This 183-acre SNA lies within the Richard J. Dorer Memorial Hardwood State Forest. Despite its small size, it sits across two ECS subsections and three land type associations (LTAs). The north part of the site, adjacent to the Middle Branch Root River, is a 72-acre lowland with wet meadow on the Alluvial Plain LTA of The Blufflands subsection. This area also contains a sedge meadow native plant community, where there is always at least some standing water. South of the lowland a 108-acre slope climbs 250 feet in elevation on the Elba Slopes LTA of The Blufflands subsection. This slope is mostly wooded but includes a large area of dry prairie. In late summer much of this prairie is dominated by little bluestem. The wooded slope was once a brushland that, through decades of fire suppression, has developed into an oak woodland. The southeast corner of the site is 3 acres of oak woodland on the Stewartville Plain LTA of the Rochester Plateau subsection. Wild Turkeys nest in the wet meadow and Northern Bald Eagles have been seen circling above the SNA.

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