General information

Provisional. A provisional ecological site description has undergone quality control and quality assurance review. It contains a working state and transition model and enough information to identify the ecological site.

MLRA notes

Major Land Resource Area (MLRA): 095X–Eastern Wisconsin, Northern Illinois, and Upper Michigan Drift Plain

This MLRA is characterized by nearly level to rolling till plains, outwash plains, drumlin fields, and glacial lake plains. It is used to produce cash crops, feed grain, and livestock. It includes the shorelines of Lake Winnebago and Lake Michigan. This area is in Wisconsin (85 percent), Illinois (10 percent), and Michigan (5 percent). It makes up about 17,255 square miles (44,690 square kilometers). This area is in the Central Lowland province of the Interior Plains. Most of the area is in the Eastern Lake section. A narrow strip along the southwestern edge of the area is in the Wisconsin Driftless section. The southwestern quarter is in the Till Plains section. The nearly level to rolling till plains, glacial lake plains, and outwash plains are mixed with drumlin fields, ground moraines, end moraines, flood plains, lake terraces, beaches, dunes, swamps, and marshes. Most of the southern part of this area has belts of morainic hills and ridges and nearly level outwash terraces. Drumlins are prominent features in the central part of the area. Glaciokarst topography occurs in the east-central parts of the area influenced by underlying Niagara Dolomite. Lakes and streams are numerous, and streams generally form a dendritic drainage pattern. Elevation ranges from 530 to 1,580 feet (160 to 480 meters). Local relief is mainly 25 feet (8 meters), but the moraines, drumlins, and bedrock escarpments rise 80 to 330 feet (25 to 100 meters) above the adjacent valleys.

The annual precipitation ranges from 28 to 37 inches (700 to 950 millimeters) with a mean of 33 inches (840 millimeters). The annual temperature ranges from 41 to 48 degrees F (5.1 to 9.2 degrees C) with a mean of 46 degrees F (7.7 degrees C). The freeze-free period ranges from 115 to 185 days with a mean of 155 days. It decreases in length from south to north and from the shore of Lake Michigan inland. Lake Michigan helps to moderate the climate of the area.

This MLRA is mostly covered with glacial drift of Wisconsin age. Some of the higher areas are moraines that appear as arc-shaped ridges representing the retreat of the ice from south to north. Most of the bedrock in the area consists of Silurian, Ordovician, and Cambrian sandstone, limestone, and dolomite. Some igneous and metamorphic rocks underlie the northwestern edge of the area. Devonian limestone and shale occur at the far eastern edge in the Milwaukee area.

The dominant soil orders in this MLRA are Alfisols, Entisols, Histosols, Mollisols, and Spodosols. The soils in the area dominantly have a mesic or frigid temperature regime, an aquic or udic moisture regime, and mixed mineralogy. They are very deep, excessively drained to very poorly drained, and sandy to clayey. Areas of Spodosols and soils with a frigid soil temperature regime occur in the northern part of the MLRA.
The northern part of this MLRA supports natural stands of mixed northern hardwoods and pine. Sugar maple, oak, white ash, elm, yellow birch, white pine, red pine, and American beech are the principal species. Low-lying areas support both mixed hardwoods and conifers. Elm, soft maple, black ash, and northern white cedar are the major species. Brush and sedge meadows also occur in the low-lying areas.

The southern part of this MLRA supports hardwoods and prairie vegetation. Uplands support natural stands of oak, sugar maple, and hickory, and natural prairie vegetation is characterized by little bluestem and big bluestem. Many of the prairies have scattered oak and hickory trees. Low-lying areas support sedge and grass meadows and mixed stands of hardwoods and conifers. Elm, ash, eastern cottonwood, soft maple, and white cedar are the major species in the low-lying areas. (USDA-NRCS, 2022)

LRU notes

The Southern Wisconsin and Northern Illinois Drift Plain LRU (Land Resource Unit) (95XB) corresponds closely to the Central Sand Hills and Southeast Glacial Plains Ecological Landscapes. Some of the following brief overview is borrowed from the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources Ecological Landscape publication (2015).

The Southern Wisconsin and Northern Illinois Drift Plain MLRA is found in southeast Wisconsin and extends into northern Illinois. The Wisconsin portion of this LRU is approximately 6.3 million acres (9,900 square miles). This LRU was entirely glaciated – mostly formed by the Green Bay and Lake Michigan Lobes of the Wisconsin Glaciation except the southern part, which was covered by an earlier glaciation. The landscape is dominated by till plains with drumlins, but also has large areas of outwash, pitted outwash, and glaciolacustrine deposits. The LRUcontains the Kettle Interlobate Moraine—the end moraine system formed where the Green Bay and Lake Michigan lobes met. The thickness of glacial deposits is typically less than 15 meters deep throughout the LRU, but the eastern portion can reach up to 60 meters thick. Nearly all the LRU is covered in a loess cap ranging from 1.2 meters (in the west) to 15 centimeters (in the east).

The northwest portion of LRU 95XB is part of the Central Sand Hills Ecological Landscape. The area from Portage County south through Marquette is dominated by till plains covered in outwash. The Green Bay Lobe deposited the till and created a morainal system along the west margin. The Johnstown moraine is the terminal moraine, but smaller, lateral moraines are also prominent on the landscape. As the glacier receded, meltwaters covered the intermorainal till plain with sand and gravel outwash sediments, sometimes covering blocks of ice. As the temperatures rose, the ice melted and collapsed the surface, creating an extensive area of pitted outwash. Till in this area is sandy and lacks dolomite found in other tills of this LRU. It may be hard to distinguish from the sandy outwash of the area. The rest of the northwest portion is dominated by till plains and glacial lake sediments. Glacial Lake Wisconsin covered a portion of this LRU, but the Lewiston Basin is the most significant glacial lake in this region. The Lewiston Basin formed when glacial meltwaters were impounded behind the Johnstown Moraine. Most of the lake drained after a catastrophic breach of an ice dam that supported it. The rest of this region is a till plain covered in a thin layer of loess. This till is a sandy loam with dolomite from the Niagara Escarpment. The till plain is covered with drumlins and bedrock-cored knolls and hills where the overlying till has been eroded. Wetlands are common in the low-lying outwash and the fine-textured lake sediments.

The central portion of this LRU is dominated by a rolling till plain covered in drumlins. Terminal and recessional moraines show the extent of the Green Bay Lobe. The topography of the moraines is hummocky because the supraglacial till was deposited unevenly along the ice margin and the surface collapsed after buried ice melted. Glacial lakes formed on the ice margin from ice dams, bedrock ridges, and moraines. Glacial Lakes Scuppernong and Yahara were two significant lakes that deposited clay and silty clay in deep basins. Meltwater streams deposited outwash sediments over some areas of the till plain, creating pockets of outwash and pitted outwash. The till deposited here is gravelly, clayey, and silty sand with dolomite pebbles.

The Kettle Interlobate Moraine is a unique and significant feature along the eastern border this LRU. The Kettle Moraine is a complex range of ridges and hills that formed by the end moraine systems where the Green Bay and Lake Michigan lobes met. The area ranges from 1 to 30 miles wide and landforms up to 300 feet in elevation. The area experienced massive volumes of meltwater from the two glacial lobes, which deposited primarily sand and gravel, but morainal till is also present. There are two distinct portions for the Kettle Moraine. The south potion formed as the lobes receded and deposited a series of level outwash fans between the lobes. Buried ice melted and parts of the fan collapsed to form kettles—round depressions on the surface that often fill with water to become lakes when the water table is near the surface. In the northern section, debris collected in the ice where the two lobes flowed together. As the glaciers receded, meltwaters deposited outwash materials on top of ice. As the ice melted, the surface collapsed and created a mixture of collapsed outwash and till materials. The till was in and beneath the buried ice.

West of the Kettle Moraine lies a landscape dominated by till plains with drumlins and areas of outwash formed by the Lake Michigan Lobe. Braided proglacial streams deposited outwash and pitted outwash plains. A small extent of lake plains is present. Wetlands are abundant because of impeded drainage from the underlying till and lake sediments.

The southern portion of this LRU is comprised of older glacial sediment deposited before the Wisconsin Glaciation. In the east lie broad, flat to rolling till plains. In the west, an eroded and dissected, hilly bedrock-controlled landscape is present; this area is similar in appearance to the Driftless region. Some low areas have outwash deposited by proglacial streams from Green Bay Lobe meltwater. In some areas in the west, dissolution of bedrock has created karst topography. There is a small extent of lake plain sediments.

Historically, the vegetation in this LRU was dominated in the northwest by oak forest and opening with interspersed marsh and sedge wetlands. The southern portion was dominated by oak and mesic forests with abundant wetlands. Black oak (Quercus velutina), white oak (Quercus alba), and bur oak (Quercus macrocarpa) were significant tree species in all of the LRU. There were also many areas of prairie, maple-basswood upland forest, and small areas of tamarack (Larix laricina), northern white-cedar (Thuja occidentalis), and black spruce (Picea mariana) in the lowlands. Conifers were not significant in this LRU. Wetlands covered up to 17% of land area.

Classification relationships

Relationship to Established Framework and Classification Systems:

Biophysical Settings (Landfire, 2014): This ES is largely mapped as North-Central Interior Maple-Basswood Forest, North-Central Interior Dry Oak Forest and Woodland, North-Central Interior Dry-Mesic Oak Forest and Woodland, Eastern Cool Temperate Row Crop, Eastern Cool Temperate Close Grown Crop, Eastern Cool Temperate Pasture and Hayland, Eastern Cool Temperate Urban Shrubland, Developed-Low Intensity, and Developed-Medium Intensity

Habitat Types of N. & S. Wisconsin (Kotar, 2002, 1996): The sites of this ES keyed out to Acer saccharum-Tilia-Fraxinus/Viburnum(Cornus racemose) [ATiFrVb(Cr)] and Acer saccharum-Tilia-Fraxinus/Caulophyllum(Osmorhiza) [ATiFrCa(O)].

WDNR Natural Communities (WDNR, 2015): This ES is most similar to the Southern Mesic Forest described by the WDNR.

Hierarchical Framework Relationships:

Major Land Resource Area (MLRA):095X–Eastern Wisconsin, Northern Illinois, and Upper Michigan Drift Plain

USFS Subregions: Central Wisconsin Moraines and Outwash (222Kb), South Central Wisconsin Prairie and Savannah (222Kd), Southern Green Bay Lobe (222Ke), Geneva-Darien Moraines and Till Plains (222Kf), Rock River Old Drift Country (222Kh), Kickapoo-Wisconsin River Ravines (222Ld)

DNR Ecological Landscapes: Southeastern Glacial Plains

Ecological site concept

This site is composed of a variety of Mollisols and Alfisols that occur on till plains, lake plains, outwash plains, moraines, and stream terraces throughout the LRU. These soils formed in very deep, loamy materials deposited by glacial ice, glacial lakes, or flowing water. Many are underlain by sandy outwash or fine-textures lacustrine materials. Some have a silty loess mantle or a sandy outwash mantle. Fine lacustrine materials are sometimes stratified with sand. These soils are moderately acid to strongly alkaline. Some have loess surfaces that are strongly acidic. Secondary carbonates are present in the soils and are generally found within a meter of the surface. Soils are moderately well to somewhat excessively drained. They do not meet hydric soil requirements.

Ponding is rare on these sites. Water is received through precipitation and runoff from adjacent uplands. Water is lost from the site primarily through runoff, evapotranspiration, and groundwater recharge. Presence of carbonates may increase pH of the water.

This is the most extensive site in LRU 95XB, occupying nearly 2 million acres (34% of the total area).

Typical vegetation includes Acer saccharum, Fraxinus americana, Tilia americana, Carya ovata, Quercus rubra, Quercus alba, Prunus virginiana, Circaea lutetiana, and Parthenocissus quinquefolia.

Associated sites

Similar sites

Table 1. Dominant plant species