Echo Lake, Marquette, Michigan

Allow me to preface that first title and embellish it as well. Born in New York just north of NYC, I spent my entire adult life in North Carolina. In the spring of 2019, we, my wife Sheree’ and I purchased a home in Marquette, MI. Recently retired from teaching high school science, I found a new (seasonal) job in Marquette with The Nature Conservancy. Outdoors, real outdoors.
My first visit to Echo Lake showed me I had made the right choice. WOW!
Most of my 20 hours each week were filled with peace and solitude as I went about monitoring public use, trail maintenance, and studying flora and fauna of the preserve. Being a “southerner,” it was almost like beginning over again when it came to vegetation, many new trees and flowers. Some of the fauna was easy – initially, I was shocked at the lack of reptiles, amphibians, insects, and spiders. Still, they slowly appeared to me as the summer moved on, except for one, the pesky mosquito, which made its presence known on every calm and warm day.

Located just a few miles outside of Marquette, Echo Lake Preserve is a serene environment where pristine waters flow unimpeded from surrounding wetlands, creeks and Harlow Lake to Lake Superior. The 480-acre property feature a mixed deciduous and conifer forest. Echo Lake, the primary water source of Harlow Creek, is a 20-acre natural lake surrounded by a landscape of dramatic relief with high bluffs of exposed bedrock. The site also provides watershed protection for several high elevation glacial lakes.

The Nature Conservancy

Echo Lake is a “nature preserve”. The person who donated the land wants it kept in its natural state, forever. I think that is great, and that requires some strict rules. Please leave your pets at home, clean off your shoes before entering, walk softly, stay on established trails, avoid walking over sensitive areas (moss and lichen rock outcroppings, etc.), please do not remove anything from the preserve, fish with artificial bait only….please read all the guidelines here, or at the entrance kiosk.

As a dog owner who loves walking in the woods with my dog, I needed to better understand NO DOGS policies at certain parks and preserves, so I collected some information in the following (unofficial, not TNC approved) paper

LEARN MORE ABOUT “NO DOGS” in NATURE

Of all the birds I found at Echo Lake the spring/summer of 2019, the best of the best was a Northern Goshawk. I “lifer” bird for me, but more than that, a stunning deep-forest raptor of immense size and stature. I was able to get some photos and recorded calls of TWO Goshawks communicating across the ridge. A funny thing happened on the way to the opening where I could get a picture, I fell, the camera went flying, followed by binoculars, phone and sound recorder — best fall of my life.

On my first walk into the preserve, I was a little disappointed by the back of birds, but in time things improved. Warblers, in particular, had not yet arrived in force in the Upper Peninsula. They flowed through over the next two weeks. Echo Lake is a little off the beaten path, requiring a bouncy ride down a logging road until you get to the parking area, so it does not get a lot of birders. My highest species count came on May 29 when I recorded 38 species. On average, through the late spring and into early summer, I recorded 24 species per day.