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Natural Features Inventory and Management Recommendations for Huron Meadows and Lake Erie Metroparks

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Natural Features Inventory and Management Recommendations for Huron Meadows and Lake Erie Metroparks Natural Features Inventory and Management Recommendations for Huron Meadows and Lake Erie Metroparks Prepared by: Michael A. Kost, Joshua G. Cohen, Ryan P. O’Connor, and Helen D. Enander Michigan Natural Features Inventory P.O. Box 30444 Lansing, MI 48909-7944 For: Huron-Clinton Metropolitan Authority 13000 High Ridge Drive Brighton, MI 48114 March 31, 2005 Report Number 2005-05 Cover photograph: Joshua Cohen, MNFI Ecologist, in a prairie fen with tamarack swamp in the background at Huron Meadows Metropark (Photo by Michael Kost). TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION .......................................................................................................................................... 1 Landscape Context ...................................................................................................................................... 1 Vegetation circa 1800.................................................................................................................................. 2 Present Land Cover ..................................................................................................................................... 3 METHODS .................................................................................................................................................... 13 Natural Communities ................................................................................................................................ 13 Rare Plant Inventories ............................................................................................................................... 13 RESULTS ...................................................................................................................................................... 16 Natural Community Inventories Results ................................................................................................... 16 Rare Plant Inventory Results..................................................................................................................... 16 SITE SUMMARIES AND MANAGEMENT RECOMMENDATIONS ................................................. 20 Huron Meadows Metropark ...................................................................................................................... 20 Lake Erie Metropark ................................................................................................................................. 25 DISCUSSION ................................................................................................................................................ 28 Rare Plants ................................................................................................................................................ 28 Fire as an Ecological Process .................................................................................................................... 30 Implications for Forest Management ........................................................................................................ 31 Oak Barrens Restoration ........................................................................................................................... 31 Lakeplain Prairie Restoration.................................................................................................................... 32 Invasive Species ........................................................................................................................................ 33 Deer Densities ........................................................................................................................................... 34 Setting Stewardship Priorities................................................................................................................... 34 High Priority Sites at Huron Meadows ............................................................................................... 34 High Priority Sites at Lake Erie .......................................................................................................... 35 CONCLUSION ............................................................................................................................................. 36 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ......................................................................................................................... 37 LITERATURE CITED ................................................................................................................................. 37 LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1. Ecoregions of Lower Michigan. ........................................................................................................ 4 Figure 2. Surface Geology of Huron Meadows Metropark ............................................................................... 5 Figure 3. Surface Geology of Lake Erie Metropark .......................................................................................... 6 Figure 4. Vegetation circa 1800 of Huron Meadows Metropark....................................................................... 7 Figure 5. Vegetation circa 1800 of Lake Erie Metropark. ................................................................................. 8 Figure 6. Huron Meadows Metropark 1995 Land Cover. ................................................................................. 9 Figure 7. Lake Erie Metropark 1995 Land Cover. .......................................................................................... 10 Figure 8. Huron Meadows Metropark 1998 Aerial Photo. ............................................................................. 11 Figure 9. Lake Erie Metropark 1998 Aerial Photos. ....................................................................................... 12 Metroparks Inventory Page- i LIST OF TABLES Table 1. Survey site names and associated site codes ..................................................................................... 13 Table 2. Rare plants surveyed by associated natural communities .................................................................. 14 Table 3. Natural Community Occurrences. ..................................................................................................... 17 Table 4. Rare Plant Occurrences. .................................................................................................................... 17 Table 5. Stewardship needs for high-quality natural communities .................................................................18 LIST OF PHOTOGRAPHS Photograph 1. American lotus bed in Lake Erie Marsh .................................................................................. 19 Photograph 2. Purple loosestrife invading wet meadow/prairie fen complex of Huron Meadows ................. 21 Photograph 3. Floodplain forest along the Huron River in Huron Meadows Metropark ................................ 23 Photograph 4. Eastern prairie-fringed orchid in Lake Erie Metropark ........................................................... 25 Photograph 5. Great Lakes marsh in Lake Erie Metropark. ............................................................................ 27 Photograph 6. American lotus flower from Great Lakes marsh in Lake Erie Metropark ................................ 28 Photograph 7. Dwarf hackberry from Huron Meadows Metropark. ............................................................... 29 Photograph 8. Wet meadow/prairie fen complex from Huron Meadows Metropark. ..................................... 35 LIST OF APPENDICES Appendix 1. Plant species observed at Huron Meadows Metropark. .............................................................. 41 Appendix 2. Plant species observed at Lake Erie Metropark .......................................................................... 52 Metroparks Inventory Page- ii INTRODUCTION During the summer of 2004 Michigan Natural loams originally supported oak and oak-hickory Features Inventory (MNFI) surveyed for exemplary forests. White oak appeared to be the most common natural communities and rare plants in two Huron- species of the oak forest. Black oak was common on Clinton Metroparks, Huron Meadows and Lake Erie. the drier ridge tops and red oak was most common on In addition, surveys were conducted to evaluate lower slopes. Beech and sugar maple were restricted to management needs on lands considered to have good silt loams and clay loams. Windthrow was the potential for supporting high-quality natural prevailing disturbance within the forested moraines communities with active land management and with fire occasionally spreading into the Sub- restoration. This report summarizes the findings of subsection from adjacent outwash plains. Oak MNFI’s surveys and evaluations of Huron Meadows savannas, dominated by white and black oak, occurred and Lake Erie Metroparks. along the western edge of the Sub-subsection, where fires from Sub-subsection VI.1.3 were carried by Landscape Context westerly winds. Almost all of the ground moraines Regional landscape ecosystems of Michigan have have been farmed, whereas the steeper moraines been classified and mapped at three hierarchical levels remain forested with oak forests. Most of the land was (section, subsection, and sub-subsection) based on an cleared for agriculture by the mid-nineteenth century. integration of climate, physiography (topographic form The Jackson Interlobate Sub-subsection (VI.1.3) and geologic parent material), soil, and natural contains broad expanses
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