Appalachian Hardwoods
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The central St. John River valley is home to a type of hardwood forest not found elsewhere in Atlantic Canada. This forest type, Appalachian Hardwood Forest (AHF), analogous to Ontario’s Carolinian forests, occurs on well-drained and calcareous soils in the sheltered confines of the central Saint John River valley. Two centuries of land clearance have reduced this once continuous woodland to a series of small isolated patches embedded in a sea of potato fields, settlements and abandoned pasture covered with early successional forest. In 1997, the Nature Trust located 65 patches of AHF which retained some level of conservation significance. The patches range in size from smaller than a hectare to larger than 100 hectares, and are scattered throughout Carleton and Victoria counties. Despite severe fragmentation, some remnant mature AHF patches maintain a diverse array of ground flora species, including thirty-five provincially uncommon, rare or very rare plant species. Typically the forest type includes basswood and butternut trees. Its understorey plants include spring ephemerals like the uncommon round-leaved hepatica, yellow lady’s slipper, showy orchis, Canada violet and maidenhair fern. The Trust survey also found such rarities as Desmodium glutinousum – a species of tick-trefoil which had previously been listed as provincially extirpated – and the vary rare Clinton’s shield-fern. Locating and cataloguing land with conservation significance was a step toward protecting it, but only a first step. The Trust’s second step was to develop and carry out a landowner contact and public awareness program. The overall objective of the Trust’s work in the Appalachian Hardwoods is to obtain the highest level of conservation possible for each site.
AHF conservation achievements to date include:
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