Frontal Lake Michigan Watersheds

The portion of the Frontal Lake Michigan watershed presented here includes the sub-watersheds of French Farm Lake, Wycamp Lake, and O’Neal Lake.

French Farm Lake is an impounded, shallow lake. A high quality wetland plant community resides in this watershed, and is home to the Federally-threatened Houghton’s goldenrod. This watershed is part of one of the most important bird migration routes in North America. The area around this property sees tens of thousands of migrating waterfowl, sandhill cranes, herons, and diverse flocks of songbirds such as warblers, thrushes, and blackbirds.

Wycamp Lake is an impounded, shallow lake about 610 acres in size. Wycamp Creek is a perennial creek which originates at Wycamp Lake and flows a short distance of 1.35 miles into Lake Michigan.

O’Neal Lake is about 140 acres with a relatively shallow basin and water flows southwards towards a dam. State-threatened Bald eagles, loons, and osprey nest along the lake. Big Sucker Creek is a perennial stream that originates from O’Neal Lake and runs about 3 miles before emptying into Lake Michigan. The area adjacent to the mouth is listed in the Federal Register as a determined Environmental Protection Agency Critical Habitat area for Endangered and Threatened Wildlife and Plants. The piping plover uses this area as a nesting area and endangered plants such as Pitcher’s thistle grow along the shoreline near where the creek drains into Lake Michigan.

Find Road Stream Crossings