Bass Lake Peatlands State Natural Area

Bass Lake Peatlands is a vast, open peatland with scattered trees and drains to the southwest from Bass Lake and beyond where it forms the headwaters of Little Connor Creek. Hummocks of sphagnum mosses form a continuous carpet that supports a scattering of stunted black spruce and tamarack and ericaceous shrubs including bog laurel, leather-leaf, and Labrador-tea. Other species present include few-flowered sedge, few-seeded sedge, tussock cotton-grass, narrow-leaved cotton-grass, round-leaved sundew, and pitcher plant. Areas with more nutrient-rich waters support species such as swamp loosestrife, swamp candles, river horsetail, wild calla, bog birch, crested shield fern, and bogbean. Bass Lake is a deep, 94-acre soft-water seepage lake with clear water. Specialized aquatic plants from the "sterile rosette" group are present. These small, stiff-leaved plants hug the lake bottom and are able to absorb CO2 from the sediment through their roots. Boggy wetlands and mature second-growth hemlock-white pine forests surround the lake. Richer stands of northern mesic forest dominated by sugar maple, basswood, and white ash are located further from shore. As with many areas on the Forest and around the state, deer browse is heavy and in most places hemlock regeneration is limited to tiny seedlings. Birds include Nashville warbler, yellow-rumped warbler, palm warbler, Lincoln's sparrow, cedar waxwing, yellow-bellied flycatcher, gray jay, common loon, and bald eagle. Bass Lake Peatlands is owned by the DNR and was designated a State Natural Area in 2010.