Introduction
Wetland.
A swampy, mysterious place.
A marshy pond where
beavers live. Morning mist
and ducks among the cattails.
A dark, cool, mossy forest.
Cotton grass and orchids.
Muck. Marsh gas.
Woodland.
Sugar maples. A walk in the
autumn woods. Beech and
black bear. A dark hemlock
ravine. Wildfire on a pine
knoll. Hobblebush and spruce.
Spring wildflowers.
Wildland.
A natural place.
Wind. Rain. Snow. Wildfire.
Cliffs, gullies, and gorges.
A calm, quiet, healing place.
Introduction
T
he three words of our title conjure all kinds of images, and many of these
images are a product of — and in some cases the defining qualities of —
natural communities, the subject of this book.
A natural community is an interacting assemblage of organisms,
their physical environment, and the natural processes that affect them.
Moss, cotton grass, and sugar maple are all important components of natural
communities. Cliffs, gullies, and gorges influence which natural communities will be
where. Natural communities, in their best expressions, are wild places, where wind,
rain, snow, and wildfire join with soils and topography to create and change habitats
for plants, animals, and other organisms.
This book is for people who care about the natural landscape and want to know
more about it. It is for landowners and land managers who want to add to their
understanding of the property under their care. It is for hikers and naturalists who
like to look around them as they walk and think about the patterns they see. It is for
botanists, zoologists, ecologists, and other scientists who are interested in the patterns
of distribution of the organisms and habitats they study.
Though this book is about Vermont, it also applies to other areas of New England,
New York, and southern Québec that are closely adjacent to Vermont or have similar
climates and physical settings.
Why We Classify Natural Communities
Biological diversity encompasses the staggering complexity of all life at all its levels
of organization, from genetic variability within species, to species interactions, and to
the organization of species in larger landscape units. It is human nature to want to
understand this complexity. The task is overwhelming, but we can take one small
step toward it by improving our understanding of the distribution of species, their
associations and interactions with each other, and how they respond to their physical
environment. Studying natural communities helps us do this.
On a more practical side, the natural community classification system presented
here provides a common language for classifying the land around us for purposes of
land use planning, land management, and conservation. To a land use planner, the
presence of a floodplain forest or marsh is a strong message that development of that
site would be imprudent because of flooding potential, wetness, or the inherent value
of the natural communities. To a forester managing a woodlot, the presence of a Rich
Northern Hardwood Forest indicates very good site conditions for growing sugar
maple and white ash. It also serves as a caution that careless construction of logging
roads could alter the downslope movement of soil and nutrients that is critical to
maintaining this community.
To a conservationist, the concept of natural communities is a powerful tool for
strategic conservation planning. Many organizations and agencies share a common
goal for biodiversity: to protect and conserve viable populations of all native species.
2 / Wetland, Woodland, Wildland
This is a formidable task given our lack of knowledge about many species, especially
species from understudied groups such as fungi, bryophytes, and invertebrates. The
study, identification, and conservation of natural communities is a tool for overcoming
this lack of knowledge. Conservation scientists hypothesize that if multiple, viable
examples of all natural community types are conserved in all their variety, and if
these communities occur in relatively natural landscapes, a majority of native species
will be conserved. In this way natural communities provide a coarse filter for
conserving biological diversity. We may not know what insects live in red maple
swamps, but if we protect multiple, high quality examples of these swamps, we will
likely protect at least some of the insects that use that habitat. Because of this, many
organizations and agencies have a stated goal of protecting examples of all natural
communities.
An important step in implementing a coarse filter approach is learning which
natural communities occur where. Ecologists are making great strides in predicting
natural community distribution based on physical features and believe that a diversity
of physical features should be conserved to insure that a diversity of natural communities will be conserved over the long term as climate changes. But there is no
substitute for on-the-ground inventory of natural communities. This book will help
ecologists and planners do this important work.
Although this book is about natural communities, and although we promote a
conservation approach that protects natural communities in all their variety, we
nevertheless stress that this is not a panacea for conservation. Some species need
special attention in their own right because the coarse filter may not capture them.
Examples of such species include common plants and animals that are declining
across their ranges because of disease or habitat alteration, like butternut and Canada
warbler; animals with large home ranges that require specific juxtaposition of habitat
types, like bobcat; plants and animals that are naturally rare, like Jesup’s milk vetch
and the cobblestone tiger beetle; birds and other animals that aggregate for breeding
and migration, like snow geese; and aquatic species, like native mussels and fish. In
addition, riparian and upland corridors of unfragmented habitat are known to be
critical in maintaining healthy populations of many species, and they deserve special
attention.
How This Book Can Help You
Natural communities are not always easy to identify and name. In some places, the
boundaries between them are distinct, such as the boundary between a kettlehole
bog and the dry pine slope that rises from its edge. But most of the time, boundaries
are much less distinct, as in a patch of woods where sugar maple, white ash, and
basswood are dominant at the bottom of the hill and beech and red maple are
common at the top. Walking up the hill, you may not notice the change until you find
yourself surrounded by beech at the top. But you have passed through two distinct,
though closely related, natural communities. This book will help you see the distinctions between them and give you a keener eye with which to notice differences and
change. It will not draw you a map of the natural communities on your back forty,
but it will help you sort out the information you need to draw your own map. And a
map can be a very powerful management tool.
Introduction / 3
What This Book Does Not Cover
This book does not discuss lakes, ponds, rivers, or streams. These complex and
vitally important aquatic systems have been extensively studied and described by
scientists in Vermont and surrounding regions, and they are worthy of their own
in-depth treatment. That treatment is beyond the scope of this book.
Caves and other underground communities are also fascinating and ecologically
important places, with their endemic invertebrates and hibernating bats, but they are
less well known than aquatic communities. Because so little is known about them in
Vermont and because they are so different from other natural communities, they are
not covered in this book.
The agricultural fields and developed areas of Vermont, important as they are for
certain plants and animals, and as much as they contribute to the character of the
state, are not included in this book. Natural communities can be found on farms and
in cities, though, in the hidden swamps, cliffs, and ravines, and these fascinating
places can be studied using this book.
How to Use This Book
To provide the background for understanding Vermont’s natural communities,
Parts One, Two, and Three introduce the geological history and climate of the state,
describe its biophysical regions, and describe the ecological processes that influence
vegetation. These sections of the book lay the foundation for understanding the
natural communities of Vermont and the surrounding region. We recommend reading
these first three parts before using the guide in Part Four to identify natural communities. The guide in Part Four is designed to help you identify any natural community
you are in. It contains 80 descriptive profiles of these specific natural communities.
Once you have read Parts One, Two, and Three and have become familiar with Part
Four, the profiles can be read independently and in any order, as needed. A forester
may want to read about Northern Hardwood Forests, while a student interested in
bogs may start with the section on peatlands, then read the profile on Dwarf Shrub
Bogs. A hiker who is about to climb Mount Mansfield may want to read about
Subalpine Krummholz, and a hunter in the Northeastern Highlands may want to learn
about Black Spruce Swamps. Whatever your interest, enjoy!
4 / Wetland, Woodland, Wildland
Full moon over Camels Hump
Our Vision For the Future
We believe all organisms have an intrinsic value and the right to survive. We also
believe humans need a healthy natural environment, both to provide them with basic
physical needs like food and shelter and to sustain their spiritual and emotional
health.
Our vision for Vermont’s future is of a place where humans and nature coexist, and
both are healthy. One hundred years from now and beyond, we would like to see a
Vermont with large areas of contiguous, unfragmented forest with its natural lakes,
streams, wetlands, cliffs, and ridgetops. We would like these communities to provide
habitat for all the species that naturally occur there. We would like to see riparian and
upland habitat corridors maintained to connect these large areas of contiguous forest
and important habitats and to allow unhindered movement of animal populations.
We would like to see multiple, viable examples of all Vermont’s natural communities
and all Vermont’s physical diversity represented in conserved land.
Key to this vision for the future will be a renewed and strengthened human
commitment to the natural world. In addition to land set aside strictly for conservation, we would like to see sustainable use and careful management of Vermont’s
forests and other land to provide the timber and other natural resources that we need
and want. We would like to see humans reach an equilibrium with the natural world
so that healthy species, natural communities, and landscapes will be enjoyed by
future generations.
We hope others share this vision, and that this book will help us all achieve it.
Introduction / 5