Johnson Lake Barrens and Springs State Natural Area

Johnson Lake Barrens and Springs contains open communities of pine barrens and bracken grassland perched on the sandy glacial outwash plain that gently slopes toward the lake. Dominant trees are scattered, open grown jack pine, Hill's oak, red pine, and choke cherry. The groundlayer is dominated by sweet fern, blueberry, barrens strawberry, rice grass, poverty oat grass, hawkweed, and arrow leaved aster. The moister west and north slopes have a large number of aspen and openings nearly covered with bracken fern. Water resources include Johnson Lake, a soft-water spring complex, and three cold, hard water streams that meander through the site: Garland, Siphon, and Johnson Creeks. The 24-acre Johnson Lake is a soft-water drainage lake fed by Garland Creek. Abundant submerged aquatics are present including white water-lily, spatterdock, big-leaf pondweed, floating pondweed, flat-stem pondweed, and common water-weed. A northern sedge meadow dominated by wire leaved sedges surrounds the lake and seepage areas at the base of the terrace contain black spruce and tamarack. Formed in pitted outwash and moraine at the Manitowish River headwaters is the Siphon Springs complex, which includes Goodyear Springs, a 3-acre spring pond with a maximum depth of 8 feet. Water is neutral in pH, 52 ppm total alkalinity, and supports brook trout, white ******, common minnow species, and a sparse growth of aquatic plants including watershield, chara, wild celery, and waterweed. The spring and outlet are filled partially with silt but retain deep pockets of exposed sand and gravel. The area has a wide range of animal life including hermit thrush, Connecticut warbler, common yellow-throat, swamp sparrow, Lincoln's sparrow, spruce grouse, bobcat, and black bear. Restoration management activities have included prescribed burning and the cutting of aspen and small jack pine, which has opened up the area. Johnson Lake Barrens and Springs is owned by the DNR and was designated a State Natural Area in 1973. The boundary was expanded in 2007 to include the spring pond complex.