Sunrise Lake

State Natural Area (No. 485)

Location: Within the Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest. Oconto County. T32N-R17E, Sections 28, 29, 32, 33. 593 acres.

Access: From the junction of STH 32 and CTH W in Mountain, travel east on CTH W to the junction of CTH W and FR 2319 (Sunrise Lake Road). The complex lies to the northeast and southwest of this intersection.

Description: Sunrise Lake features a significant acreage of older natural red and white pine-dominated forest. Hemlock, including a small amount of old growth, is also found here in unusual abundance, with good regeneration occurring in a few places. Pine does well on the sandy soils found here, where competition from hardwoods is not severe. In some areas only one pine species occurs, though a mixture of both is the usual case. Sizes range up to 26 inches in diameter for red pine and at least 36 inches in diameter for super-canopy white pine. The pine stands nearly always have an understory of red maple/red oak and early-successional species, but in some areas white pine exhibits excellent regeneration and is the dominant understory species. Hemlock is scattered nearly throughout the complex, but in a few places occurs in dense, fire-origin stands with pine super-canopies. Hemlock sizes in these stands is generally less than 16 inches, but a small grove of old-growth hemlock with diameters to 36 inches is present at the edge of a lowland stand which probably afforded protection from the fires which once swept through this area. Other upland stands contain various mixtures of pine, red oak, red maple, balsam fir, sugar maple, paper birch, aspen, beech, and the uncommon butternut. One area contains large open grown red oak with butternut up to 28 inches in diameter that appears healthy. Common groundlayer species include blackberries, bracken fern, winterberry, and pipsissiwa, with maple-leaved Viburnum, leatherwood, and eastern hop-hornbeam found in the more mesic and nutrient-rich stands. Located along Macauley Creek are very high-quality white-cedar or swamp hardwoods. Spurred gentian, royal fern, numerous orchids are present, and dwarf scouring-rush (Equisetum scirpoides), rather uncommon in Wisconsin, is abundant along the creek. At the north edge of the complex is a mixed swamp of black ash, white cedar, red maple, yellow birch, and hemlock with a population of the rare white adder’s-mouth (Malaxis brachypoda). To the south, a small bog lake is surrounded by a black spruce-tamarack swamp. Rock outcrops, though not as extensive as in the nearby Hager Mountain LAD complex, add significant diversity. For its size, the Sunrise Lake complex contains a remarkable diversity of quality habitats. Sunrise Lake is owned by the US Forest Service and was designated a State Natural Area in 2007.