M-09 - Point Creek

Site Description

This wetland was identified as a high priority site for Manitowoc County (Water Resources Management Graduate Students, 1998). It is a combination of private lands and a sizable parcel known as "Kingfisher Farms," owned by the UW-Green Bay. It includes several small patches of "coastal canyon" wetlands. These coastal canyons feature bluff face seeps and gullies that were formed by the down cutting of their clay soils as Point Creek drained to Lake Michigan after the lake levels of Glacial Lake Nipissing dropped over 60 feet. The creek is clear, shallow, low gradient, and firm bottomed (gravel and sand). The stream has been used by rainbow trout and smelt as a spawning site.

The remaining vegetation on this site includes white cedar swamp, rich maple-basswood forest with a diverse groundlayer, and conifer-dominated forests that line most of the steep, narrow stream corridor. A narrow sand beach is present along the shoreline with localized development of dune and beach vegetation in low water years. Several rare plants and animals are known from this site. This block of forest is within a landscape that has been almost entirely converted to agricultural and residential uses. It provides important habitat for both migratory and resident species of animals and a number of plants that require specialized habitats.

Additional Comments

Although not large, this site includes good examples of several natural communities and one of the less isolated examples of a forested coastal canyon feature.