Moquah Barrens

State Natural Area (No. 83)

Location: Within Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest, Bayfield County. T48N-R7W, Section 23. 640 acres.

Access: From the intersection of Highway 2 and County E in the Village of Ino, go north on Ino Road (FR 236) 7 miles to the southern boundary of the site. Park on the road.

Description: Moquah Barrens lies near the east end of an extensive outwash sand plain in northwestern Wisconsin and features Pine Barrens with jack and red pine with associated red oak, red maple, trembling aspen, large-toothed aspen, and white birch. Originally an extensive pine barrens, the Forest Service set aside this mile-square area in the early 1930's as a research site to study natural succession on sandy and sandy loam soils in the absence of fire. Historically, the droughty soils and frequent fires maintained the openness of the barrens. Today, however, after decades of fire protection, some rather dense forest stands have developed and some of the openings, which were common in the past, are now being filled with woody vegetation. The vegetation varies from large openings dominated by blueberry, bearberry, sweet fern and prairie rose to rather dense stands of jack pine and aspen. In some areas the litter layer has increased and is allowing more mesophytic species, such as sugar maple and black cherry, to invade. The shrub layer is dominated by serviceberry, dewberry, sweet fern blueberry, hazel, honeysuckle, and sand cherry. Ground layer herbs include abundant bracken fern, large-leaved aster, Canada mayflower, wintergreen, and pearly everlasting. Breeding bird surveys have shown a gradual change from open barrens species through successional forest species to the closed-forest bird community now present including Connecticut, black-and-white, black-throated green, and pine warblers. The USDA Forest Service manages this area and photographic points have been established to record vegetation changes over time. Moquah Barrens is owned by the US Forest Service and was designated a State Natural Area in 1970.