Spring Lake

Description

Spring Lake Nature Preserve is a 560 acre mosaic of woodlands, prairie, marsh, fen, old field plant communities and two glacial lakes. The distribution of the plant communities are dictated by the rolling glacial topography characteristic of the Northeastern Morainal Natural Division. Most of the area surrounding the lakes is a peat-filled depression that supports a variety of aquatic vegetation and wetland wildlife. Although stands of cattails dominate most of the depression; small fens, sedge meadows, and mesic prairie communities occur throughout and contribute much to the species richness of the preserve. Open-grown bur oaks occur along the slopes of the moraines that lie on three sides of the preserve. The glacial lakes are fed and drained by Spring Creek, a tributary of the Fox River. only.