Bedrock close to the surface in Michigan accounts for the high percentage of wetland within the sub-subsection. In Michigan, drumlins oriented northeast-southwest cover much of the plain, but there are few drumlins on the undulating till plain in Wisconsin. The highest drumlins are less than 100 feet high. Wetlands are extensive throughout the sub-subsection, but they have been more extensively drained for agriculture to the south in Wisconsin than elsewhere. Many small rivers and creeks drain the numerous linear wetlands of the sub-subsection.
Dominant soils are rocky, podzolized, pink sandy loams.
Peat and muck soils are common. Hemlock and white pine were much more common here than on the clay plain of Sub-subsection VIII.1.4 to the southeast. In Michigan, hemlock and occasionally northern white-cedar formed upland stands. Small drumlins within wetlands were often dominated by either hemlock, white pine, or a mix of the two. In Michigan, wetlands covered all but the drumlin ridges, accounting for 30 to 70 percent of the land surface.