One of “the old boys” who used to manage the maintenance shop at the DNR headquarters in the South Kettle Moraine referred to the Scuppernong Springs as “The Little Yellowstone”. I really liked that analogy. We have our own mini old faithful right here in the Kettle Moraine. See for yourself!
Yesterday I worked on a little bowl, a seasonally wet area, situated between the hilltop I worked at last weekend and the Indian Campground/Sand Prairie. Take a look at the before scenery.
And the view from where I parked my wheel barrel loaded with gear.
I must confess, I had a hard time deciding where to start. I used a brush cutter first and was careful to spray all of the Black Locust saplings with TransLine. There was a thicket of wild raspberry or blackberry 6′ tall and a lot of Buckthorn and Aspen saplings as well. I’m planning to use a foliar spray next Spring to attack the resprouts when they first come up.
Here is how it looked at the end of the day.
There is a lot of piling to do and that is going to be our focus for the next month or so. Check out the nice sunset.
Scuppernong Springs Nature Trail 
Check out the Google Earth link I put on the Maps And Brochures page. I’ll have to contact them to update the images!
Nice photos again Paul. Do you think the bubbling springs will ever have enough force to be classified as a cold water geyser?
These are Artesian Springs, so the water is being forced to the surface via pressure on the underground source. Could this pressure develop with a periodicity that leads to geyser eruptions? I hope so! There are mini-eruptions at all of the Springs in the Scuppernong Springs complex. If you watch any of the Springs for a while you will see variations in the flow. This is especially evident at the Emerald Spring aka the “Little Yellowstone”.
Lindsay and I checked out the Black Locust that I cut up in bowl area described in this blog yesterday (he burns wood for heat) and he questioned why I had girdled a huge tree in the bowl. The tree was surrounded by young Black Locust trees 15-25′ tall and I mistook the huge tree in their midst for a Black Locust as well. Lindsay pointed out it was not a Black Locust and by checking the leaf litter he suspected it was a Beech or Elm. Given the size of this tree, I have made a HUGE mistake! I learned my lesson and will make extra effort to insure I don’t repeat this kind of error. It pains me greatly when I cut the wrong type of tree.