Peninsula Park Beech Forest

State Natural Area (No. 12)

Location: Within Peninsula State Park, Door County. T31N-R27E, Sections 14, 15, 22. 80 acres.

Access: From Ephraim, go south on State Highway 42 about 1 mile to the north entrance to Peninsula State Park. Follow Shore Road north to the Eagle Tower parking area. Access to the natural area is via Shore Road, Highland Road, or the Sentinel Hiking Trail, which forms the northern boundary of the site. A Wisconsin State Park sticker must be displayed on all vehicles entering the park.

Description: Peninsula Park Beech Forest features a continuum of forest types from the dry edge of the Niagara dolomite escarpment to rolling uplands forested with mesic species. The northern mesic forest is old second-growth, with sugar maple, American beech, hemlock, yellow birch, white birch, and ironwood; some trees are nearly 2 feet in diameter. Understory species include yellow blue-bead-lily, large-flowered trillium, red baneberry, Hooker's orchid, and bracted orchid. Relict red oak and white pine are scattered through the area. To the east, between Shore Road and the bluff edge, is a young northern dry-mesic forest dominated by red oak and white pine. The bluff drops 150 feet to several terraces, which are forested with white cedar and hardwoods. The base of the bluff along Green Bay supports many ferns including bulblet, fragile, polypody, slender cliff brake, walking, and marginal wood ferns. The beach is composed of dolomite cobblestones with little vegetation. Numerous mesic forest plants and animals are present along with several uncommon orchids. Noted University of Wisconsin plant ecologist John Curtis used this site as a representative northern mesic forest study site. Peninsula Park Beech Forest is owned by the DNR and was designated a State Natural Area in 1952.