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Champlain Valley Clayplain Forest Natural History and Stewardship
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Champlain Valley Clayplain Forest Natural History and Stewardship
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| What is clayplain forest?
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Fertile
clay soils dominate the gently | undulating fields of the southern Champlain Valley. Before European settlers began producing wheat, hay, corn, sheep and milk here, forest clothed the land. Oak, hickory, maple, elm, ash, beech, hemlock, and white pine grew in a diverse forest ecosystem. The small parcels of hardwood, pine or mixed forest amidst today’s agricultural fields are the fragmented remains of the natural forest cover. Because of the warm valley climate, very high fertility of the clay soil, and moderate to poor soil drainage, clayplain forests are strikingly different from the forests in the Green, Taconic and Adirondack mountains. Agriculture is very different in the clayplain ecosystem also. It has been much more successful, and although most of the hill farms were abandoned a century ago, farming continues to be the dominant land use in the Champlain Valley. Today, remaining fragments of clayplain forest provide a vital link to history. Many of the largest trees are well over 200 years old. Such giant oaks stood when Abenaki hunted and gathered in the Champlain Valley. The trees and the forest persisted through ice storms and hurricanes, and nourished black bear and now extinct passenger pigeons. Certainly, some of the trees in the remaining forest fragments started as sprouts from the stumps of the old-growth forests the settlers encountered. We’ll never know exactly what those former forests looked like, but from studying the remaining woods and early survey records we can surmise. The dense tree canopy was composed of the same species we see today, but in different proportions within a varied tapestry of wetter and drier forest. Here and there, tall above the canopy of oaks, maples, ashes, hickory and beech, one would likely have seen towering white pine and elegant elms. Before the forest, however, the history of the land goes back millions of years. The limestone, dolomite and shale that the glaciers pulverized into clay formed in an ancient sea between 430 and 520 million years ago. Twenty thousand years ago glacial ice covered the region, and as it melted and retreated, a series of huge, lakes filled the Champlain Valley. First, Lake Vermont, with its flotilla of icebergs, flooded most of the valley for one or two thousand years, and then, with an influx of marine waters, the smaller Champlain Sea covered lower parts of the valley for approximately 2,000 years. The clay that southern Champlain Valley residents know so well settled out in the deep, still waters of Lake Vermont and the Champlain Sea.
About 11,000 years ago, the connection
with the ocean was cut off and the present day Lake Champlain took shape. The
lake bottom, for thousands of years beneath water, became an exposed lake plain
and passed through a succession of vegetation types before the present clayplain
forest natural community developed. The word "clayplain" is shortened
from clay-soil lake plain—the landform on which the forest grows.
| Although it has at times been called oak-hickory forest, many species of trees grow in the clayplain forest—more species than in any other forest type in northern New England. The hickory is shagbark, for bitternut hickory is almost always on the rocky hills and extremely rarely grows on the deep clay. The oaks of the clayplain are white, bur, swamp white and red; both swamp white and bur oak display northeastern range extensions into the clayplain. Sugar, red and silver maples, and all three of our ashes (white, black and green) grow in the forest, as well as American elm, basswood, beech, hemlock and white pine. Clayplain forest is also home to a great diversity of shrubs and herbs, a number of which are rare or uncommon and some that occur in Vermont only in the clayplain forest. The great diversity is due to high fertility, a moderate climate and a patchy mosaic of wet depressions—small and large—scattered within the forest. These characteristics also account for the presence of a number of species with more southern affinities. Clayplain forest is great wildlife habitat too. The plentiful food, including large nut crops, the proximity to water and wetlands, the moderate climate, and the landscape diversity featuring rocky hills such as Snake and Buck mountains, provide abundance for mammals, amphibians, reptiles, birds and insects. Bobcat, white-tailed deer, beaver, gray squirrel, and red and gray foxes are some of the larger mammals. Among the many bird species are wild turkey, cardinal, tufted titmouse, hermit thrush and blue jay. Salamanders include Jefferson, blue-spotted, spotted and redback. Gray treefrog, wood frog, spring peeper, northern leopard frog, green frog and bullfrog are some of the frog species. Worthy of particular mention is the red-headed woodpecker, a bird rare in Vermont where it is present only in the Champlain Valley lake plain ecosystem. While many animals do spend all or part of their annual cycles on the clayplain, because of the small size of the remaining forest fragments many species that likely once thrived are rare visitors or breed unsuccessfully. For example, black bear surely could have put on much winter fat with a feast of clayplain acorns and beechnuts. Also, a number of migratory songbirds do not nest near forest edge and certainly now avoid breeding in the forest fragments.
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Where is the clayplain forest?
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Why is clayplain forest important?
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Stewardship and Conservation L istening to the thoughts and addressing the concerns of landowners andcommunity members are crucial to the future of the clayplain forest. Because the sum of all of our individual actions is critical to the health of the ecosystem, sharing ideas with one another and taking whatever small steps we can builds a strong, local conservation effort.
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| Wildflowers with cookie-cutter shaped leaves like this wood anemone blanket the clayplain forest floor in spring.
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Marc Lapin, left, discusses clayplain forest ecology on a springtime walk in Dead Creek Wildlife Management Area. The walk was sponsored by Otter Creek Audubon Society and the Middlebury Area Land Trust. |
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Research T he Champlain Valley Clayplain Forest Project was started in 1996 to gather and analyze data about plants, soils and wildlife in clayplain forest parcels on private and state lands. These data help us to understand the components and dynamics of a little-known ecological system. We also have prepared maps to look at patterns on the landscape, in order to assess research and conservation opportunities and alternatives that may arise.
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| Tii McLane (left) and Marc Lapin gather data in a permanent sample plot.
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Ways to become involved in clayplain forest research:
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Sources of technical assistance and funding
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T he Champlain Valley Clayplain Forest Project can connect you with avariety of organizations that will help you with conservation and restoration. Funding is available for many conservation projects on private lands. Funding
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| Swamp white oak leaves in clayplain forest in Charlotte.
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Conservation Easements
L and trusts and other land conservation organizations can assist you with the process of selling or donating development rights on your land. While protecting the ecological values of your land, conservation easements also often provide tax breaks and income.
The Nature Conservancy
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Middlebury Area Land Trust
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Vermont Forest Legacy Program
| (Funding currently available for fee purchase or easement purchase in several Addison County towns) Land Acquisition Program www.state.vt.us/anr/fpr/lands/acquis.htm
| Vermont Land Trust
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| Snakeroot sprouts among the many herbaceous plants of the clayplain forest floor.
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| Oaks and shagbark hickories are prevalent in many clayplain forest sites.
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Natural Communities and Rare and Threatened
Species
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Nongame and Natural Heritage Program
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Forestry
T he forest ecosystem does not need to have timber harvested to be healthy and productive. If you do choose to harvest timber or firewood from a clayplain forest parcel, plan operations to maintain long-term sustainability of not only trees or game animals but all ecosystem components, including soil, herbaceous plants and water quality. Even if a woodlot is only a few acres, forest management information and planning provided by a county forester or a knowledgeable consulting forester are likely to improve both ecological sustainability of the parcel and long-term economic returns.
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| Winter view of a swamp white oak in the clayplain forest near Dead Creek.
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If you decide to
harvest trees from a clayplain parcel, utilize silvicultural methods
that ensure a healthy, diverse, uneven-age forest for the future. In
most cases for clayplain forest, to promote diverse, more natural stand
structure and age-classes, single-tree selection would be the
recommended silvicultural technique.
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It is best to
harvest only during frozen, winter conditions. Even then, or especially
if you harvest in dry, summer conditions, plan logging operations
carefully in and around wet areas. The wet soils are easily disturbed,
and there may be sensitive wildlife species, like salamanders and frogs,
present. Never take machinery into the woods when soils are wet.
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Use the services
of your county forester or a knowledgeable consulting forester.
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Think about how
you would like your woods to be in the future. The most important part
of managing land is to have a clear set of goals and objectives for the
land. Management plans and activities, whether they are involved or
brief, can then be designed to meet your vision.
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Leave dead wood,
large and small, standing and down, in the forest. Large woody debris is
important for sustaining natural nutrient cycles and the full diversity
of life in a forest.
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For more information about ways you can manage your clayplain woodlot for a wide variety of functions and values, contact: | |||
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The
Champlain Valley Clayplain Forest
Project is generously funded by:
Additional assistance and support have been provided by:
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Landowners and other community members are
joining together to explore, support, and restore clayplain forests in the
Champlain Valley.
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Natural history and conservation presentations are available free of charge!
| Publication design and layout by Heather Karlson Printed on recycled, processed-chlorine-free paper with soy-based inks.
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| Clayplain forest floor in January with leaves of swamp white oak, American elm, white oak, and white pine.
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Mission
| The Champlain Valley Clayplain Forest Project coordinates research, conservation and restoration, and promotes stewardship of the threatened clayplain forest natural community. Through its work, the Project increases awareness, provides education, and encourages local pride in the unique clayplain ecosystem.
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information, contact:
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This publication was made
possible with grants from the South Lake Champlain Trust, the Lake Champlain
Basin Program and The Sustainable Future Fund.
| Printed by Queen City Printers Inc.
Page last updated: July 16, 2002 For your free printed copy of this booklet, | |||||||
