Caryville Savanna

State Natural Area (No. 263)

Location: Dunn County. T26N-R11W, Sections 5-9. 420 acres.

Access: By canoe. From the intersection of Highways 85 and H just north of Caryville, go north on H across the Chippewa River 0.5 mile to a boat landing. Canoe downstream approximately 3 miles to Brush Island south of the main channel and north of Meridean Slough. Canoe access is also available from 240th Avenue.

Description: Caryville Savanna features an extensive and exceptionally high quality oak barrens situated on Brush Island, a low, sandy island in the Chippewa River. Groves of bur, white, black, and Hill’s oaks are interspersed with prairie grasses and forbs. Characterized by a vegetation gradient from east to west, bur oaks dominate the eastern portion and are scattered among tall grasses such as big blue-stem and Indian grass while black or Hill’s oaks are found among the shorter grasses such as little blue-stem and June grass. Among the characteristic forbs are flowering spurge, puccoon, lead-plant, white wild indigo, bush clover, spiderwort, dotted mint, ground cherry, white sage, and prairie smoke. Lichens and sand club-moss are dominant in the sandy, undisturbed areas. Shrubs are invading the openings with gray dogwood, smooth sumac, and prickly ash forming dense thickets in places. Several small open swales occur along the east edge of the savanna with sedges, rushes, and white meadowsweet as the dominant plants. The low-lying eastern end of the island is wooded with silver maple, green ash, river birch, and hackberry. Typical understory plants include winterberry, eastern wahoo, cut-leaved coneflower, and sedges with stinging nettle and poison ivy abundant in the understory. The state-threatened red-shouldered hawk (Buteo lineatus) has been found on Brush Island and the federally threatened bald eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) nests within a few miles of the area. Other animal species of concern are the grasshopper sparrow (Ammodramus savannarum) and wood turtle (Clemmys insculpta). Caryville Savanna is owned by Dunn County and was designated a State Natural Area in 1991.