Bearsdale Creek & Hyatt Springs

State Natural Area (No. 471)

Location: Within the Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest. Bayfield County. T44N-R8W, Sections 4-9. 1,005 acres.

Access: From the intersection of Highway 63 and N in Drummond, go west on N approximately 5.2 miles, then south on FR 803 about 2 miles to the northwest corner of the site.

Description: Bearsdale Creek and Hyatt Springs is a diverse site with several excellent representative natural communities as well as numerous unique natural features. Two key aspects are its spring-runs and ponds and rich bottomland hardwood forest. The spring-runs and ponds (including Hyatt springs, Shunenberg Creek, and Bearsdale Creek) are small, hard-water, and landlocked. They emanate from springs and flow in a westerly direction, then disappear in the fine sands. All support small populations of minnows and brook trout. The site supports a unique wet-mesic forest grading into hardwood swamp dominated by bur oak, basswood, and black ash with numerous plant species more common of rich bottomland forests to the south. Bearsdale Creek passes through the stand and might act as its flood source contributing rich alluvial soils. An upland northern mesic forest is dominated by bur oak and basswood with sugar maple, green ash, and black cherry. A very rich, diverse understory includes wood nettle, wild leek, bloodroot, bottlebrush grass, ostrich fern, and American starflower. The northern hardwood swamp is a unique community dominated by black ash, bur oak, and box elder with a thick understory of prickly ash, hawthorne, and hops. The site is seasonally flooded with a diverse herbaceous layer and inclusions of sedge meadow. Situated on rough knobs and kettle topography is a mature, second-growth dry-mesic forest dominated by medium sized red pine and white pine. Canopy associates include red maple, red oak, paper birch, big-tooth aspen, black cherry, and balsam fir. Pine reproduction is generally sparse, though pockets of sapling white pine occur. Most of the reproducing trees are hardwoods. The shrub layer is moderate to dense with beaked hazelnut, serviceberry, and Rubus spp. Characteristic herbs include bracken fern, winterberry, large-leaved aster, early low blueberry, velvet-leaf blueberry, narrow-leaved cow-wheat, and lycopods. There has been little to no disturbance in this stand since the cut-over logging era, probably about 80-100 years ago. Bearsdale Creek and Hyatt Springs is owned by the US Forest Service and was designated a State Natural Area in 2007.