No Name Lake

State Natural Area (No. 432)

Location: Within the Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest, Sawyer County. T40N-R3W, Section 6, 7. T40N-R4W, Sections 1, 12. 305 acres.

Access: From the intersection of FS 162 and FS 163, go west on FR 163 approximately 0.6 mile to a gated road FS trail 221. Go south 0.75 mile to the intersection of FS snowmobile trail 214. Go southwest approximately 0.5 mile into the site. The trail comes within a quarter mile of No Name Lake.

Description: No Name Lake is centered around an undeveloped, soft-water seepage lake in a remote setting. While evidence of past logging exists, the area maintains a healthy community gradient from lowland bog to upland, mesic hardwood forest. The lake itself has a highly irregular and hilly shoreline with numerous bays and backwater ponds created by ice collapsed topography. Lake level fluctuations are common with water levels determined by changes in ground water levels. On rolling ground moraine is an extensive mature hemlock-white cedar wet mesic forest with super-canopy white pine. Several small patches of older hemlock forest with super-canopy pines border the lakeshore margins. An extensive open wetland dominated by sphagnum, sedges, and bog ericads grading into tamarack swamp occurs on the north side of the lake. Also present is a northern mesic forest with mature, second-growth sugar maple and yellow birch with 10-18” diameter hemlock and scattered white pine. The drier hills are dominated by white ash, sugar maple, and basswood. The closed canopy provides for an open, park-like understory with a sparse shrub layer that includes American fly honeysuckle, mountain maple, and winterberry. Ground flora consists of spinulose wood fern, club-mosses, sedges, and grasses. Dominant herbs are wild sarsaparilla and Canada mayflower with bunchberry, mountain wood sorrel, three-leaved goldthread, and fragrant bedstraw. The groundlayer contains a high diversity of Botrychium ferns including the uncommon triangle moonwort (Botrychium lanceolatum var. angustisegmentum). The lake and associated wetland communities appear to have intermittent drainage northeast to the East Fork of the Chippewa River. Wildlife observed using the site include a wide variety of waterfowl and marsh birds, river otter, beaver, kingfisher, saw-whet owl, common loons, and red-tailed hawk. No Name Lake is owned by the US Forest Service and was designated a State Natural Area in 2007.