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Places We Protect

Sheepberry Fen

Minnesota

View onto Sheepberry Fen from Marcum property. © Richard Hamilton Smith

This environment creates ecological conditions favorable to supporting certain very rare plants.

Overview

Description

The Sheepberry Fen preserve includes a mix of dry upland prairie and oak savanna and a large groundwater-fed wetland complex called a calcareous fen. Calcareous fens are rare peat wetlands characterized by cold inflowing groundwater containing dissolved calcium and magnesium. This environment creates ecological conditions favorable to supporting certain very rare plants.

Why TNC Selected This Site

In Minnesota, less than 1 percent remains of the tallgrass prairie that covered most of the western and southern parts of the state before European settlement. Sheepberry Fen represents one of the last relatively large remnants of high quality dry prairie in the region and it includes a rare high-quality calcareous fen.

What TNC Has Done/Is Doing

Our specific role in this conservation area is to maintain the proper natural disturbances needed to maintain the diversity of the fire-dependent systems, such as dry hill prairies and oak savanna. Another important role for TNC is to ensure that proper land management is conducted along the edges and within the wetlands, especially since calcareous fens are rare peat wetlands.

Access

OPEN TO THE PUBLIC

Size

720 acres

Explore our work in Minnesota

What to See: Plants

There are four threatened plants found in the preserve: sterile sedge, whorled nut-rush, hair-like beak-rush, and prairie moonwort. Little bluestem, Indian grass and side-oats gamma are the dominate grasses. Porcupine grass and big bluestem are also common. In spring and summer, visitors won’t be disappointed when the hills are ablaze with prairie flowers. An array of purple coneflowers, blazing stars and asters bloom among the gamma grasses.

What to See: Animals

Four occurrences of regal fritillary butterflies (a species of special concern) have been found on the preserve among many other butterflies. Birds, including bobolinks and meadowlarks, nest among the grasses. Northern harriers, with their distinctive white tail markings, hunt from the skies above the preserves.

For more information on visiting this and other Minnesota preserves, check out our Preserve Visitation Guidelines.

A regal fritillary butterfly on a prairie flower.
Regal Fritillary Regal fritillary butterflies can be found at Sheepberry Fen. © Chris Helzer/TNC

Nearby Preserves

This preserve protects more than 800 acres of grasslands and woods that have been relatively undisturbed.

Ordway Prairie Preserve

The grassland habitat of Ordway Prairie is disappearing along with many plant and bird species that rely on it. It is home to bison, badger, 400 wetlands hosting waterfowl, numerous grassland birds and native wildflowers and prairie grasses.

Aerial of Lake Johanna Esker.

Lake Johanna Esker Preserve

The preserve is named for its esker, one of the few protected in Minnesota and accessible to the public—a 70-foot high serpentine ridge of sand and gravel deposited by a stream that flowed below the ice of a retreating glacier.

in the Ordway-Glacial Lake landscape of Minnesota.

Moe Woods Preserve

The prairie/forest transition is clearly illustrated at this preserve. Tall grasses blend into oak savanna at the ecological interface. Beyond, visitors are led into a maple-basswood forest with a fully intact canopy, a vital habitat for forest song birds.

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