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Botanical Reconnaissance of Nancy Brook Research Natural Area

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Botanical Reconnaissance of Nancy Brook Research Natural Area .. United States Department of Agriculture Botanical Reconnaissance Forest Service of Nancy Brook Research Northeastern Forest Experiment Station Natural Area General Techical Report NE-216 Joshua L. Royte Daniel D. Sperduto John P. Lortie Abstract A survey of the flora and natural communities of Nancy Brook Research Natural Area (RNA), Crawford Notch, White Mountain National Forest, New Hampshire, was conducted during the summer and fall of 1992. Nancy Brook RNA is noted for being the largest, virgin mountain spruce-fir forest in New Hampshire, and one of the few remaining large examples in the northeastern United States. The primary goal was to characterize major natural community associations observed across representative areas within the RNA and document the flora contained therein. The area was surveyed by walking transects across community and landscape types that were delineated using aerial photographs and geologic, topographic, cover type, maturity class, and Ecological Land Type maps. Eleven community types or variants were differentiated, based on observed differences in vegetation physiognomy, and species composition and abundance. A series of temporary plots was used to sample eight of the communities more quantitatively. A total of 167 species of vascular plants in 43 families, and 29 species of mosses and liverworts were recorded. Two state­ threatened species, Wiegand's sedge ( Carex wiegandil) and mountain avens ( Geum peckit), were inventoried at previously documented locations. Searches in 1992 revealed populations of the state-threatened Pickering's reed-grass ( Calamagrostis pickeringil) in small stream-side acidic fen communities. Two alpine-subalpine plants were also discovered: mountain sandwort (Arenaria groenlandica) on a rock slide just west of the RNA boundary, and alpine bilberry ( Vaccinium uliginosum var. alpinum) at a few high-elevation stations within the study area. A pair of northern three-toed woodpeckers (Picoides tridacty/us) observed in the spruce-fir blow-down forest confirmed historic observations of this rare species. Descriptions and discussion of all community types and rare plants, an annotated checklist of the flora, and a discussion of phytogeographic affinities of the RNA are provided. The Authors JOSHUA L. ROYTE is a field ecologist and botanist for Woodlot Alternatives, Inc. a natural resource consulting group in Topsham, Maine. He holds a B.S. degree from Bard College and an M. E. S. degree from Yale University School of Forestry and Environmental Studies. He conducts landscape analysis and surveys for rare plants, animals, and natural communities, and maps and studies wetlands in Maine and New Hampshire. DANIEL D. SPERDUTO is a vegetation ecologist at the New Hampshire Natural Heritage Program in Concord, New Hampshire, a position supported by The Nature Conservancy. He received his B.S. degree from the University of Vermont, and is an M.S. candidate at the University of New Hampshire. He joined the Natural Heritage Program in 1989 and conducts research and field surveys on the botany and community ecology of New Hampshire's natural communities. JOHN P. LORTIE is a wildlife biologist and botanist for Woodlot Alternatives. Inc. in Topsham, Maine. He received his B.S. degree in wildlife management from the University of Maine at Orono in 1981. In addition to being the president of Woodlot Alternatives, he conducts surveys for rare plants, animals, and natural communities in northern New England. Manuscript received for publication 12 January 1993 Published by: For additional copies: USDA FOREST SERVICE USDA Forest Service 5 RADNOR CORP CTR SUITE 200 Publications Distribution RADNOR PA 19087-4585 359 Main Road Delaware, OH 43015 March 1996 Botanical Reconnaissance of Nancy Brook Research Natural Area Foreword The Forest Service Research Natural Areas Program ecological management, information on RNA's will serve maintains a network of 289 established areas and more a vital role in forest management. than 300 candidate areas representing typical and unique natural ecosystems on national forests in the In an effort to encourage and expedite research on United States. These areas are managed in minimally RNA's, the Northeastern Forest Experiment Station is disturbed conditions for research, monitoring, education, commissioning a series of botanical reconnaissance and to maintain natural diversity and ecological surveys for each of the established and candidate RNA's. processes. The program began in 1991 with funding support from the RNA Matching Grant Program sponsored by the Within the 14-state territory of the Northeastern Forest Chief of the Forest Service. Experiment Station, which includes seven national reports in the series are: forests, six Research Natural Areas (RNA's) have been The first three established and 29 candidate areas are being considered Botanical Reconnaissance of for establishment within the next few years. A few of Mountain Pond Research Natural Area these areas have been the scene of active field research for many years whereas others are virtually unstudied. Botanical Reconnaissance of The Bowl Research Natural Area Although the RNA program began more than 65 years ago, research and monitoring on RNA's only began Botanical Reconnaissance of recently. As the Forest Service moves in the direction of Nancy Brook Research Natural Area Study Area Nancy Brook Research Natural Area (RNA) is located in the conditions. 1 Bailey and Hornbeck (1992) demonstrated that White Mountain National Forest in Carroll and Grafton till composition could be reasonably well predicted by Counties, New Hampshire. The RNA is 601 ha in size. It estimating the proportions of bedrock contributions within a includes the watershed of Nancy Brook west of the western wedge-shaped source area. Casual observation of bedrock boundary of Harts Location, and the upper watershed of maps indicate that the lithological composition of tills within Halfway Brook above 426 m. The upper boundaries of the the RNA consists primarily of low base-cation yielding drift two watersheds reach the summits of Mount Bemis (1129 indicative of the nearby bedrock source areas. m) to the north, Mount Nancy (1190 m) to the northwest, the east shoulder of Mount Anderson (1 060 m) to the west, The predominant natural community type in the Nancy and Duck Pond Mountain (1 001 m) to the south, including Brook RNA is the Mountain Spruce-Fir Forest. This forest the southeast shoulder named Mount Saunders (-952 m). type is dominated by red spruce (Picea rubens) and balsam The area contains the brooks mentioned above, Nancy fir (Abies balsamea) forests, with heartleaf birch (Betula Pond in the west, several acidic fens near the pond, a cordifolia) as a common subdominant tree species. Much of beaver pond to the north, and Nancy Cascade, which is the variation seen in the vegetation in the spruce-fir zone roughly in the center of the RNA. One of the acidic fens relates to disturbance events of various extents and ages. close to Nancy Pond contains a rare northern sedge, In areas with severe blow-down, fire, or spruce budworm Wiegand's sedge (Carex wiegandit). The cascade is of damage, heartleaf birch may become locally dominant. special note for its scenic qualities and for the population of Some areas are influenced by finer scale gap dynamics, the globally rare mountain avens ( Geum peckit) that grows generating single tree openings. Thus, several of the in moist rock crevices there. community types described herein are disturbance related variants of the more broadly defined Mountain Spruce-Fir The Nancy Pond Trail runs from Route 302 in Crawford Forest Community. The upper slopes of Duck Pond Notch across Halfway Brook and Nancy Brook before it Mountain, the shoulder north and east of this summit, and climbs up to the Nancy Brook cascade. The trail climbs the the eastern arm of Mt. Bemis experienced catastrophic steep slope south of the cascade through some old forest blow-down during the 1938 hurricane. These areas are before reaching the major portion of old-growth forest found dominated by dense birch, red spruce, and balsam fir on more level terrain above the cascade. It then passes seedlings. Protected areas around and above Nancy Brook just north of a small acidic fen before coming within view of cascades and the upper basin of Halfway Brook harbor the Nancy Pond, then passes a second fen north of Nancy Pond remains of a nationally significant virgin spruce forest. just before ascending a height of land that marks the These stands are noted for old-growth spruce, a multi­ boundary between the RNA and the Pemigiwasett layered canopy, and significant accumulation of organic Wilderness Area. This boundary is the divide between the matter on the forest floor. This forest and the adjacent Saco River and the Merrimack River watersheds. blow-down areas are habitat for the rare northern three-toed woodpecker (Picoides tridactylus). The terrain varies from the relatively gentle slopes of the valley above the cascade between Mount Bemis and the The forest below 731 m in areas with eastern exposure summit of Duck Pond Mountain, to the rugged slopes (40 (higher with southern exposures and lower with northern) degrees to vertical) of Mount Nancy, Mount Bemis, and the contains northern hardwood forests dominated by lower sides of Duck Pond Mountain. The combination of American beech (Fagus grandifolia) and sugar maple (Acer steep terrain and blow-down forest makes travel difficult saccharum). Most of this forest below 793 m was logged through much of the area. both before and after the 1938 hurricane. Much of the bedrock of Nancy Brook RNA is part of the Methods Littleton Formation which, in this area, is chiefly composed of the RNA were overlaid with maps of of gray gneiss. Small slivers of Littleton Formation lime­ Aerial photographs Types (ELTs), bedrock geology, silicates are mapped in the Halfway Brook drainage. East of Ecological Land position and elevation, stand types, maturity the cascades is a section of Mount Lafayette Granite topographic classes and known unique features.
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