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2008 Federal Duck Stamp Contest Phone: 218-768-2402 |
Abundant natural food particularly wild rice, has attracted man and wildlife to Rice Lake for centuries.
Thousands of migrating waterfowl feed and rest on the lake and the surrounding marshes and bogs.Chippewa (Ojibwe) Indians continue to harvest wild rice from Rice Lake.
Resident wildlife populations flourish. Water is the key to the area's productivity. Rainfall and snowmelt, held behind glacial moraines on a flat glacial plain, trap sediment and rotting vegetation.
Year after year, the muck gets deeper and vegetation grows more abundant.Except for the small harvest of plants and animals that is removed and a small amount of nutrient that is washed down the river, Rice Lake Refuge is predominately an "energy collector."
The sun's energy, in the form of decaying plants and animals, accumulates and is stored in the bogs and marshes.
A Landscape Shaped by Water
The dominate refuge surface features were formed by glaciers over 10,000 years ago. A system of moraines, or glacial ridges, in the shape of a huge horseshoe surrounds the area on three sides with the open end to the northeast.
One set of ridges formed Rice Lake itself.
The Rice River bisects and drains the refuge, flowing from the southeast corner to the northwest, and ultimately empties into the Mississippi River 20 miles west of the refuge.
The land's natural water drainage toward the south has been blocked by the moraines. This wet area is slowly filling in with sediment and vegetation, becoming a floating or muskeg-like bog - a natural haven for wildlife.
Refuge bog lands are flat expanses of poorly drained organic soils, known as peat. They support a dense, spongy mixture of flowering plants, grasses, low shrubs, and small stands of black spruce, balsam fir and tamarack.
Shallow lakes with marshy shorelines dot this landscape.Scattered islands and glacial ridges rise above the surrounding bog and are covered with timber and other upland plants. The refuge lies within the transition zone between the coniferous forests of northern Minnesota and the deciduous hardwood forests typical of the southern portion of the state.
Historically, white pine was the predominate upland tree species, but logging resulted in replacement of pine with quaking aspen, red and sugar maples, paper birch, basswood, and red oak. Lowland forest stands are characterized by tamarack, black spruce, black ash, balsam fir, and white cedar.
Unique Natural Features
Glacial material consisting of rocks, gravel, sand, and clay covers the area's bedrock in layers ranging from 50 to 300 feet thick.Peat is formed from successive layers of partly decomposed vegetable matter, mostly sphagnum moss. The peat makes bog soil acidic and tints bog waters a clear amber color.
A muskeg or floating bog is created in a poorly drained lake that is slowly filling in with vegetation. Dense collections of floating plants at the lake's margin offer a seedbed for more vegetation. Soon a floating mat forms that builds sediment on the lake bottom, paving the way for other water-tolerant plants and shrubs. A floating bog mat will eventually cover the water's surface and, over a long period of time, turn what was once a lake into a lowland forest.
