Mountain Lake

State Natural Area (No. 473)

Location: Within the Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest. Bayfield County. T45N-R8W, Section 28. 14 acres.

Access: The site is located 5.5 miles west of Drummond, WI. From Drummond, go west on County N 5.5 miles, then northeast on Pigeon Lake Road (FR 394) 0.15 mile, then north on an access road 0.35 mile into the site. The site lies east and west of the road.

Description: The primary feature of Mountain Lake is the fluctuating lakeshore habitat that supports one of our rarest plants - the federally threatened Fassett’s locoweed (Oxytropis campestris var. chartacea). This Midwest endemic is found nowhere else in the world and is adapted to the sandy shores of shallow seepage lakes whose shorelines fluctuate widely over months or years depending on rainfall and drought patterns. When the shore is exposed, locoweed seeds in the seed bank germinate, grow, flower, and drop seeds. The plant requires open, sunny habitat and relies on periodic flooding to kill shade-producing trees that invade the shoreline in dry years. The shoreline also provides habitat for the state-endangered alpine milk-vetch (Astragalus alpinus). Other rare plants include New England northern reed grass (Calamagrostis stricta) and large roundleaf orchid (Platanthera orbiculata). The dramatic upland ridge east of the lake is primarily fire origin second-growth dry-mesic forest of red oak, white pine and red pine grading into a more mesic forest of sugar maple-basswood as the ridge drops to the north and east. It forms a large block of relatively undisturbed forest in an area that is highly manipulated by production forestry. Mountain Lake is owned by the US Forest Service and was designated a State Natural Area in 2007.