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Roggman Boreal Slopes

   
 

Closed to public 

Roggman Boreal Slopes Preserve is not open to the public.
 

Locations
 

Finch Memorial Forest
 

Mountain Maple Hollow
 

Retz Memorial Forest
 

Bluebell Hollow Preserve

The Conservancy received a combination of land donations from the Roggman family and made a purchase from another family to acquire this preserve. It was dedicated as a state perserve in 1982. The Conservancy works with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to protect and monitor this area, which is home to more than 11 state and federally protected species, including the northern monkshood plant and the Iowa Pleistocene snail.

Location
Clayton County

Size
120 acres

Conditions
The upper corner of northeastern Iowa is like a window to the past. The earth’s underlying strata has literally been turned inside out by the glacial activity of prehistoric times. Bedrock, normally buried beneath glacial deposits hundreds of feet thick, dates back 600 to 400 million years. Cliffs and limestone escarpments, dolomite and sandstone are scattered with sinkholes, subterranean caverns and perennial groundwater springs. All this makes for a variety of microclimates that support diverse communities and species that were once thought extinct.

Small ice caves, where the core ice is believed to be more than 10,000 years old, are tucked away behind steep slopes of limestone, creating a unique feature called an algific (cold-producing) talus slope. During the spring and summer, the air in the ice caves is colder than the outside air. Warm air drawn down into the sinkholes is cooled as it flows over ice, and then escapes through vents in the slopes. In the winter, air in the ice caves is warmer than the outside air, reversing the airflow. As the warm air rises and exits through the sinkholes, the cold air is drawn through vents, freezing the ground water.

Why the Conservancy Selected This Site
Roggman Boreal Slopes Preserve is a rare example of an old air slope, found only in the tri-state area of Iowa, Minnesota and Wisconsin.

What the Conservancy Has Done/Is Doing
Slopes are being fenced to exclude livestock, which can damage these fragile systems.