Giant White Pine Grove

Giant White Pine Grove features one of the best examples of mature hemlock hardwoods with a white pine supercanopy in northeastern Wisconsin. Located in the Headwaters Wilderness Area, hemlock, sugar maple, yellow birch, and basswood dominate the forest with taller white pines up to 3 feet in diameter adding a supercanopy stratum. Saplings are primarily sugar maple and shrubs include mountain maple, beaked hazelnut, red elder, and fly honeysuckle. Groundlayer species are bunchberry, yellow blue-bead-lily, American starflower, wild sarsaparilla, large-leaved aster, shining club-moss, and oak fern. Summer resident birds include ovenbird, blackburnian and black-throated blue warblers, winter wren, pileated woodpecker, and evening grosbeak. Other interesting forest inhabitants include porcupine, snowshoe hare, and black bear. Giant White Pine Grove is owned by the U.S.D.A. Forest Service and was designated a State Natural Area in 1974.