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Nature and Science: Plants
Construction of New York’s canals dramatically changed the nature of the state. Not only were vast acres of forest felled to make way for the canal and its towpath, but the canal system spurred the growth of farming, industry, and cities that further altered the land.
While much of the Corridor environment no longer retains it original ecological character, many acres of forests and wetlands remain. In many places, abandoned sections of the original canal have reverted back to nature, adding to the vast canal waterway system and the continuous public lands that adjoin it in providing important habitats for plants and wildlife of upstate New York.
Take a closer look
Vegetation in the region generally consists of mixed deciduous forests, floodplain forests, wetlands, and bogs. In addition, extensive areas of the region’s fertile soils have been cleared for agriculture to support meadows, orchards, and produce farms.
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| Type |
Where to look |
Characteristic Trees / Vegetation |
Common Wildlife |
| Northern Hardwood Forest |
Throughout the Corridor |
red and sugar maple, American beech, paper birch, red spruce, red pine,
eastern white pine, quaking aspen, eastern hemlock
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variety of songbirds, hawks, owls, and woodpeckers; white-tailed deer,
red fox, red-backed salamander |
| Oak-Hickory Forest |
Finger Lakes and central part of the Corridor |
white, red, and black oak, hickory, Eastern white pine, black cherry,
red maple, white ash |
blue jay, wild turkey, scarlet tanager, rose-breasted grosbeak; gray
squirrel, northern flying squirrel, gray fox, eastern box turtle, spotted
salamander
|
| Floodplain Forests |
Mohawk and Hudson rivers and along streams, especially where flooding
occurs |
red and sugar maple, maple, shagbark hickory, white, black , and green
ash, American sycamore, eastern cottonwood, swamp white oak, black willow,
American basswood
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belted kingfisher, bank swallow, spotted sandpiper, green heron, yellow
warbler, wood duck; mink, river otter, spring peeper, wood frog, gray treefrog |
| Hemlock-Northern Hardwood Forests |
Champlain Region on lower and mid elevation slopes; Iroquois National
Wildlife Refuge (western NY) |
eastern hemlock sugar maple, American beech, yellow
birch, red spruce, Eastern white pine, red pine |
blackburnian warbler, northern goshawk, barred owl, pileated woodpecker;
red and gray squirrel, chipmunk, red-backed salamander, wood frog
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| Cattail Wetlands |
Abandoned sections of towpath era canals; low areas adjacent to rivers
and streams where soils are wet. |
cattails, arrowhead, pickerelweed, purple loosestrife, bulrushes, sedges,
blueflag iris |
wading birds, ducks, and geese, including great blue heron, green heron,
Canada goose, mallard, American black duck; painted turtle, muskrat, red-spotted
newt
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Cottonwood trees grow abundantly along canal and river shorelines. Their downy seeds drift on the breeze like snow each spring.
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