Chamaecyparis thyoides
Chamaecyparis thyoides, a species of Cupressaceae, is native to the Atlantic coast of North America and is found from southern Maine to Georgia and along the Gulf of Mexico coast from Florida to Mississippi. It is one of two species of Chamaecyparis found in North America. C. thyoides resides on the East Coast and C. lawsoniana can be found on the West Coast. There are two geographically isolated subspecies, treated by some botanists as distinct species, by others at just varietal rank: Chamaecyparis thyoides thyoides and Chamaecyparis thyoides henryae E. Murray The species grows in forested wetlands; the trees are associated with a wide variety of other wetland species because of their wide north-south range. The remaining populations are now found in remote locations that would be difficult to harvest, so its popularity as a source of lumber has decreased. Chamaecyparis thyoides grows within 20 and 100 m of the coastline and less than 50 m above sea level along much of the East Coast and Gulf Coast.
Rare populations grow in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains, where the tree may be found up to 460 m above sea level. Nationally, Atlantic white cedar are protected in the Great Dismal Swamp National Wildlife Refuge, Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge, Cape Cod National Seashore, Croatan National Forest, Francis Marion National Forest, Ocala National Forest, Apalachicola National Forest. Altered fire regimes and draining of wetlands outside of the few protected areas have all contributed to the general decrease in the size and occurrences of Atlantic white cedar strands; the tree is listed as Rare in Georgia and New York, of Special Concern in Maine, Extirpated in Pennsylvania. Chamaecyparis thyoides lives exclusively in freshwater wetlands and are considered an obligate wetland species, it prefers habitats where the soil is saturated with water at least during the majority of the growing season. The soils in these regions have a thick organic layer classified as a histic surface horizon, with sandy material at greater depths and poor drainage.
Atlantic white cedar wetlands are acidic and there is little oxygen stored in the soil because water has displaced the air. Plants that live in these environments must be specially adapted to such conditions. Though the tree is not listed as threatened, Atlantic white cedar wetlands are considered a globally threatened ecosystem, serve as carbon sinks because of their peat-building abilities. Red maple and black gum trees are found in the canopy along with Atlantic white cedar throughout its range. Sphagnum mosses often grow in these wetlands; the caterpillar of the Hessel's Hairstreak butterfly feed on C. thyoides, where its green color helps it to be camouflaged. The trees themselves grow on hummocks, small mounds, with water pooling in the depressions surrounding them; this helps to protect from floods. The tree benefits from periodic low-intensity fires which expose seedlings to sunlight and limit competition with other canopy flora Red Maple. Too frequent or intense fires or flooding are damaging to seedlings stored in the top layer of soil and full-grown trees.
Chamaecyparis thyoides is an evergreen coniferous tree growing to 20–28 m tall with an average diameter of 0.8 m, up to 2 m, feathery foliage in moderately flattened sprays, green to glaucous blue-green in color. The leaves are scale-like, 2–4 mm long, produced in opposite decussate pairs on somewhat flattened shoots; the tree is bare of branches for three-fourths of the trunk height and the bark can be ash-gray to reddish brown. Bark is smooth on juveniles, but mature trees have deep ridges and bark as thick as 5 cm. C. thyoides is monoecious, so a single tree will carry both the pollen and seeds needed for reproduction in cones. The seed cones are globose, 4–9 mm diameter, with 6-10 scales, green or purple, maturing to brown in 5–7 months after pollination; the pollen cones are yellow but turn brown as the tree matures, 1.5–3 mm long and 1–2 mm broad, releasing their yellow pollen once a year in spring. The tree begins bearing seeds at 4–5 years, but does not reach full maturity and start producing cones until it is 10-20 year olds.
Seeds travel by wind. Height and diameter of the tree increase until the tree is 50 years old, at which point height growth slows. Both height and diameter no longer increase. Stands are all younger than 200 years, though some trees as old as a 1000 years have been reported; because they have shallow roots, C. thyoides are vulnerable to being blown over by wind. Chamaecyparis thyoides thyoides: Leaves and immature cones glaucous blue-green. Chamaecyparis thyoides henryae: Leaves and immature cones green, not glaucous. Chamaecyparis thyoides is of some importance in horticulture, with several cultivars of varying crown shape, growth rates and foliage color having been selected for garden planting. Named cultivars include'Aurea','Heatherbun','Andelyensis','Ericoides' (juvenile
White-tailed deer
The white-tailed deer known as the whitetail or Virginia deer, is a medium-sized deer native to the United States, Mexico, Central America, South America as far south as Peru and Bolivia. It has been introduced to New Zealand, Jamaica, Puerto Rico, the Bahamas, the Lesser Antilles, some countries in Europe, such as Finland, the Czech Republic and Serbia. In the Americas, it is the most distributed wild ungulate. In North America, the species is distributed east of the Rocky Mountains as well as in most of Mexico, aside from Lower California, in southwestern Arizona. IIt is replaced by the black-tailed or mule deer from that point west. However, it is found in mixed deciduous riparian corridors, river valley bottomlands, lower foothills of the northern Rocky Mountain region from South Dakota west to eastern Washington and eastern Oregon and north to northeastern British Columbia and southern Yukon, including in the Montana Valley and Foothill grasslands; the conversion of land adjacent to the Canadian Rockies into agriculture use and partial clear-cutting of coniferous trees has been favorable to the white-tailed deer and has pushed its distribution to as far north as Yukon.
Populations of deer around the Great Lakes have expanded their range northwards, due to conversion of land to agricultural uses favoring more deciduous vegetation, local caribou and moose populations. The westernmost population of the species, known as the Columbian white-tailed deer, once was widespread in the mixed forests along the Willamette and Cowlitz River valleys of western Oregon and southwestern Washington, but today its numbers have been reduced, it is classified as near-threatened; this population is separated from other white-tailed deer populations. Some taxonomists have attempted to separate white-tailed deer into a host of subspecies, based on morphological differences. Genetic studies, suggest fewer subspecies within the animal's range, as compared to the 30 to 40 subspecies that some scientists described in the last century; the Florida Key deer, O. v. clavium, the Columbian white-tailed deer, O. v. leucurus, are both listed as endangered under the U. S. Endangered Species Act.
In the United States, the Virginia white-tail, O. v. virginianus, is among the most widespread subspecies. The white-tailed deer species has tremendous genetic variation and is adaptable to several environments. Several local deer populations in the southern states, are descended from white-tailed deer transplanted from various localities east of the Continental Divide; some of these deer populations may have been from as far north as the Great Lakes region to as far west as Texas, yet are quite at home in the Appalachian and Piedmont regions of the south. These deer, over time, have intermixed with the local indigenous deer populations. Central and South America have a complex number of white-tailed deer subspecies that range from Guatemala to as far south as Peru; this list of subspecies of deer is more exhaustive than the list of North American subspecies, the number of subspecies is questionable. However, the white-tailed deer populations in these areas are difficult to study, due to overhunting in many parts and a lack of protection.
Some areas no longer carry deer, so assessing the genetic difference of these animals is difficult. Some subspecies names, ordered alphabetically: O. v. acapulcensis – Acapulco white-tailed deer O. v. borealis – northern white-tailed deer O. v. carminis – Carmen Mountains white-tailed deer O. v. clavium – Key deer or Florida Keys white-tailed deer O. v. chiriquensis – Chiriqui white-tailed deer O. v. couesi – Coues' white-tailed deer, Arizona white-tailed deer, or fantail deer O. v. dakotensis – Dakota white-tailed deer or northern plains white-tailed deer O. v. hiltonensis – Hilton Head Island white-tailed deer O. v. idahoensis – white-tailed deer O. v. leucurus – Columbian white-tailed deer O. v. macrourus – Kansas white-tailed deer O. v. mcilhennyi – Avery Island white-tailed deer O. v. mexicanus – Mexican white-tailed deer O. v. miquihuanensis – Miquihuan white-tailed deer O. v. nelsoni – Chiapas white-tailed deer O. v. nigribarbis – Blackbeard Island white-tailed deer O. v. oaxacensis – Oaxaca white-tailed deer O. v. ochrourus – northwestern white-tailed deer or northern Rocky Mountains white-tailed deer O. v. osceola – Florida coastal white-tailed deer O. v. rothschildi – Coiba Island white-tailed deer O. v. seminolus – Florida white-tailed deer O. v. sinaloae – Sinaloa white-tailed deer O. v. taurinsulae – Bulls Island white-tailed deer O. v. texanus – Texas white-tailed deer O. v. thomasi – Mexican lowland white-tailed deer O. v. toltecus – rain forest white-tailed deer O. v. truei – Central American white-tailed deer O. v. venatorius – Hunting Island white-tailed deer O. v. veraecrucis – northern Veracruz white-tailed deer O. v. virginianus – Virginia white-tailed deer or southern white-tailed deer O. v. yucatanensis – Yucatán white-tailed deer O. v. cariacou – O. v. curassavicus
Red fox
The red fox is the largest of the true foxes and one of the most distributed members of the order Carnivora, being present across the entire Northern Hemisphere from the Arctic Circle to North Africa, North America and Eurasia. It is listed as least concern by the IUCN, its range has increased alongside human expansion, having been introduced to Australia, where it is considered harmful to native mammals and bird populations. Due to its presence in Australia, it is included on the list of the "world's 100 worst invasive species"; the red fox originated from smaller-sized ancestors from Eurasia during the Middle Villafranchian period, colonised North America shortly after the Wisconsin glaciation. Among the true foxes, the red fox represents a more progressive form in the direction of carnivory. Apart from its large size, the red fox is distinguished from other fox species by its ability to adapt to new environments. Despite its name, the species produces individuals with other colourings, including leucistic and melanistic individuals.
Forty-five subspecies are recognised, which are divided into two categories: the large northern foxes, the small, basal southern foxes of Asia and North Africa. Red foxes are together in pairs or small groups consisting of families, such as a mated pair and their young, or a male with several females having kinship ties; the young of the mated pair remain with their parents to assist in caring for new kits. The species feeds on small rodents, though it may target rabbits, game birds, reptiles and young ungulates. Fruit and vegetable matter is eaten sometimes. Although the red fox tends to kill smaller predators, including other fox species, it is vulnerable to attack from larger predators, such as wolves, golden jackals and medium- and large-sized felines; the species has a long history of association with humans, having been extensively hunted as a pest and furbearer for many centuries, as well as being represented in human folklore and mythology. Because of its widespread distribution and large population, the red fox is one of the most important furbearing animals harvested for the fur trade.
Too small to pose a threat to humans, it has extensively benefited from the presence of human habitation, has colonised many suburban and urban areas. Domestication of the red fox is underway in Russia, has resulted in the domesticated red fox. Females are called vixens, young cubs are known as kits. Although the Arctic fox has a small native population in northern Scandinavia, while the corsac fox's range extends into European Russia, the red fox is the only fox native to Western Europe, so is called "the fox" in colloquial British English; the word "fox" comes from Old English. Compare with West Frisian foks, Dutch vos, German Fuchs. This, in turn, derives from Proto-Indo-European *puḱ-'thick-haired. Compare to the Hindi pū̃ch'tail', Tocharian B päkā'tail; the bushy tail forms the basis for the fox's Welsh name, literally'bushy', from llwyn'bush'. Portuguese: raposa from rabo'tail', Lithuanian uodẽgis from uodegà'tail', Ojibwa waagosh from waa, which refers to the up and down "bounce" or flickering of an animal or its tail.
The scientific term vulpes derives from the Latin word for fox, gives the adjectives vulpine and vulpecular. The red fox is considered a more specialised form of Vulpes than the Afghan and Bengal foxes in the direction of size and adaptation to carnivory, it is, not as adapted for a purely carnivorous diet as the Tibetan fox. The species is Eurasian in origin, may have evolved from either Vulpes alopecoides or the related Chinese V. chikushanensis, both of which lived during the Middle Villafranchian. The earliest fossil specimens of V. vulpes were uncovered in Baranya, Hungary dating from 3.4-1.8 million years ago. The ancestral species was smaller than the current one, as the earliest red fox fossils are smaller than modern populations; the earliest fossil remains of the modern species date back to the mid-Pleistocene in association with the refuse of early human settlements. This has led to the theory that the red fox was hunted by primitive humans as both a source of food and pelts. Red foxes colonised the North American continent in two waves: during or before the Illinoian glaciation, during the Wisconsinan glaciation.
Gene mapping demonstrates that red foxes in North America have been isolated from their Old World counterparts for over 400,000 years, thus raising the possibility that speciation has occurred, that the previous binomial name of Vulpes fulva may be valid. In the far north, red fox fossils have been found in Sangamonian deposits in the Fairbanks District and Medicine Hat. Fossils dating from the Wisconsian are present in 25 sites in Arkansas, Colorado, Missouri, New Mexico, Texas and Wyoming. Although they ranged far south during the Wisconsinan, the onset of warm conditions shrank their range toward the north, have only reclaimed their former American ranges because of human-induced environmental changes. Genetic testing indicates two distinct red fox refugia exist in North America, which have been separated since the Wisconsinan; the northern refugium occurs in Alaska and western Canada, consists of the large subspecies V. v. alascensis, V. v. abietorum, V. v. regalis, V. v. rubricosa. The southern refugium occurs in the subalpine parklands and alpine meadows of the Rocky Mountains, the Cascade Range, Sierra Nevada
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places is the United States federal government's official list of districts, buildings and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance. A property listed in the National Register, or located within a National Register Historic District, may qualify for tax incentives derived from the total value of expenses incurred preserving the property; the passage of the National Historic Preservation Act in 1966 established the National Register and the process for adding properties to it. Of the more than one million properties on the National Register, 80,000 are listed individually; the remainder are contributing resources within historic districts. For most of its history the National Register has been administered by the National Park Service, an agency within the United States Department of the Interior, its goals are to help property owners and interest groups, such as the National Trust for Historic Preservation, coordinate and protect historic sites in the United States.
While National Register listings are symbolic, their recognition of significance provides some financial incentive to owners of listed properties. Protection of the property is not guaranteed. During the nomination process, the property is evaluated in terms of the four criteria for inclusion on the National Register of Historic Places; the application of those criteria has been the subject of criticism by academics of history and preservation, as well as the public and politicians. Historic sites outside the country proper, but associated with the United States are listed. Properties can be nominated in a variety of forms, including individual properties, historic districts, multiple property submissions; the Register categorizes general listings into one of five types of properties: district, structure, building, or object. National Register Historic Districts are defined geographical areas consisting of contributing and non-contributing properties; some properties are added automatically to the National Register when they become administered by the National Park Service.
These include National Historic Landmarks, National Historic Sites, National Historical Parks, National Military Parks, National Memorials, some National Monuments. On October 15, 1966, the Historic Preservation Act created the National Register of Historic Places and the corresponding State Historic Preservation Offices; the National Register consisted of the National Historic Landmarks designated before the Register's creation, as well as any other historic sites in the National Park system. Approval of the act, amended in 1980 and 1992, represented the first time the United States had a broad-based historic preservation policy; the 1966 act required those agencies to work in conjunction with the SHPO and an independent federal agency, the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation, to confront adverse effects of federal activities on historic preservation. To administer the newly created National Register of Historic Places, the National Park Service of the U. S. Department of the Interior, with director George B.
Hartzog Jr. established an administrative division named the Office of Archeology and Historic Preservation. Hartzog charged OAHP with creating the National Register program mandated by the 1966 law. Ernest Connally was the Office's first director. Within OAHP new divisions were created to deal with the National Register; the division administered several existing programs, including the Historic Sites Survey and the Historic American Buildings Survey, as well as the new National Register and Historic Preservation Fund. The first official Keeper of the Register was an architectural historian. During the Register's earliest years in the late 1960s and early 1970s, organization was lax and SHPOs were small and underfunded. However, funds were still being supplied for the Historic Preservation Fund to provide matching grants-in-aid to listed property owners, first for house museums and institutional buildings, but for commercial structures as well. A few years in 1979, the NPS history programs affiliated with both the U.
S. National Parks system and the National Register were categorized formally into two "Assistant Directorates." Established were the Assistant Directorate for Archeology and Historic Preservation and the Assistant Directorate for Park Historic Preservation. From 1978 until 1981, the main agency for the National Register was the Heritage Conservation and Recreation Service of the United States Department of the Interior. In February 1983, the two assistant directorates were merged to promote efficiency and recognize the interdependency of their programs. Jerry L. Rogers was selected to direct this newly merged associate directorate, he was described as a skilled administrator, sensitive to the need for the NPS to work with SHPOs, local governments. Although not described in detail in the 1966 act, SHPOs became integral to the process of listing properties on the National Register; the 1980 amendments of the 1966 law further defined the responsibilities of SHPOs concerning the National Register.
Several 1992 amendments of the NHPA added a category to the National Register, known as Traditional Cultural Properties: those properties associated with Native American or Hawaiian groups
Precipitation
In meteorology, precipitation is any product of the condensation of atmospheric water vapor that falls under gravity. The main forms of precipitation include drizzle, sleet, snow and hail. Precipitation occurs when a portion of the atmosphere becomes saturated with water vapor, so that the water condenses and "precipitates", thus and mist are not precipitation but suspensions, because the water vapor does not condense sufficiently to precipitate. Two processes acting together, can lead to air becoming saturated: cooling the air or adding water vapor to the air. Precipitation forms as smaller droplets coalesce via collision with other rain drops or ice crystals within a cloud. Short, intense periods of rain in scattered locations are called "showers."Moisture, lifted or otherwise forced to rise over a layer of sub-freezing air at the surface may be condensed into clouds and rain. This process is active when freezing rain occurs. A stationary front is present near the area of freezing rain and serves as the foci for forcing and rising air.
Provided necessary and sufficient atmospheric moisture content, the moisture within the rising air will condense into clouds, namely stratus and cumulonimbus. The cloud droplets will grow large enough to form raindrops and descend toward the Earth where they will freeze on contact with exposed objects. Where warm water bodies are present, for example due to water evaporation from lakes, lake-effect snowfall becomes a concern downwind of the warm lakes within the cold cyclonic flow around the backside of extratropical cyclones. Lake-effect snowfall can be locally heavy. Thundersnow is possible within lake effect precipitation bands. In mountainous areas, heavy precipitation is possible where upslope flow is maximized within windward sides of the terrain at elevation. On the leeward side of mountains, desert climates can exist due to the dry air caused by compressional heating. Most precipitation is caused by convection; the movement of the monsoon trough, or intertropical convergence zone, brings rainy seasons to savannah climes.
Precipitation is a major component of the water cycle, is responsible for depositing the fresh water on the planet. 505,000 cubic kilometres of water falls as precipitation each year. Given the Earth's surface area, that means the globally averaged annual precipitation is 990 millimetres, but over land it is only 715 millimetres. Climate classification systems such as the Köppen climate classification system use average annual rainfall to help differentiate between differing climate regimes. Precipitation may occur on other celestial bodies, e.g. when it gets cold, Mars has precipitation which most takes the form of frost, rather than rain or snow. Precipitation is a major component of the water cycle, is responsible for depositing most of the fresh water on the planet. 505,000 km3 of water falls as precipitation each year, 398,000 km3 of it over the oceans. Given the Earth's surface area, that means the globally averaged annual precipitation is 990 millimetres. Mechanisms of producing precipitation include convective and orographic rainfall.
Convective processes involve strong vertical motions that can cause the overturning of the atmosphere in that location within an hour and cause heavy precipitation, while stratiform processes involve weaker upward motions and less intense precipitation. Precipitation can be divided into three categories, based on whether it falls as liquid water, liquid water that freezes on contact with the surface, or ice. Mixtures of different types of precipitation, including types in different categories, can fall simultaneously. Liquid forms of precipitation include drizzle. Rain or drizzle that freezes on contact within a subfreezing air mass is called "freezing rain" or "freezing drizzle". Frozen forms of precipitation include snow, ice needles, ice pellets and graupel; the dew point is the temperature to which a parcel must be cooled in order to become saturated, condenses to water. Water vapor begins to condense on condensation nuclei such as dust and salt in order to form clouds. An elevated portion of a frontal zone forces broad areas of lift, which form clouds decks such as altostratus or cirrostratus.
Stratus is a stable cloud deck which tends to form when a cool, stable air mass is trapped underneath a warm air mass. It can form due to the lifting of advection fog during breezy conditions. There are four main mechanisms for cooling the air to its dew point: adiabatic cooling, conductive cooling, radiational cooling, evaporative cooling. Adiabatic cooling occurs when air expands; the air can rise due to convection, large-scale atmospheric motions, or a physical barrier such as a mountain. Conductive cooling occurs when the air comes into contact with a colder surface by being blown from one surface to another, for example from a liquid water surface to colder land. Radiational cooling occurs due to the emission of infrared radiation, either by the air or by the surface underneath. Evaporative cooling occurs when moisture is added to the air through evaporation, which forces the air temperature to cool to its wet-bulb temperature, or until it reaches saturation; the main ways water vapor is added to the air are: wind convergence into areas of upward motion, precipitation or virga falling from above, daytime heating evaporating water from the surface of oceans, water bodies or wet lan
Wild turkey
The wild turkey is an upland ground bird native to North America and is the heaviest member of the diverse Galliformes. It is the same species as the domestic turkey, derived from a southern Mexican subspecies of wild turkey. Although native to North America, the turkey got its name from the domesticated variety being imported to Britain in ships coming from the Levant via Spain; the British at the time therefore associated the wild turkey with the country Turkey and the name prevails. Adult wild turkeys have long reddish-yellow to grayish-green legs; the body feathers are blackish and dark, sometimes grey brown overall with a coppery sheen that becomes more complex in adult males. Adult males, called toms or gobblers, have a large, reddish head, red throat, red wattles on the throat and neck; the head has fleshy growths called caruncles. Juvenile males are called jakes; the adult male's tail fan feathers will be all the same length. When males are excited, a fleshy flap on the bill expands, this, the wattles and the bare skin of the head and neck all become engorged with blood concealing the eyes and bill.
The long fleshy object over a male's beak is called a snood. Each foot has three toes in front, with a shorter, rear-facing toe in back. Male turkeys have a long, fan-shaped tail and glossy bronze wings; as with many other species of the Galliformes, turkeys exhibit strong sexual dimorphism. The male is larger than the female, his feathers have areas of red, green, copper and gold iridescence; the preen gland is larger in male turkeys compared to female ones. In contrast to the majority of other birds, they are colonized by bacteria of unknown function. Females, called hens, have feathers that are duller overall, in shades of gray. Parasites can dull coloration of both sexes; the primary wing feathers have white bars. Turkeys have 5000 to 6000 feathers. Tail feathers are of the same length in different lengths in juveniles. Males have a "beard", a tuft of coarse hair growing from the center of the breast. Beards average 230 mm in length. In some populations, 10 to 20% of females have a beard shorter and thinner than that of the male.
The adult male weighs from 5 to 11 kg and measures 100–125 cm in length. The adult female is much smaller at 2.5–5.4 kg and is 76 to 95 cm long. Per two large studies, the average weight of adult males is 7.6 kg and the average weight of adult females is 4.26 kg. The wings are small, as is typical of the galliform order, the wingspan ranges from 1.25 to 1.44 m. The wing chord is only 20 to 21.4 cm. The bill is relatively small, as adults measure 2 to 3.2 cm in culmen length. The tarsus of the wild turkey sturdy, measuring from 9.7 to 19.1 cm. The tail is relatively long, ranging from 24.5 to 50.5 cm. The record-sized adult male wild turkey, according to the National Wild Turkey Federation, weighed 16.85 kg, with records of tom turkeys weighing over 13.8 kg uncommon but not rare. While it is rather lighter than the waterfowl, after the trumpeter swan, the turkey has the second heaviest maximum weight of any North American bird. Going on average mass, several other birds on the continent, including the American white pelican, the tundra swan and the rare California condor and whooping crane surpass the mean weight of turkeys.
On one hand, none of these other species are as sexually dimorphic in size as the wild turkey, but on the other, they are far less numerous and are not hunted unlike the turkey, thousands of which are weighed every year during hunting season. Wild turkeys prefer hardwood and mixed conifer-hardwood forests with scattered openings such as pastures, fields and seasonal marshes, they can adapt to any dense native plant community as long as coverage and openings are available. Open, mature forest with a variety of interspersion of tree species appear to be preferred. In the Northeast of North America, turkeys are most profuse in hardwood timber of oak-hickory and forests of red oak, beech and white ash. Best ranges for turkeys in the Coastal Plain and Piedmont sections have an interspersion of clearings and plantations with preferred habitat along principal rivers and in cypress and tupelo swamps. In Appalachian and Cumberland plateaus, birds occupy mixed forest of oaks and pines on southern and western slopes hickory with diverse understories.
Bald cypress and sweet gum swamps of s. Florida. Lykes Fisheating Creek area of s. Florida has up to 51% cypress, 12% hardwood hammocks, 17% glades of short grasses with isolated live oak. Original habitat here was longleaf pine with turkey oak and slash pine "flatwoods," now main
New England
New England is a region composed of six states of the northeastern United States: Maine, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Connecticut. It is bordered by the state of New York to the west and by the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Quebec to the northeast and north, respectively; the Atlantic Ocean is to the east and southeast, Long Island Sound is to the south. Boston is New England's largest city as well as the capital of Massachusetts; the largest metropolitan area is Greater Boston with nearly a third of the entire region's population, which includes Worcester, Manchester, New Hampshire, Providence, Rhode Island. In 1620, Puritan Separatist Pilgrims from England established Plymouth Colony, the second successful English settlement in America, following the Jamestown Settlement in Virginia founded in 1607. Ten years more Puritans established Massachusetts Bay Colony north of Plymouth Colony. Over the next 126 years, people in the region fought in four French and Indian Wars, until the English colonists and their Iroquois allies defeated the French and their Algonquian allies in America.
In 1692, the town of Salem and surrounding areas experienced the Salem witch trials, one of the most infamous cases of mass hysteria in history. In the late 18th century, political leaders from the New England colonies initiated resistance to Britain's taxes without the consent of the colonists. Residents of Rhode Island captured and burned a British ship, enforcing unpopular trade restrictions, residents of Boston threw British tea into the harbor. Britain responded with a series of punitive laws stripping Massachusetts of self-government which were termed the "Intolerable Acts" by the colonists; these confrontations led to the first battles of the American Revolutionary War in 1775 and the expulsion of the British authorities from the region in spring 1776. The region played a prominent role in the movement to abolish slavery in the United States, was the first region of the U. S. transformed by the Industrial Revolution, centered on the Merrimack river valleys. The physical geography of New England is diverse for such a small area.
Southeastern New England is covered by a narrow coastal plain, while the western and northern regions are dominated by the rolling hills and worn-down peaks of the northern end of the Appalachian Mountains. The Atlantic fall line lies close to the coast, which enabled numerous cities to take advantage of water power along the many rivers, such as the Connecticut River, which bisects the region from north to south; each state is subdivided into small incorporated municipalities known as towns, many of which are governed by town meetings. The only unincorporated areas exist in the sparsely populated northern regions of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont. New England is one of the Census Bureau's nine regional divisions and the only multi-state region with clear, consistent boundaries, it maintains a strong sense of cultural identity, although the terms of this identity are contrasted, combining Puritanism with liberalism, agrarian life with industry, isolation with immigration. The earliest known inhabitants of New England were American Indians who spoke a variety of the Eastern Algonquian languages.
Prominent tribes included the Abenakis, Mi'kmaq, Pequots, Narragansetts and Wampanoag. Prior to the arrival of European settlers, the Western Abenakis inhabited New Hampshire, New York, Vermont, as well as parts of Quebec and western Maine, their principal town was Norridgewock in Maine. The Penobscot lived along the Penobscot River in Maine; the Narragansetts and smaller tribes under their sovereignty lived in Rhode Island, west of Narragansett Bay, including Block Island. The Wampanoag occupied southeastern Massachusetts, Rhode Island, the islands of Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket; the Pocumtucks lived in Western Massachusetts, the Mohegan and Pequot tribes lived in the Connecticut region. The Connecticut River Valley linked numerous tribes culturally and politically; as early as 1600, French and English traders began exploring the New World, trading metal and cloth for local beaver pelts. On April 10, 1606, King James I of England issued a charter for the Virginia Company, which comprised the London Company and the Plymouth Company.
These two funded ventures were intended to claim land for England, to conduct trade, to return a profit. In 1620, the Pilgrims arrived on the Mayflower and established Plymouth Colony in Massachusetts, beginning the history of permanent European settlement in New England. In 1616, English explorer John Smith named the region "New England"; the name was sanctioned on November 3, 1620 when the charter of the Virginia Company of Plymouth was replaced by a royal charter for the Plymouth Council for New England, a joint-stock company established to colonize and govern the region. The Pilgrims wrote and signed the Mayflower Compact before leaving the ship, it became their first governing document; the Massachusetts Bay Colony came to dominate the area and was established by royal charter in 1629 with its major town and port of Boston established in 1630. Massachusetts Puritans began to settle in Connecticut as early as 1633. Roger Williams was banished from Massachusetts for heresy, led a group south, founded Providence Plantation in the area that became the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations in 1636.
At this time, Vermont was yet unsettled, the territories of New Hampshire and Maine were claimed and governed by Massachusetts. Relationships between colonists and local Indian tribes alter
