Beaver Island ArchiveA primary-source archive & encyclopedia45°40′N 85°33′W · Lake Michigan
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Place

Red Oak Garden

Also Red Oak Garden mesic northern forest

Draft — sources verified, prose evolving

Locator map: Red Oak Garden highlighted within the Beaver Island archipelago
Locator plate © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL 1.0); depths NOAA; names USGS GNIS. How the plates are drawn.
TypePlace
Coordinates45.8047° N, 85.4945° WGoogle MapsDownload KML
WithinGarden Island
ErasModern era
On this page
Locator map: Red Oak Garden highlighted within the Beaver Island archipelago
Locator plate © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL 1.0); depths NOAA; names USGS GNIS. How the plates are drawn.
Place
Coordinates
45.8047° N, 85.4945° WGoogle MapsDownload KML
Eras
Modern era
Concepts
environmentgeologysoilsforeststreesvegetationplantsconservationstewardship
Within
Garden Island

Summary

Red Oak Garden is a source-defined MNFI natural-community site on the southern portion of Garden Island. MNFI Report 2017-11 records an 81-acre mesic northern forest occurrence (EO 10496, report p. 92) consisting of two uneven-aged polygons. The name is retained as a place record because it is the report’s stable site identifier, while its unresolved geometry distinguishes it from a GNIS feature, parcel, or surveyed preserve.

The coordinate is the containing Garden Island locator, not the boundary or centroid of the two occurrence polygons. The MNFI occurrence is not a current legal boundary, ownership determination, or complete survey of Garden Island.

Ecological profile

The occurrence sits on rolling topography with pit-and-mound structure and increasingly large coarse woody debris. Its two polygons show a pronounced soil contrast. The southern polygon has shallow 5–10 cm alkaline loams (pH 7.5) over limestone cobble. The northern polygon has deeper sands, approximately 50–60 cm, over cobble; an A horizon 10–30 cm thick, composed of organics mixed with sand, has pH 4.5–5.0 over medium-textured acidic sands at pH 5.5–6.0. These are occurrence observations, not a soil map for all of Garden Island.

Sugar maple dominates the canopy, with red oak, yellow birch, white ash, and paper birch as associates. Canopy trees generally range from 40 to 60 cm DBH, while larger red oak in the northern oak-dominated polygon reaches 60–80 cm. Canopy closure ranges from 75 to 95 percent. The subcanopy includes sugar maple, ironwood, and yellow birch; the understory includes striped maple, white ash, round-leaved dogwood, red elderberry, and beaked hazelnut. Canadian fly honeysuckle, balsam fir, wild raspberry, ironwood, and red oak occur in the low shrub layer.

The ground layer includes blue cohosh, false spikenard, downy Solomon’s seal, Jack-in-the-pulpit, bedstraw, oak fern, purple meadow-rue, cow-parsnip, round-lobed hepatica, hairy sweet cicely, large-leaved aster, zigzag goldenrod, and white baneberry. The report records past logging through cut stumps and a trail through the northern portion. Its recommendations are to allow natural processes to operate, retain an intact buffer of surrounding natural communities, and monitor for invasive species. They are management recommendations for the 2017 occurrence, not evidence of a completed treatment or current access condition.

Open questions

  • Can the two MNFI polygons be located against current Garden Island land-status and trail data without treating the occurrence as a legal parcel?
  • What later surveys document the condition of the large red oak, white ash, coarse woody debris, or invasive-species risk?

Maps for this place

These Atlas plates provide regional context. They do not establish a precise boundary, current ownership, access right, operating status, or field condition.

  • EnvironmentSoils, wetlands, hydrography, and terrain
  • GeologyGeneralized geology and landforms
  • HydrologyMapped water and wetland context
  • AccessMapped routes, facilities, and protected areas

Sources

  1. Project-generated MNFI 2017 soil, vegetation, and wildlife crosswalk, preserving MNFI Report 2017-11, Red Oak Garden mesic northern forest occurrence (EO 10496), report p. 92.
    Described in this archive: MNFI soil, vegetation, tree, and wildlife crosswalk, 2017.
    The 81-acre record is a named MNFI natural-community occurrence on Garden Island, not a GNIS feature, current legal boundary, ownership determination, or complete survey of the island. No public copy of this file is known; the archive holds one and can provide it on request.
    research · island_farming · crosswalks · mnfi_soil_vegetation_wildlife_crosswalk
  2. Visual page evidence held with provenance sidecar; the image anchors the occurrence description and does not establish modern geometry or current condition.
    research · island_farming · evidence · mnfi-report-2017-11-page-0092-red-oak-garden
  3. GNIS feature 626637 supplies the containing-island point used as an approximate locator. It is not the boundary or centroid of the two MNFI occurrence polygons on the southern portion of the island.
    federal · gnis · gnis_names
  4. PIN 013-335-012-00 is a 39.7-acre Garden Island parcel owned by the Michigan Department of Natural Resources, with a representative point near the island-level occurrence anchor. It confirms current DNR land context for part of Garden Island, but does not locate or bound the MNFI forest occurrence.
    county · charlevoix · parcels_arcgis · 2026-08-01 · island_parcel_attributes

Added 3 August 2026 · revised 6 August 2026. Recent changes

Cite this article

Beaver Island Archive, “Red Oak Garden”, https://beaverislandarchive.org/places/red-oak-garden/, accessed [date], citing Project-generated MNFI 2017 soil, vegetation, and wildlife crosswalk, preserving MNFI Report 2017-11, Red Oak Garden mesic northern forest occurrence (EO 10496), report p. 92. (and 3 further sources listed on the page).

Last revised 2026-08-06. Fill in [date] with the date you read it — this page is static and cannot know that.

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