Steigerwaldt-Chequamegon NEON / STEI

Steigerwaldt Land Services (STEI) is a terrestrial site that consists of two geographically separate project areas in north-central Wisconsin. The Steigerwaldt Land Services property, where the tower plots are located, encompasses 0.3 km² (77 acres) in Lincoln County, WI and is approximately 1.6 km (1 mi.) north of NEON’s Treehaven site (TREE). This property is owned and managed by Steigerwaldt Land Services, Inc., a forestry and real estate consulting business. This site is in Major Land Resource Area (MLRA) 94D - Northern Highland Sandy Drift. The distributed plots are within a section of the Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest in eastern Price County, WI, about 30 miles northwest of the STEI tower. This land is managed by the U.S. Forest Service. This site encompasses 23.4 km² (5785 acres) and is in MLRA 90A - Wisconsin and Minnesota Thin Loess and Till, Northern Part. STEI is located within the Great Lakes Domain (D05), which includes northern Ohio, Michigan, northern Wisconsin, and parts of Indiana and Illinois. D05 hosts four other NEON field sites: two aquatic and two terrestrial, located in Wisconsin and Michigan. [3] [4]

The climate of northern Wisconsin is characterized by bitterly cold winters and generally cool summers with brief times of excessive heat. Precipitation varies from year to year, with the majority of precipitation usually falling during the warmer part of the year. Snowfall also varies from year to year, however, the very northern portion of the state can see heavy snowfall due to lake effect events along the southern shore of Lake Superior. The area can also be subject to severe winter storms and thunderstorms. From late fall to early spring, most streams and lakes freeze over in northern Wisconsin. In the winter months, snow covers the landscape. In spring, when the snow begins to melt, frequent flooding occurs. At the tower plots the average temperature is 4.8°C (41°F), the average annual precipitation is 797 mm (31 in.), and there are approximately 125 frost free days a year. The distributed plots have the same climate but receive approximately 10 mm less (0.4 in.) precipitation a year. [4] [6] [10]

STEI is within the Superior Upland Province of the Laurentian Upland and has been formed by glaciation. The bedrock consists of primarily Early Proterozoic mafic metavolcanic rock with parts underlain by gneiss. The parent material at the tower site is dominantly sandy loam till, whereas the parent material at the distributed plot area consists of loamy glacial till, sandy glaciofluvial deposits, loess over loamy till, loamy glaciofluvial deposits over stratified sandy and gravelly outwash, sandy and/or gravelly outwash, and herbaceous and woody organic material. [4] [5]

Soils sampled at the STEI site were dominated by glacial till or loamy mantled outwash soils with material ranging from sandy to loamy, many of which had a considerable amount of coarse fragments including gravels, cobbles, and stones up to 600 mm (23.6 in.) in diameter. The soil series found at STEI is Moodig sandy loam (0 - 4% slopes), within the subgroup Alfic Epiaquods. [2] [4]

Plant communities at the distributed plot area are dominated by northern hardwood trees (sugar maple, red maple, aspen, paper and river birch, beech, and oaks) with intermixed conifers (white pine, red pine, jack pine, white spruce, balsam fir and hemlock). The site also contains acid bogs intermixed with black spruce and dominated by white cedar and black ash. The tower site is an early successional, even-aged aspen stand, interspersed with red maple and balsam fir trees. [4] [3]

Mammals native to the Great Lakes region include the gray wolf (Canis lupus), moose (Alces alces), Canada lynx (Lynx canadensis), little brown bat (Myotis lucifugus), and river otters (Lontra canadensis). The lands surrounding the Great Lakes are also important habitats for migratory and resident birds like the bald eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) and the endangered Kirtland’s warbler (Setophaga kirtlandii). NEON provides data on five types of wildlife at STEI including: small mammals, birds, ground beetles, mosquitoes, and ticks. [7]

The Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forests were heavily logged by the timber industry in the 1800s and early 1900s. The cleared land became farmland; however, many farmers could not afford to manage their farms in the 1920s and 1930s and forfeited their lands to the government, so the U.S. Forest Service took over management of the lands. During the Great Depression, the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) reforested much of the land. The U.S. Forest Service carefully stewarded the new forest growth over the next 80 years. The U.S. Forest Service continues to manage the distributed plot area, while Steigerwaldt Land Services, Inc. manages the tower area. In 1957, Steigerwaldt Land Services, Inc. was established as a forestry and real estate consulting firm offering land management services with sustainability in mind. They have been managing the tower site for timber production, recreation, and wildlife habitat ever since. [8] [9]

The tower site at STEI is the largest management unit owned by Steigerwaldt Land Services due to the shrinkage in forest management blocks in northern Wisconsin. The tower site is currently managed for timber production, recreation, and wildlife habitat. The aspen trees at the site are harvested for paper and are clear cut every 40 years. The last harvest was in 2005, leaving some scattered oak and hemlock trees for wildlife food and shelter. Roads are also planted with clover as an additional food source for deer and ruffed grouse. The distributed plots at STEI are managed as multiple-use lands by the U.S. Forest Service for forestry and natural areas management, wildlife habitat and recreational usage. The NEON study area on this land includes planted red and jack pine plantations. The Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest’s (CNNF) timber program has recently been dominated by salvage timber projects following damage from extreme weather events and a decline in spruce trees, followed by a recent focus in over-mature aspen stands. Over the last several years, the CNNF in Price County has been moving out of salvage mode with recently approved vegetation management and forest health projects in pine and hardwood management areas. [1] [3] [9]

The tower site at STEI is located just north of the Treehaven (TREE) site. The STEI and TREE sites have different management practices, which could help isolate the effect of management practices on carbon cycling dynamics. The tower site at STEI was too small for NEON’s Distributed Plot activities, so NEON established a separate set of distributed plots 30 miles NW of the STEI tower. The distributed plots at STEI were chosen following the NEON standard criteria and avoiding existing research areas. The NEON study area in the Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest (CNNF) is in close proximity to other research activities that have focused on land-atmosphere carbon interactions. The site characterization for the site was completed in 2011. The Terrestrial Observation System (TOS) was completed in October 2015, followed by plot establishment in November 2015. The tower at STEI was completed in September 2015. [3]