Farmington Bottoms State Natural Area

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Farmington Bottoms contains excellent examples of floodplain forest, emergent aquatics and forested seeps. Located along a little developed stretch of the St. Croix, the site features an extensive tract of old-growth lowland forest with running sloughs and backwaters. Silver maple is the dominant canopy species with green ash, hackberry, and American elm. Basswood, red oak, cottonwood, black willow, and yellowbud hickory are also present in smaller numbers. The understory is rather patchy in composition. Some areas are dominated by wood nettle, others by grasses and sedges. Shallow water areas contain abundant bulrush, rice cut grass and prairie cord grass. Herbaceous plants include cardinal flower, ostrich fern, ironweed, fringed loosestrife, and false dragonhead. Rough, deeply dissected terrain borders the lower St. Croix River with a local relief exceeding 350 feet. Banks at the base of the river terrace often contain seepages that harbor large populations of the state-endangered bog bluegrass (Poa paludigena). The surrounding upland forest contains oak, basswood, big-tooth aspen, paper birch and an occasional white pine. The shrub layer is generally sparse with American hazelnut and gray dogwood, and there are scattered patches of dry prairie and savanna vegetation on the warmer western and southern exposures. The forest provides critical habitat for many rare bird species including the state threatened red-shouldered hawk (Buteo lineatus) and prothonotary (Protonotaria citrea) and cerulean warblers (Dendroica cerulea). Other resident birds include great egret (Ardea alba), bald eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus), Louisiana waterthrush (Seiurus motacilla), and blue-gray gnatcatcher. Farmington Bottoms is owned by the National Park Service and was designated a State Natural Area in 2002.