Camp Lake and Pines

State Natural Area (No. 506)

Location: Within the Northern Highland-American Legion State Forest, Vilas County. T41N-R6E, Sections 26, 27, 34. 243 acres.

Access: From the junction of County M and Highway 51 (ca. 6 miles north of Woodruff), go north on 51 nearly one mile, then west on Woods Road 1.9 miles to the north end of Camp Lake.

Description: Camp Lake and Pines features a dry-mesic forest bordering the east and south sides of Camp Lake, an undisturbed soft-water seepage lake. The canopy is dominated by large red pine and white pine with red oak, red maple, paper birch, balsam fir, big-tooth aspen, and white spruce. The tall shrub layer is composed primarily of beaked hazelnut. Low shrubs and herbs are wintergreen, Canada mayflower, American starflower, early low blueberry, velvet-leaf blueberry, trailing arbutus, and pipsissewa. The forest, although small in extent, is mature and shows little evidence of recent disturbance. Old-growth structural characteristics are beginning to appear. The 37-acre Camp Lake has extremely soft, clear water and a sand and gravel bottom. The flora includes a number of plants that are adapted to the highly oligotrophic (infertile) conditions and are able to absorb CO2 from the sediment through their roots. This rare plant group, called “sterile rosette flora”, are small stiff-leaved plants that hug the lake bottom and are indicative of the lake’s soft-water conditions. Plants include water lobelia, seven-angle pipewort, small waterwort, slender water-milfoil, brown-fruited rush, and golden-pert. Other plants of note are hidden-fruited bladderwort, northeastern bladderwort, and clustered beak-rush. Rare and uncommon birds using the lake include American black duck, bald eagle, and common loon. Other birds are blackburnian warbler, pine warbler, pileated woodpecker, and ovenbird. Camp Lake and Pines is owned by the DNR and was designated a State Natural Area in 2007.