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Reading Prong

Ecoregion in Appalachian Mountains in PA, NJ

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The Reading Prong (58h) is contiguous with the Taconic Mountains and the New England Upland (Fenneman, 1938, p. 368). Its rounded summits typically range from 700 to 1,000 feet (213-305 m) and are about 200 to 550 feet (61-168 m) above the intervening valleys. Maximum elevation, about 1,400 feet (427 m), occurs on the Cambrian quartzite knobs of Wernersville Ridge. Elsewhere, Precambrian granitic gneiss, Precambrian hornblende gneiss, and fanglomerate are common (Berg and others, 1980). The metamorphic and igneous rocks are covered by slightly acidic, moderately fertile, residual soils which originally supported a native vegetation of Appalachian Oak Forest, dominated by white and red oaks (Cunningham and Ciolkosz, 1984; Cuff and others, 1989, p. 52). Today, we see a mosaic of rural residential development, woodland, and general farmland. Forest dominates only the more rugged, stony, or elevated locations, and overall it is less dense than that of the Diabase and Conglomerate Uplands (64b) or the higher Blue Ridge Mountains (66).

— EPA

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