NJ Natural Heritage Program, NJDEP Division of Parks and Forestry, Office of Natural Lands Management, 22 S. Clinton Ave, Plaza Bldg 4, Fl. 4, PO Box 404 Trenton, NJ, 08625-0404
plotless - latitude and longitude coordinates roughly approximate the survey area
Environment Fields:
Landscape Narrative
Landscape Description: This is a mosaic of upland limestone pasture, upland limestone oak-hickory forest, patches of cedar woods, mineral soil, spring seepages, turfy juniper fen, mineral soil Carex stricta fen, Typha-invaded fen, ditches and ponds. The site sits in a small valley. Most of the site is actively grazed by 2 large bulls. Historically used as a dairy farm into the 1970s. Old ditches and ponds throughout the site are colonized by Typha and Carex stricta.
Landscape Structure and Extent: This community is bisected by a Carex-stricta dominated fen with mostly mineral soils (no peat accumulation) that might represent an old dredged watering area or pond. Other adjacent communities include an upland, Liriodendron-Betula-Quercus-Carya forest, disturbed lowland cedar woods, and upland pasture. The surroundings are large lot residential, old fields, pasture, patchy mature forest.
Overall Taxon Cover Values are Automatically Calculated?
no
Plot Quality Fields:
Plot Validation Level
(1) occurrence plot: sufficient for determining type occurrence
Overall Plot Vegetation Fields:
Dominant Stratum
Herb
Growthform1 Type
Herbs
Growthform2 Type
Shrubs
Misc Fields:
Observation Narrative
Community Description: Sloping turfy juniper fen and pasture. Microtopography and community composition are variable. Part of community is hummocky, sedge dominated, and slopes down to a small spring stream. The other area is above the sloping area and receives less seepage, is less hummocky, and sits level. Species composition is variable but there is enough similarity to lump the two areas until further investigation. (The upper area is dominated by Andropogon, Rudbekia, and Dasiphora.) Soil is mineral throughout, with a tinge of organic matter.
Species Composition and Biological Structure: Species composition is somewhat variable but species characteristic of turfy juniper fens are continuous. The turfy juniper fen itself is nearly a flat plain bisected by a Carex stricta-dominated fen area (disturbed) and various ditches.
