Mid-Atlantic Piedmont | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Description - The eastern border of the Piedmont is the fall line, where resistant volcanic rock gives way to the sands and clays of the Coastal Plain. To the west, the Piedmont ends with the edge of the higher and more rugged Blue Ridge and Ridge and Valley regions of the Appalachian Mountains The Mid-Atlantic Piedmont is arbitrarily separated from the Southern Piedmont at the North Carolina-Virginia line, and extends north through Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania before terminating in northern New Jersey. The rolling topography of the Piedmont formerly supported an extensive hardwood forest, with an oak-hickory type predominant in southern portions and Appalachian oak to the north. Large areas in the Virginia portion were dominated by Loblolly-shortleaf pine or pine-oak forests. Today, roughly 45% of the physiographic area is forested, and about an equal portion is in agricultural production. The remainder is experiencing rapid urbanization, especially in the vicinity of Washington D.C. and Philadelphia. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Conservation recommendations and needs - Managing human population growth while maintaining functional natural ecosystems is the greatest conservation challenge facing land managers in this region. The future of wildlife habitat depends on protection of patches of conservation significance and the manner in which inevitable continuing growth alters the environment. Forest habitat remains relatively abundant, but is very heavily fragmented. Identification and maintenance of those blocks large enough to support the full array of breeding birds should be a priority. Although no grassland bird species ranked highly in the PIF prioritization system, agricultural pasturelands throughout the piedmont support the largest (and apparently stable) population of Grasshopper Sparrows in the Northeast, as well as other state-listed grassland species. These areas formerly supported Henslow’s Sparrow. Protecting and enhancing grassland habitat is therefore also a priority, at least at the state level. Specific conservation recommendations for this physiographic area include:
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Please send comments to:
Kenneth Rosenberg, PIF Northeast
Regional Coordinator
kvr2@cornell.edu