Description

A very good, extensive, representative example of the Short Hills Forests. It presents one of the largest forested dissected delta hill and valley terrains in the Short Hills landscape unit (Eagles and Beechey 1985).

Vegetation

Its vegetation patterns are quite representative for the site in the Short Hills Forests. The ridge crests tend to be dry mesic and are dominated by Quercus-Acer-Pinus communities. The valley slopes and bottoms tend to support mesic forests of Acer-Fagus with local slopes of Tsuga. There are local wide valley bottom wetlands often dominated by Alnus swamp scrub communities. These forest communities generally are of an intermediate age class with well developed species complements; there are representative of the forests of this site (Eagles and Beechey 1985).

Representation

This non escarpment feature is quite representative of the dissected delta and kame sandland complexes of the Short Hills landscape unit. It is quite comparable with the St. John's Conservation Area nearby to its northwest except that this area does not have the local degree of maturity of the Conservation Area. Nevertheless, it is a larger area, less disturbed, more homogeneous and presents a greater spectrum of representative community and geomorphological patterns (Eagles and Beechey 1985).

Landform

The terrain of the area is a severely dissected deltaic sand land; there are many intermittent and permanent stream-cut valleys having a relief of up to 75 ft. These narrow valleys have well developed slopes, seepage areas, terraced bottoms and local wet bottomlands (Eagles and Beechey 1985).

References

* Allen, G.M., P.F.J. Eagles and S.D. Price (eds.) 1990. Conserving Carolinian Canada: Conservation Biology in the Deciduous Forest Region. University of Waterloo Press, Waterloo. 346 pp.

* Eagles, P.F.J. and T.J. Beechey (eds.) 1985. Critical Unprotected Natural Areas in the Carolinian Life Zone of Canada. Final Report, Identification Subcommittee, Carolinian Canada. The Nature Conservancy of Canada, The Ontario Heritage Foundation and World Wildlife Fund (Canada). 400 pp.

© Natural Heritage Information Centre, 1998

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