Bear Bluff

State Natural Area (No. 529)

Location: Jackson County. T20N-R1E, Section 7. 186 acres.

Access: From the town of Mather in northeast Juneau County, go west on County H 0.7 miles, then north on County HH 5 miles, then continue north on Goodyear Road 2.8 miles. The site lies east and west of the road.

Description: Bear Bluff SNA is situated within an extensive, wetland complex that occupies a significant portion of the bed of the extinct Glacial Lake Wisconsin. It is a small remnant of the “Great Swamp of Central Wisconsin”, much of which has been altered for cranberry cultivation. Of note is the presence of a forested community dominated by white pine and red maple, which occupies a landscape position between wet, acid forested wetlands of black spruce and tamarack, and dry forests comprised of pine and oak. This community type is uncommon in the state with a high percentage occurring in and around the bed of Glacial Lake Wisconsin. Associated trees include yellow birch, black ash, and tamarack. Common understory shrubs are alder, winterberry, dewberry, and poison sumac. Ground flora includes skunk cabbage, cinnamon fern, and three-leaved gold thread. A small portion of the site contains a more open wetland. And in contrast to many of the poor fens that are common within this landscape, this open wetland is an acid peatland dominated by sphagnum mosses, leather-leaf, blueberry species, few-seeded sedge, northern yellow lake sedge, blue-joint grass, and bog birch. Other characteristic species include cotton-grass, pond sedge, manna grass, bog rosemary, bog laurel, and black chokeberry. Birds breeding here and within the surrounding environs include American bittern, sharp-shinned hawk, Wilson’s snipe, yellow-bellied flycatcher, least flycatcher, eastern wood-pewee, sedge wren, golden-winged warbler, Nashville warbler, pine warbler, Canada warbler, red-breasted grosbeak, purple finch, clay-colored sparrow, Lincoln’s sparrow, and LeConte’s sparrow. Bear Bluff is owned by the DNR and Jackson County. It was designated a State Natural Area in 2007.