Extreme yet beautiful weather at Roach Point.

Evergreens keep the sanctuary bright green all winter long.

In 1981, Mason C. Schafer donated 141.1 acres on Roach Point to the MNA. With additional gifts and purchases, the sanctuary now totals almost 500 acres and includes parts of the bays on either side. The entire marsh occupying two bays was surveyed and sampled by the Michigan Natural Features Inventory in 1987 and was rated a good quality marsh, one of the best of the Great Lakes marshes visited. All but about 5% of the sanctuary was generously donated to MNA, including 23 acres donated in memory of Edward Bartlett Spaulding. Thanks to the foresight of these donors and by contributions made by visitors like you, the pristine Roach Point Peninsula and adjacent land to the south will be protected forever.

Many muskrat pools were found, as well as an important black tern population. Other birds that nest here are: mallard, widgeon, wood, blue-winged teal, and common merganser ducks, bittern, and coot. Vegetation in the marsh areas include soft stem bulrush, bur reed, three-square bulrush, yellow water lily, pickerelweed, duck potato, and coontail.

In the first exploration of the Point, 92 kinds of plants, including 18 kinds of ferns were recorded. There was a large concentration of Braun’s holly fern; it was scattered over acres and surely was the largest patch of it in Michigan.

You will be impressed by the different types of forest that can be seen in this one sanctuary. The sanctuary starts with glacial beach ridges, and the cool, lush “lake forest” of balsam fir, white cedar, sugar maple, and white spruce. Located in the heart of the property is a sugar maple - hemlock forest. The surprisingly rich and diverse forest is impressive, as are the array of wild creatures you will see. Roach Point is remote, wondrous, and a fine example of how nature looks when left alone from human interference.