.png)
Motts Ravine lies on an old glacial outwash channel and contains the full range of vegetation expected on glacial outwash: natural jack pine forest, scrubby Hill and bur oak thickets, and small pine barren remnants. Historically, the vegetation of much of this area was pine barrens and pine-oak scrub with scattered patches of dry forest.
Today, these community types are rare and declining throughout the western Great Lakes making their presence here very significant. Jack pine is the dominant tree, sometimes interspersed with gnarly hills or bur oaks. Shrubs include hazelnut, prairie willow, and sand cherry. Low shrubs and herbs include bracken fern, Pennsylvania sedge, Canada mayflower, wintergreen, early low blueberry, and narrow-leaved cow wheat. Some areas contain dense stands of jack pine with nearly 100% canopy cover.
More open areas support barrens and prairie species such as big bluestem, prairie brome, bearberry, three-toothed cinquefoil, sweet-fern, asters, blazing star, bird's-foot violet, pussy-toes, false dandelion, puccoon, and wood lily. Motts Ravine is owned by the DNR and was designated the state's 400th State Natural Area in 2003. For a property map click here.
​