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Pittsburgh Low Plateau

Ecoregion in OH, PA, WV

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The Pittsburgh Low Plateau ecoregion is unglaciated and has rounded hills, narrow valleys, fluvial terraces, entrenched rivers, general farming, land slides, and bituminous coal mining. Its well-dissected landscape has a maximum local relief of 550 feet (168 m); the Pittsburgh Low Plateau (70c) is more rugged than the Low Lime Drift Plain (61c) but lacks the folded ridges of the Forested Hills and Mountains (69a). Hilltop elevations commonly range from 1,100 to 1,400 feet (366-396 m). Generally, Ecoregion 70c is both lower and less forested than either the Unglaciated Allegheny High Plateau (62d), the Forested Hills and Mountains (69a), or the Uplands and Valleys of Mixed Land Use (69b). The average annual growing season varies inversely with elevation and ranges from about 170 days in the southwest to 120 days in the northeast. Base-poor Ultisols are common. Gilpin, Ernest, Wharton, Hazleton, Weikert, Cavode, and Rayne soils occur and are derived primarily from Pennsylvanian sandstone, shale, and coal of the Conemaugh and Allegheny Groups. Entisols (Udorthents) are locally common and are byproducts of bituminous coal mining. The potential natural vegetation of Ecoregion 70c is mapped as mostly Appalachian Oak Forest (dominants: white and red oaks); some Mixed Mesophytic Forest also occurs in the south (Kuchler, 1964). Today, farming is more common than woodland. General farming and dairy operations predominate but are often handicapped by sloping terrain, soil wetness, low soil fertility, and a short growing season. There are oil wells in the west and gas fields in the east. Industry and population are concentrated in the Beaver, lower Allegheny, and Ohio valleys. Widespread coal mining has left some land barren or reverting to woodland. Other areas have been reclaimed and releveled but their soils are not always satisfactory for cultivation (Zarichansky and others, 1964, p. 88). Extensive acidic mine drainage and industrial pollution have degraded stream habitat and caused the loss of at least 16 fish species from the Ohio River drainage (Cooper, 1983, p. 5).

— EPA

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