Coniferous Forests

Vermont Fish and Wildlife Habitat Fact Sheet

As a forest of lower elevations, the contorted and pruned by wind and clintonia, the circumboreal coniferous forest occupies much of ice, is known by the German word (appearing in the boreal forest Vermont's Northeastern Highlands Krummholz, meaning crooked worldwide) twinflower, and the northern portions of the wood. intermediate woodfern, and bristly Piedmont, a good deal of which is clubmoss are some of these more swampy or boggy. These regions Below 3,000 feet, the spruce-fir cosmopolitan species. have much in common with New forest begins to merge with the Hampshire and Maine-as well as hemlock-northern-hardwoods Mammals the obvious affinity with Canada- association, with white pine as a As one passes on the earth from even more in common than with common associate. arctic, through temperate, to other low-elevation areas of tropical regions, the number of Vermont. Its isolation from the rest Plants species, whether plant or animal, of the state is well expressed in The deep shade under a dense grows, encouraged by the "the Northeast Kingdom," a term evergreen canopy and the acidic increasingly favorable conditions coined by the revered late governor soils derived from slow-rotting that last ever longer throughout the and senator George Aiken. needles make the boreal forest a year. difficult place for most plants to The coniferous forest reaches grow. The understory flora, what The boreal forest in Vermont has a farther down the state, but at there is of it, is scarce and poorly richer flora and fauna than the higher elevations in the mountains- diversified, and only a few small small tundra areas, but compared this "Appalachian Extension" trees and shrubs enter the spaces with the deciduous forest it is continues all the way south to the between the canopy and the rather poor. On the other hand, the Great Smokey Mountains, though ground. Most frequent are boreal forest, both alpine and it climbs progressively higher in mountain maple, hobblebush, and lowland, is a refuge for some of the warmer climates. The mountain ash (not an ash at all but the rarer and more intriguing coniferous forest begins at about a member of the rose family that wildlife of the state. This is owing 3,000 feet in central Vermont but has been used as an ornamental for in part to the special type of in North Carolina it starts at 5,500 its attractive orange-red berries). vegetation the forest posesses, but feet; roughly 1,000 feet of altitude On the ground, the few flowering also in part to the large bring the same biological changes plants are often evergreens, such as unpopulated and undeveloped as 500 to 600 miles of latitude. goldthread (so called for the color stretches it encompasses, where the of its root), shinleaf, patridgeberry, more secretive and elusive species In the higher mountains in and, under pines especially, can live without disturbance. Vermont the boreal forest extends trailing arbutus, with its delicate up to the tree line, or about 4,000 violet-on-white flowers showing Two of the rarest mammals in feet. As elevation increases, the through the late snows of April. Vermont are members of the group spruces and firs become Other herbaceous plants (plants of boreal species, both of which progressively smaller, more without woody tissue) are were far more abundant twisted, and stunted. At tree line aometimes found here that are everywhere before the white they may be only a foot or two move widely distributed settlers entered the territory. Then high, prostrate, and looking more throughout the mixed forests in the they were trapped in considerable like shrubs than trees. This stage, state. Starflower, bunchberry (a numbers all over the Northeast. in which the branches are relative of the dogwood tree), The lynx and the marten (formerly "pine marten") are the phantom seeds to insect larvae, spiders, emblems of this forest and are now beetles, and other "animal" matter. virtually restricted to the boreal But in the winter their choices are habitat. The lynx is a wildcat, narrowed, to seeds that still cling resembling the bobcat of the to branches, buds, or the hardwood forests but with more occasional hibernating insects they grizzled fur and wide, furry discover. snowshoe-type feet, good for traveling over deep snow. The marten is a fair-sized weasel that Excerpted from Charles Johnson’s book weighs 2 to 4 pounds and, though Nature of Vermont not particularly fast, is very agile and a proficient tree climber. It not only looks like a large squirrel but can act like one, as well.

Birds Birds of the spruce-fir forests are an interesting and changing group: the few and notable year-round residents, the unpredictable and sporadic winter visitors from farther north, the ephemeral summer nesters, and the seasonal migrants.

Though winter is a lean time for the bird-and therefore the bird watcher- it can be a most rewarding period, for unexpected an unfamiliar species then come into Vermont. Many of the birds that visit the state's feeders, fields, and mixed forests in winter are true boreal species, breeding only in Canada. They move into the United States to spend the winter here, to proceed farther south in New England or beyond, or to wander from place to place. Their appearances are quite unpredictable, since their movements are not a true migration, but more a quest for food.

Most of such winter visitors are finches, a family of small to medium-sized birds with strong bills that can crack open the shells of seeds and nuts. In the summer their diet is broad, from berries and