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Forested Hills and Mountains

Ecoregion in Appalachian Mountains in WV, PA, MD

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The Forested Hills And Mountains ecoregion occupies the highest and most rugged parts of Ecoregion 69 and is extensively forested. Its highly dissected hills, mountains, and ridges are steep sided and have narrow valleys. Crestal elevations are often 1,800 to 2,600 feet (549-793 m) and reach their maximum, about 4,600 feet (1,402 m), in West Virginia. Resistant sandstone and conglomerate of the Pennsylvanian Pottsville Group, sandstone of the Mississippian Pocono Formation, and sedimentary rocks of the Mississippian Mauch Chunk formations are commonly exposed at the surface and typically have a gentle dip. In some places, however, the strata have been gently folded into a series of northeasterly trending ridges that reach an elevation of 3,200 feet (975 m). These anticlinal ridges, Chestnut Ridge, Laurel Mountain, and Negro Mountain, form a transition between the relatively undeformed Western Allegheny Plateau (70) and the folded and faulted Ridge and Valley (67) (Ciolkosz and others, 1984, p. 9). Broad Top Mountain, Pennsylvania is an outlier of the Forested Hills and Mountains (69a) that is surrounded by Ecoregion 67; its lithology and surface topography resemble Ecoregion 69a despite its geographical position (Guilday, 1985, p. 23). Local relief varies widely; on mountain bogs (glades), topography can be almost flat, whereas adjacent to watergaps, such as the Conemaugh River Gorge, local relief can exceed 1,300 feet (396 m). The eastern woodrat (Neotoma floridana), found on the cliff faces and boulder piles of water gaps, has been classified as threatened in Pennsylvania (Genoways, 1985, p. 362). Cool water, steep-gradient streams and waterfalls occur and have a less diverse fish population than those nearer the Ohio River. Characteristically, the streams of Ecoregion 69a do not have much buffering capacity and many reaches, including some not affected by mine drainage, are too acidic to support fish (R. Webb, Department of Environmental Sciences, University of Virginia, written communication, 1995).

— EPA

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