• Introduction: provides the project purpose and objectives and a discussion on past inventory efforts.
  
  
• Description of the Study Area: describes the ecological setting of the BRSF including ecoregions, land cover, and surrounding lands.
  
  
• Overview of Methods: explains the methodologies for field surveys, the Natural Heritage Inventory database, and site analysis and identification.
  
  
• Summary of Results: provides a summary of sites, natural communities, rare plants and animals, and key ecological processes and attributes.
  
  
• Considerations and Ecological Priorities: discusses key issues, considerations for master planning, and ecological priorities.

The report also includes 7 appendices that include inventory methods; detailed site descriptions with an evaluation of site significance, management considerations, and site maps; listing of rare plants, animals, and natural communities at each site; a discussion of natural communities of the BRSF; a discussion of rare vascular plants of the BRSF; a discussion of rare animals of the BRSF; and a full listing of the Wisconsin Natural Heritage Working List. The following is a summary of the contents of the report.

General Background

The Brule River crosses three major ecoregions, each representing somewhat different opportunities and constraints for management that are described in the full report. The ecoregions include:

• Lake Superior Clay Plain: formerly contained Wisconsin’s most extensive acreage of presettlement boreal forest. Today, the landscape is fragmented into farmland, aspen stands, and spruce-fir remnants.
  
  
• Bayfield Sand Barrens: characterized by sandy, nutrient-poor soils, and level to rolling topography, this ecoregion historically supported extensive pine barrens and xeric pine-oak forest. Today, the predominant cover is pine plantations. The “Brule Spillway,” a unique complex of natural features, is within this ecoregion.
  
  
• Mille Lacs Uplands: a ridge of igneous bedrock forms the northern boundary of the ecoregion that forms a wedge between the two other ecoregions. A rolling, glacial moraine, the region supports one of the few areas of northern hardwoods forest in and around the BRSF.

The current land cover of the BRSF is a mosaic of aspen stands, pine plantations, boreal forest, natural pine forest, pine barrens, northern hardwood forest, and other cover types. Based on BRSF Forest Compartment Reconnaissance data, aspen and pine plantation comprise the primary vegetation cover types, with smaller amounts of natural conifer and hardwood forests, grasslands, open water, and developed use cover types. Aspen and pine plantation cover types account for 55 percent of the total study area and approximately 70 percent of the state-owned, forested lands on the state forest. Within any of these cover types, individual stands will exhibit differences in composition and in management potential. Lands around the BRSF are mostly privately owned, including large tracts of industrial forest near both the headwaters and mouth of the Brule River. Small farms are common in the Lake Superior Clay Plain.

Summary of Results

Of the several hundred sites inventoried, 44 sites emerged that contained some feature of special significance, raising their importance over the remaining sites. They include the best examples of both rare and representative natural features that were documented within and around the BRSF. Methods for site selection and a map of the sites are described in the report, and site descriptions are provided in Appendix B of the report. The 44 sites are organized according to three categories defined below:

• Primary sites - sites within the BRSF that contain the best examples of rare or regionally representative natural features that were documented. All or significant portions of these sites should receive high protection or restoration consideration.
  
  
• Outlying occurrences of rare species – generally small sites located within the BRSF boundary that contain a rare species occurrence but are somewhat isolated from other surveyed natural features. Protection or restoration priorities will depend on the significance of the population.
  
  
• External lands and waters - sites near but primarily outside of the BRSF boundary that contain important examples of rare and representative natural features that were documented during the project.

Summary of Key Results:

• Twenty rare plant species were documented, including two WI Endangered and three WI Threatened. The BRSF appears to contain the largest overall populations of Calypso orchid (fairy slipper) (Calypso bulbosa - WI Threatened), Lapland buttercup (Ranunculus lapponicus - WI Threatened), and sheathed sedge (Carix vaginata - WI Special Concern). Appendix E of the report provides detailed information and lists of rare plants for the BRSF.
  
  
• Thirty-two species of rare animals were documented, including two WI Threatened and one US Threatened. Aquatic insect diversity on the main stem of the Brule River and some of the tributaries is excellent and reflects the high level of water quality in most of the river. A number of rare invertebrates were documented. A significant population of wood turtles (Clemmys insculpta - WI Threatened) is present in the Bois Brule River and some of its tributaries. The entire suite of “boreal” birds, including the northern goshawk (Accipiter gentilis – WI Special Concern), is very well represented on the BRSF. Appendix F of the report provides detailed information and lists of animals for the BRSF.
  
  
• Over 90 occurrences of 20 natural community types were surveyed within the BRSF. A master list of the natural communities of the study area, brief descriptions of each type, and an assessment of the significance of each type on the property and within the region, may be found in Appendix D of the report.

Opportunities for Protection/Restoration/Management of Natural Communities Especially good opportunities to protect and manage the communities listed below now exist on the BRSF. These community types express major ecological themes of the Brule landscape and were identified for high priority emphasis because of their outstanding condition, high significance to both rare and representative native species, or because few other opportunities to manage these types exist statewide. Complete descriptions of terrestrial and aquatic community types are provided in the report. High priority terrestrial communities include:

• northern wet-mesic forest (white cedar swamp, mixed swamp conifers)
  
  
• boreal forest (white spruce - balsam fir)
  
  
• northern dry-mesic forest (white pine - red pine - red oak)
  
  
• alder thicket

• stream - fast, soft, cold (portions of the middle and lower Brule):
  
  
• stream - slow, soft, cold (upper Brule)
  
  
• springs and spring runs - soft

Key Ecological Processes And Attributes A variety of key ecological processes exist that contribute to the maintenance and protection of the natural features on and around the BRSF. They include hydrologic processes, fire, herbivory, natural succession, and immigration and emigration. In addition, important key attributes including landforms, soils, vegetation, representative and rare species, and land use all influence the characteristics of the landscape. Each of these processes and attributes is discussed further in the report.

General Considerations for Master Planning

• The BRSF encompasses the entire main stem of the river within its boundary. This affords unique opportunities for the protection and management of a river of this size, a large portion of its watershed, and the associated natural processes, communities, and species.
  
  
• The "Brule Spillway" contains natural communities, aquatic features, and a concentration of rare plants and animals of exceptionally high significance. Ecologically, this site is not comparable to any other in Wisconsin, and it merits consideration for the highest level of protection.
  
  
• The lower Brule River area, part of the Lake Superior Clay Plain ecoregion, presently affords the best opportunity to restore a conifer-dominated boreal forest on state land anywhere in Wisconsin.

Conservation Challenges

• Each of the three major ecoregions has different ecological capabilities based on climate, glacial history, landform, soil type, disturbance history, competition, and other factors and thus has different ecological potentials to support natural communities and species. Management decisions may involve trade-offs between forest production, biological diversity, restoration, and other land use possibilities and will need careful consideration by the master planning team.
  
  
• Aspen is the predominant cover type on the BRSF and is abundant throughout all three of the major ecoregion units within which the state forest occurs. Aspen-dominated stands have replaced most of the boreal forest in the Lake Superior Clay Plain ecoregion and now also occupy many sites that formerly supported forests of pine and northern hardwoods. Upland conifer forests are relatively scarce and, where present, are generally small and isolated, restricted to steep slopes, or consist of plantation monocultures. Opportunities exist to restore the composition of the forest to something that better reflects ecosystem potential in terms of natural communities, which will increase diversity in the present landscape.
  
  
• Much of the land capable of supporting representative natural communities in the southern half of the BRSF, such as dry forest and pine barrens, has been planted to pine monocultures. Plantation cover types now occupy approximately 25 percent of all state-owned forested acreage on the BRSF. Consideration for the long-term restoration of diminished natural communities is a key issue, as these have been significantly reduced not only in the vicinity of the Brule, but range-wide as well.
  
  
• We emphasized "restoration" of lost features that merit consideration for special protection and management because of their rarity, regional or range-wide decline, vulnerability, or because they are especially representative of this landscape. However, it is important to note that tried and true methods for the restoration of forest (and most other) communities do not exist; restoration may conflict with current management of the land; the BRSF has limited restoration potential for certain extirpated species (moose, woodland caribou, Canada lynx) that require large ranges or specific habitats; and that the goals and objectives for restoration, and methods to be used, need to be clearly defined and developed within an appropriate ecological context.
  
  
• Activities and processes occurring beyond the State Forest boundaries influence many of the Brule River’s natural features and ecological processes directly or indirectly. Progress on these fronts will require efforts that are directed at the larger landscape, by the Department as well as other entities.
  
  
• Other challenges include the size, linear configuration, and context of the property, and the fragmented nature of the current landscape. In addition, ownership patterns, high road densities, regional conflicts, and dispersed information all limit the ability to manage the BRSF.

Ecological Priorities

BRSF Management

• Re-examine the boundaries of the two designated State Natural Areas within the Brule Spillway to include additional features that are ecologically significant.
  
  
• Consider sites containing features representative of each of the forest’s major ecoregions for special protection and management.
  
  
• Consider adjusting BRSF boundaries to include additional lands and waters.
  
  
• Establish a plan for protection priorities that would employ acquisition, conservation easements, and other land protection methods. Specific protection priorities are listed in the final report.
  
  
• Provide endangered resources information, interpretation, and, wherever possible, management guidelines to land and water managers in the field.
  
  
• Develop methods of reducing deer densities and/or impacts where browsing has reached problem levels.
  
  
• Identify and/or protect existing and potential travel/dispersal corridors for organisms sensitive to habitat fragmentation.
  
  
• Identify exotic/invasive species issues and develop control strategies as appropriate.
  
  
• Site specific management considerations are provided as part of the Site Descriptions in Appendix B of the report.
  
  
• General recommendations and management considerations for natural communities and rare species are found in Appendices D, E, and F of the report.

Restoration

• Restore the boreal forest community in the Lake Superior Clay Plain ecoregion.
  
  
• Maintain larger blocks of mature, closed canopy forest in the boreal restoration zone.
  
  
• Investigate the feasibility of removing the dam on the Eau Claire River above Gordon.
  
  
• Investigate management options of the Mille Lacs Uplands ecoregion and it’s high diversity of habitat types.
  
  
• Identify restoration opportunities for dry-mesic and dry pine forest communities.

Land Use

• Develop appropriate Land Management classifications per Chapter NR44 of the Administrative Code for the Department of Natural Resources. In some cases, site considerations (provided with site descriptions in Appendix B of the report) suggest limitations or guidelines to land management and these should ultimately be expressed in the land management classifications.
  
  
• Develop a long-term plan to address forest fragmentation.
  
  
• Clarify the sources of increased runoff and sediment loads to the Brule River and its tributaries, especially in the Lake Superior clay plain.
  
  
• Assess opportunities to work with local citizens, private conservation organizations, and public agencies and land managers in the region to influence the landscape surrounding the BRSF.

Top of page