21 - Jack Pine Barrens of the Northern Great Lakes Region

Summary

The grassy and sweet fern barrens bear no mark of present utilization, but are desolate open tracts where only an occasional stump, a cluster of jack pines, or a scrub oak bush breaks the monotonous sweep of the rolling, thinly clad ground surface.

Description of northwest Wisconsin pine barrens, 1931 (cited by Curtis 1959)

Introduction

Surveyor records and other historical data indicate that at the time of European settlement, there were approximately 920,000 ha of pine barrens landscape in Wisconsin. Approximately 3,500 ha remain (Chequamegon National Forest 1993). Pre-European jack pine (Finns banksiana) barrens are estimated to have covered 20,000 km² in northern Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan (Vora 1993; Figure 21.1). Barrens in the western Upper Peninsula of Michigan, such as the Baraga and Yellow Dog plains, were also dominated by jack pine. The Baraga Plains support serviceberry (Amelanchier) and cherry (Prunus) species, as well as scattered red oak (Quercus rubra), red maple (Acerrubrum), big-tooth aspen (Populus grandidentata), and black spruce (Picea mariana). The Yellow Dog Plains are less xeric than the Baraga Plains and thus support a larger component of white spruce (P. glauca), and some red (P. resinosa) and white pine (P. strobus) (Bourdo 1954).

Barrens communities similar to those found in Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota (the Great Lakes states) also are found in New York, Manitoba, and Saskatchewan, and, historically, in eastern Ontario. The New Jersey pine barrens are similar in structure to barrens in the Great Lakes region.