Brooks Bluff

State Natural Area (No. 232)

Location: Adams County. T16N-R7E, Section 31 NW¼. 18 acres.

Access: From Brooks, go west on County Highway A 3.5 miles, then south on County Highway B 0.25 mile. The bluff lies on both sides of the road.

Description: Brooks Bluff lies on the south-facing slope of an east-west tending mesa and contains oak barrens, an exceedingly rare community in Wisconsin. The bedrock is near the surface and is composed primarily of sandstone, although there is also a thin limestone cap. The bluff summit is mostly open with scattered oaks, white birch, and oldfield juniper. The oak barrens is dominated by grasses such as big and little blue-stem, Indian grass, needle grass, and grama grasses, and typical dry prairie forbs such as azure aster, four species of milkweed, prairie coreopsis, alumroot, sunflowers, rough blazing-star, wild lupine, wood betony, and goldenrods. The area also harbors four rare plants including the state-endangered Hudson Bay anemone (Anemone multifida var. hudsoniana). The remainder of the slope is forested with a relatively open oak woods. Brooks Bluff is owned by the DNR and was designated a State Natural Area in 1990.