Wheeler Lake State Natural Area

Wheeler Lake contains a wetland complex with several scattered stands of older growth hemlock and fire origin red pine. The site is remote, poorly roaded, and adjacent to the Goodman tract. The pine is found on upland islands and peninsulas on the western end of the site. Scattered throughout are upland white cedar and black spruce with an occasional large diameter white spruce. Wheeler Lake is a shallow bog lake and contains a black tern colony, common loons, and gray jays. The higher quality stands of northern dry and dry-mesic forest are fire origin red pine. The oldest trees appear to be about 85 years old with the stand records indicating origin dates of 1920, 1922, 1929, and 1937. The understory is generally open with scattered bracken fern, bunchberry, spinulose wood fern, and wild sarsaparilla. There is little to no pine regeneration. Trembling aspen dominates sites with a more recent history of clear cutting. Hemlock and older-growth hardwoods including sugar maple and yellow birch dominate the northern mesic forest. Other communities include open bog dominated by sphagnum, leather-leaf, American woolly-fruit sedge, and few-seeded sedge; alder thicket; and northern sedge meadow dominated by tussock sedge and bluejoint grass. Wheeler Lake is a 44-acre shallow, medium hard-water drained lake surrounded by wetlands grading from open bog to emergent aquatic to northern wet forest. Bird life includes a black tern colony, common loon, and gray jay. Common plant species within and surrounding the lake include white water-lily, yellow water-lily, broad-leaved cat-tail, spotted joe-pye weed, northern blue flag iris, bladderworts, and pondweeds. Wheeler Lake is owned by the US Forest Service and was designated a State Natural Area in 2007.