The all-season beauty of the upland forest along our Blue Trail makes it must-see for visitors to Wehr. The 53-acre stand is diverse. Oaks, hickories, and black cherry trees are common in drier areas, while sugar maples dominate in moist north facing l ocations. Everything in the woodland revolves around these trees. Competition for light creates the early spring display of wildflowers we see April to May. Spring ephemerals like spring beauty and trillium race to finish their life cycle before the trees leaf out. Those colorful leaves that cover the ground in fall are not just a beautiful show, they bring life giving nutrients to the soil and create a moist blanket that shelters living things.

Wehr’s landscape is a gift of the glaciers that covered this part of Wisconsin until just 15,000 years ago. When the glaciers receded, they left behind hills called moraines made of glacial till (rocks, gravel, sand, and clay). You’ll climb up and down the edge of moraine as you explore the Blue Trail. Look for large boulders called erratics scattered throughout the woodlands. They were dropped by the glaciers as they melted away.

Indigenous people have lived in the forests, wetlands, and oak openings of what is now Franklin for thousands of years. In 2010, erosion of the drainage way in the woodland exposed an artifact that was identified as a knife point created roughly 2500 years old during the Middle Woodland Era!

What we see today is a remnant of larger forests that covered Franklin in the past. We estimate the large oaks and hickories in the woods are over 200 years old, and some sugar maples are over 180!  We believe farmers pastured cattle and selectively harvest timber from the woods up to the 1930’s when the land became a park.

The post Wehr’s Natural Diversity: The Upland Woods appeared first on Friends of Wehr Nature Center.