Lake Lackawanna

State Natural Area (No. 556)

Location: Within the Peshtigo River State Forest, Oconto County. T33N-R17E, Section 1. 351 acres.

Access: From Crivitz, go west on County W nearly 20 miles, then north on La Fave Road 6 miles, then east on Bucks Ranch Road 1.4 miles, then continue east on Cauldron Falls Road 1 mile, then north on Boat Landing 11 Road 3.6 miles to the northern edge of the site.

Description: Situated on gently rolling morainal and sandy outwash deposits, Lake Lackawanna features an undeveloped drainage lake surrounded by a diverse mosaic of relatively undisturbed wetlands. The shallow, 9-acre lake is fed from the north by a small unnamed stream that drains out of the south end of the lake. Lake Lackawanna supports floating-leaved and submergent aquatic macrophyte vegetation and is surrounded by a narrow border of southern sedge meadow, forested wetlands, hardwood swamp, and northern wet-mesic forest. South of the lake, northern cedar dominates the wet-mesic forest with black spruce, black ash, and balsam fir as canopy associates. The ground layer varies throughout with species including bluejoint grass, fowl manna grass, tussock sedge, three-fruited sedge, three-leaved goldthread, twinflower, naked miterwort, wild sarsaparilla, royal fern, orange jewelweed, and marsh marigold. Rare plants include Blue Ridge blueberry (Vaccinium pallida). Along the outlet stream is an alder thicket of alder, red-osier dogwood, sweet gale, and willows. Other characteristic species include red raspberry, wool-grass, and flat-top aster. The state-threatened red-shouldered hawk (Buteo lineatus) has been documented in the area. Lake Lackawanna is owned by the DNR and was designated a State Natural Area in 2007.