Blue Swamp

State Natural Area (No. 285)

Location: Clark County. T27N-R4W, Sections 16, 20, 21, 27, 28, 33. 560 acres.

Access: From the intersection of State Highway 29, 73, and County Highway M in Thorp, go south on M 8.5 miles, then west on MM 3.5 miles, then south on a logging road 1 mile to the site. The natural area encompasses the open meadow.

Description: Blue Swamp features a large acid peatland comprised of central poor fen and northern wet forest communities that drain in two directions, to the North and the South Fork of the Eau Claire River. The major plant communities present are a tamarack dominated conifer swamp and a brushy meadow dominated by sedges and bog birch. Beaked, American woolly-fruit, and few-seeded sedges with blue-joint grass, leather-leaf, marsh fern, steeplebush, and blue-flag iris dominate the sedge meadow. The large, acidic conifer swamp is dominated by tamarack and black spruce which rises abruptly in the eastern part of the wetland and a tall shrub zone of speckled alder, black chokeberry, Labrador-tea, huckleberry, and mountain holly occurs along the upland edges. Low shrubs include small cranberry, velvet-leaf blueberry, and creeping snowberry. Other characteristic species include three-seeded sedge, muck sedge, false mayflower, and tussock cotton-grass. Noteworthy birds include sedge wren (Cistothorus plantensis), Northern harrier (Circus cyaneus), and sandhill crane. Blue Swamp is owned by Clark County and was designated a State Natural Area in 1995.