Ecology of Red Maple Swamps in the Glaciated Northeast: A ...

silver mtqgle occur locally in Vermont swamps (Vogelmann,
prsonal communication).
The shrub layer in the red maple-black ash
community is typically derlse and includes common
winterberry, blue-beech, highbush blueberry,
speckled alder, beaked hazelnut (Corylus cornuta),
nannyberry, mountain holly, red-osier dogwOOd
(Cornus stolonifem), meadowsweet (Spiraea
latifolk), and highbush cranberry (Viburnum
trilobum) (Goodwin and Niering 1975; Vogelmann,
personal communication). The herb stratum,
which is well developed and generally characterized
by herbs more than a meter tall,
includes cinnamon fern, ostrich fern, royal fern,
sensitive fern, interrupted fern, tall meadow-rue
(Thalictrum pubescem), wild sarsaparilla, goldenrods
(Solidago spp.), spotted touch-me-not,
manna grass, swamp dock (Rumex verticillatus),
and sedges (E. Thompson, Burlington, personal
communication; Vogelmann, personal cornmunication).
Sphagnum moss is also common.
The red maple-black ash community is far more
diverse floristically than the lake floodplain red
maple community.
Deciduous trees dominate most of the forested
wetlands in zone 111, and although evergreen forested
wetlands including northern white cedar
swamps and spruce-fir-tamarack swamps occur,
they are less cornmon here than at higher elevations
or farther north. In the Otter Creek valley
(southern Champlain River valley) of Vermont,
swamps consisting of mixed stands of hardwoods
and northern white cedar cover thousands of acres
(Thompson, personal communication). The hardwoods,
which dominate these swamps, include red
maple, black ash, and silver maple.
Zone Iti Northeastern Mountains
Zone IV; which includes the White Mountains,
Green Mountains, Taconic Range, Berkshires,
Adirondacks, and Catskills, falls largely within
the beech-birch-maple and spruce-fir forest regions
(Fig. 1.3). Deciduous forested wetlands
dominated by red maple are restricted to streamside
locations in narrow valleys and to isolated
depressions. Floristic data for these swamps are
scarce; the zone IV species list in Table 3.3 is
based on a single study conducted in the White
Mountains of New Hampshire (DeGraaf and
Rudis 1990) and National Wetlands Inventory
field notes (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Newton
Corner, Mass.) gathered at 11 sites in Maine,
New Hampshire, and Vermont.
Tree species that commonly associate with red
maple in mountain swamps include balsam fir,
gray birch, paper birch, yellow birch, American
elm, quaking aspen, and ashes. White pine, black
cherry, black spruce, red spruce, northern whitecedar,
hemlock, larch, and sugar maple also may
be present. The shrub layer frequently includes
speckled alder, viburnums (e.g., nannyberry,
witherod), common winterberry, willows (Salix
spp.), balsam fir, and meadowsweet. Cinnamon
fern and sensitive fern are the most common
ferns. Manna grasses, sedges (Carex spp.), asters
(Aster spp.), goldenrods (Solidago spp.), meadowrue
(Thalictrum sp.), wild lily-of-the-valley, starflower,
and wild sarsaparilla are representative
herbs.
Zone 'C! Northern New England Upland
The northern New England upland includes
most of northern and eastern Maine, as well as the
nonmountainous parts of western Maine, central
New Hampshire, and northeastern Vermont that
are too small to delineate in Fig. 3.10. This zone
supports primarily beech-birch-maple forest and
spruce-fir forest in the uplands (Fig. 1.3). Information
on red maple swamps in zone V is generally
lacking; hence, zone V floristic data have been
omitted from Table 3.3. Fkd maple and other
swamp hardwoods are usually subordinate to softwoods
such as hemlock, tamarack, northern white
cedar, spruces, and balsam fir. Most of the wet
basins contain either bogs or conifer swamps (R.B.
Davis, University of Maine, Orono, personal communication;
H. Nowell, New Hampshire Fish and
Game Department, Concord, personal communication).
Wet sites with calcareous groundwater
inflow commonly support northern white cedar
forests, whereas more acidic sites support various
combinations of northern white cedar, tamarack,
spruces, white pine, red maple, yellow birch, and
black ash. Stream bottoms in zone V often contain
balsam fur and alder (Alnus spp.) with little or no
red maple (Nowell, personal communication). Deciduous
forested wetlands most often occur in narrow
bands along streams, in complexes with shrub
swamps, or in small, isolated depressions. The red
maple-black ash community is found in northeastern
Vermont, but to a iesser extent than in
southern and western regions of that state
(Thompson 1988).