 years. Except for a strip of dunes and beach along the lake, the area is forested with a variety of conifers and hardwoods. A range of successional stages is exhibited, varying from shifting sand to open swales and wooded ridges. The 11th swale from Lake Michigan is lightly forested with black ash and tamarack, and the 9th ridge has white pine, hemlock, white cedar, and yellow birch. Ridges 8 to 5 have more red maple and white birch. The transition to a sandier, drier, and sunnier environment continues to the east. Ridge 2 is stabilized by junipers, bearberry, and a host of sand plants. Ridge 1 and the sand beach east of it are vegetated with the unique and specialized flora of coastal beaches, of which undisturbed examples are rare. Several uncommon plants inhabit the dunes, including dune thistle (Cirsium pitcheri), clustered broom-rape (Orobanche fasciculata), thick-spike wheatgrass (Elymus lanceolatus ssp. psammophilus), prairie sand-reed (Calamovilfa longifolia var. magna), and dune goldenrod (Solidago simplex var. gillmanii), all state-threatened. The endangered sand dune willow (Salix cordata) is also found here at its only known Wisconsin location. Point Beach Ridges is owned by the DNR and was designated a State Natural Area in 1971.