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  Riparian Forest Buffer

As you enter the trail, you pass through a corridor of trees.  These (the trees pictured on this page) and other trees you see as you walk the trail form a riparian forest buffer. 

Riparian forest buffers are areas of forested land adjacent to streams, rivers, marshes, or shoreline that form the transition between land and water environments. They play an important role in maintaining the health of wetlands by:

  • Helping maintain the integrity of the stream channels and shorelines;

  • Reducing the impact of upland sources of pollution by trapping, filtering, and converting sediments, nutrients and other chemicals, and

  • Supplying food, cover, and thermal protection to fish and other wildlife. 

 

 Dawn Redwood

The Bald Cypress (left) and Dawn Redwood (right) look very similar.  Each of these trees is a deciduous conifer*, which sheds its needles in the fall. The leaves of the Bald Cypress are alternate, linear, and flat with blades spreading around a twig.  The Dawn Redwood’s leaves are much like those of the Cypress, except they are opposite in arrangement and slightly shorter in length.  Unfortunately, the Bald Cypress is susceptible to brown pocket rot caused by a fungus. The forest tent caterpillar and fruit-tree leaftroller larvae web and feed on needles which eventually leads to the death of the Cypress.  Although the Dawn Redwood was thought to be extinct, it was brought from China to the U.S. in around 1948.

Overcup Oak Sawtooth Oak

The Overcup Oak (above) is a native tree that can grow 90 feet tall, and is a member of the Beech Family. The leaves are highly variable, and have a shiny dark green surface, rounded lobes, and are usually pale gray-green underneath and hairy.  The buoyant acorns use    water as a means of dispersal.  They are a food source for ducks, wild turkeys, hogs, deer, squirrels, and other small rodents.  They are drought and cold tolerant

The Sawtooth Oak (above) can grow as high as 70 feet, and was introduced to the U.S. around 1920 from Eastern Asia.  The leaves are about 4 to 8 inches long and are characterized by their jagged edge.  The acorns, the seeds of the tree, are enclosed in a cup with long, spreading, recurving scales.  This oak is resistant to disease and insect damage, and does poorly in flooded areas with  poorly drained soil. 

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