University of Pennsylvania ScholarlyCommons Research Works (Botany) Botany 2008 Vegetation of Ridley Creek State Park Ann F. Rhoads University of Pennsylvania Timothy A. Block University of Pennsylvania Follow this and additional works at: https://repository.upenn.edu/morrisarboretum_botanyworks Part of the Botany Commons Rhoads, Ann F. and Block, Timothy A., "Vegetation of Ridley Creek State Park" (2008). Research Works (Botany). 2. https://repository.upenn.edu/morrisarboretum_botanyworks/2 Submitted to the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources This paper is posted at ScholarlyCommons. https://repository.upenn.edu/morrisarboretum_botanyworks/2 For more information, please contact
[email protected]. Vegetation of Ridley Creek State Park Abstract Ridley Creek State Park is a suburban park in a landscape that has a long history of human use. Most of the natural vegetation was removed by the mid to late 1800s. In the past 300 years the landscape has gone from forest to farmland to private estate to heavily used public park. Today the park is a mosaic of forest remnants, scattered wetlands, successional communities, meadows, and landscaped grounds. Relatively intact natural communities cover 37 percent of the area. Non-native, invasive plants dominate many of the successional areas. These thickets of invasive shrubs and vines interfere with natural patterns of succession and represent inferior habitat for birds and other wildlife. An overabundance of white-tailed deer compounds the ecological degradation of the park landscape. Deer feed preferentially on native vegetation leaving most non-natives to proliferate. The browsing severity in the park is such that even plants such as spicebush and beech shoots are reduced to well- chewed remnants.