1.
Borderland State Park
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Borderland is a Massachusetts state park located in the towns of Easton and Sharon. The 1, 782-acre park is operated by the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation, an appointed Advisory Council participates in policy decision-making. The area was listed on the National Register of Historic Places as Borderland Historic District in 1997, in 1906, Oakes Ames, a Harvard botanist, and his wife Blanche Ames Ames, an artist and feminist, purchased land on the border of Sharon and Easton. There they built a mansion still stands and created a nature preserve with woodland paths and roadways. After remaining in the family for years, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts acquired the Borderland estate in 1971. Mansion, The family’s home, a three-story, 20-room stone mansion constructed in 1910, was largely at the direction of Blanche Ames. Her paintings still hang on the walls and much of the furnishings are still intact. Tours are offered on the third Sunday of the month from April to November between 1 pm and 3 pm, visitors Center, The main entrance and visitor center are located in Easton. Trail maps and information are available, trails, The park has more than 20 miles of wooded trails for hiking, mountain biking, and horseback riding. Trails include a portion of the Bay Circuit Trail and the Quarry Loop to Moyles Quarry which supplied the stone for the Canton Viaduct in 1835. Photography, The mansion and other structures, ponds, woods, the park also offers fishing and canoeing in the ponds, winter ice skating and sledding, and a disc golf course. Park hours are 8am to posted closing time, in recent years, Borderland has served as the home for Oliver Ames High School cross country running, representing the schools home course. It is also utilized by the Old Colony League for its cross country meet. The park also hosts the Hockomock League Championship meet and various invitational meets on the 3. 1-mile-loop course, in 1996, the World Masters Flying Disc Championships were held at Borderland. Scenes from the Martin Scorsese movie Shutter Island were shot at the stone next to Leach Pond in 2008. The park has also seen filming for a commercial, a documentary, the Artistic and Scientific Collaboration of Blanche Ames Ames and Adelbert Ames II, Leonardo Journal 31.1, 47-54. Borderland State Park Department of Conservation and Recreation Friends of Borderland State Park
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Massachusetts
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It is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the east, the states of Connecticut and Rhode Island to the south, New Hampshire and Vermont to the north, and New York to the west. The state is named for the Massachusett tribe, which inhabited the area. The capital of Massachusetts and the most populous city in New England is Boston, over 80% of Massachusetts population lives in the Greater Boston metropolitan area, a region influential upon American history, academia, and industry. Originally dependent on agriculture, fishing and trade, Massachusetts was transformed into a manufacturing center during the Industrial Revolution, during the 20th century, Massachusetts economy shifted from manufacturing to services. Modern Massachusetts is a leader in biotechnology, engineering, higher education, finance. Plymouth was the site of the first colony in New England, founded in 1620 by the Pilgrims, in 1692, the town of Salem and surrounding areas experienced one of Americas most infamous cases of mass hysteria, the Salem witch trials. In 1777, General Henry Knox founded the Springfield Armory, which during the Industrial Revolution catalyzed numerous important technological advances, in 1786, Shays Rebellion, a populist revolt led by disaffected American Revolutionary War veterans, influenced the United States Constitutional Convention. In the 18th century, the Protestant First Great Awakening, which swept the Atlantic World, in the late 18th century, Boston became known as the Cradle of Liberty for the agitation there that led to the American Revolution. The entire Commonwealth of Massachusetts has played a commercial and cultural role in the history of the United States. Before the American Civil War, Massachusetts was a center for the abolitionist, temperance, in the late 19th century, the sports of basketball and volleyball were invented in the western Massachusetts cities of Springfield and Holyoke, respectively. Many prominent American political dynasties have hailed from the state, including the Adams, both Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, also in Cambridge, have been ranked among the most highly regarded academic institutions in the world. Massachusetts public school students place among the top nations in the world in academic performance, the official name of the state is the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. While this designation is part of the official name, it has no practical implications. Massachusetts has the position and powers within the United States as other states. Massachusetts was originally inhabited by tribes of the Algonquian language family such as the Wampanoag, Narragansett, Nipmuc, Pocomtuc, Mahican, and Massachusett. While cultivation of crops like squash and corn supplemented their diets, villages consisted of lodges called wigwams as well as longhouses, and tribes were led by male or female elders known as sachems. Between 1617 and 1619, smallpox killed approximately 90% of the Massachusetts Bay Native Americans, the first English settlers in Massachusetts, the Pilgrims, arrived via the Mayflower at Plymouth in 1620, and developed friendly relations with the native Wampanoag people. This was the second successful permanent English colony in the part of North America that later became the United States, the event known as the First Thanksgiving was celebrated by the Pilgrims after their first harvest in the New World which lasted for three days
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Biome
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A biome /ˈbaɪoʊm/ is a community of plants and animals that have common characteristics for the environment they exist in, and can be found over a range of continents. Spanning continents, biomes are distinct biological communities that have formed in response to a shared physical climate, biome is a broader term than habitat, any biome can comprise a variety of habitats. While a biome can cover large ares, a microbiome is a mix of organisms that coexist in a space as well. For example, the microbiome is the collection of bacteria, viruses. The biotas of the Earth make up the biosphere, the term was suggested in 1916 by Clements, originally as a synonym for biotic community of Möbius. In 1935, Tansley added the climatic and soil aspects to the idea, the International Biological Program projects popularized the concept of biome. However, in contexts, the term biome is used in a different manner. Both includes many biomes in fact and their boundaries must therefore be drawn arbitrarily and their characterization made according to the average conditions that predominate in them. A1978 study on North American grasslands found a positive correlation between evapotranspiration in mm/yr and above-ground net primary production in g/m2/yr. These findings help explain the categories used in Holdridge’s bioclassification scheme, Holdridge uses the four axes to define 30 so-called humidity provinces, which are clearly visible in his diagram. While this scheme largely ignores soil and sun exposure, Holdridge acknowledged that these were important and his scheme can be seen as a simplification of Holdridges, more readily accessible, but missing Holdridges greater specificity. Whittaker based his approach on theoretical assertions and empirical sampling and he was in a unique position to make such a holistic assertion because he had previously compiled a review of biome classifications. Physiognomy, the apparent characteristics, outward features, or appearance of communities or species. Biome, a grouping of terrestrial ecosystems on a continent that are similar in vegetation structure, physiognomy, features of the environment. Formation, a kind of community of plants on a given continent. Biome-type, grouping of convergent biomes or formations of different continents, whittakers distinction between biome and formation can be simplified, formation is used when applied to plant communities only, while biome is used when concerned with both plants and animals. Whittakers convention of biome-type or formation-type is simply a method to categorize similar communities. Whittaker considered four main ecoclines in the terrestrial realm, changes in physiognomic complexity vary with how favorable of an environment exists
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Temperate broadleaf and mixed forest
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Temperate broadleaf and mixed forest is a temperate climate terrestrial biome, with broadleaf tree ecoregions, and with conifer and broadleaf tree mixed coniferous forest ecoregions. The term Temperate broadleaf and mixed forest is used by the World Wildlife Fund in global biogeography as one of the biome designations under which to organize ecoregions, the typical structure of these forests includes four layers. The uppermost layer is the canopy composed of mature trees ranging from 30 to 61 m high. Below the canopy is the three-layered, shade-tolerant understory that is roughly 9 to 15 m shorter than the canopy, the top layer of the understory is the sub-canopy composed of smaller mature trees, saplings, and suppressed juvenile canopy layer trees awaiting an opening in the canopy. Below the sub-canopy is the layer, composed of low growing woody plants. Typically the lowest growing layer is the cover or herbaceous layer. In the Northern hemisphere, characteristic dominant broadleaf trees in this biome include oaks, beeches, maples, the term mixed forest comes from the inclusion of coniferous trees as a canopy component of some of these forests. Typical coniferous trees include, Pines, firs, and spruces, in some areas of this biome the conifers may be a more important canopy species than the broadleaf species. In the Southern hemisphere, endemic genera such as Nothofagus and Eucalyptus occupy this biome, Temperate broadleaf and mixed forests occur in areas with distinct warm and cool season, which give it a moderate annual average temperature —3 to 15.6 °C. These forests occur in warm and rainy climates, sometimes also with a distinct dry season. A dry season occurs in the winter in East Asia and in summer on the wet fringe of the Mediterranean climate zones. Other areas, as in the central and upper eastern United States and southeastern Canada, have an even distribution of rainfall, annual rainfall is typically over 600 mm
5.
New England/Acadian forests
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This ecoregion has a humid continental climate with warm summers and cold winters. There is also a patch of forest-boreal transition on the Adirondack Mountains. This entire area is referred to as the Atlantic Northeast. The climate consists of warm summers and cold winters with the Atlantic Ocean bringing rain all year round. The seaboard lowlands of this region, which extends to mid-coastal Maine, the forests of this area were radically cleared for agricultural land by the 19th century and then renewed as many of these farms were abandoned following the migration westward. Today the area is largely a mosaic of habitats influenced locally by micro-climatic differences, essentially, there are four important community types which show considerable diversity and blending across this physiographic province. These communities are, alpine communities on the highest mountains, coniferous forests, northern hardwood forests, there are no clear boundaries between the coniferous forests and the hardwood forests in the New England-Acadian ecoregion. The prevalence in the canopy of red pine and red spruce distinguish the transition forests of New England from those in the Great Lakes region to the west, some of western Vermont is in the Adirondack province, but generally exhibits similar vegetation. Areas of particular interest include areas of rocks, peat bog. Alpine communities are essentially regions of Arctic tundra, or treeless tundra-like communities and these are restricted to the tops of mountains that reach above the tree line, about 1300 metres. Mountaintops of Nova Scotias Cape Breton Island may have minor alpine biota, krumholtz and other aspects, full-blown alpine communities are found on Washington and the other White Mountains of New Hampshire and on Mount Katahdin in Maine. Quebecs Gaspé Peninsula, vegetatively similar to Maine and New Brunswick and these tall mountains serve as refugia for arctic plants left over from the retreat of the Laurentide glacier at the end of the last ice age. The truest alpine tundra communities are located on the western and northwestern slopes of tall mountains. The western slopes are typically heath dominated communities composed of plant of the family Ericaceae, common dominant components of the heaths are alpine bilberry and mountain cranberry. It is also found on parts of the Fundy coast in Maine and the Maritimes, the coniferous forest goes by many names, including, Boreal forest, fir-spruce forest, the North Woods, and the taiga. It is noted in New England for its harsh conditions such as cold, subarctic temperatures, a growing period, sandy-gravely acidic soil. It is also noted for a rate of precipitation, year round, as rain and snow. The dominant canopy species of this area include red pine, balsam fir, paper birch, red spruce, also present are jack pine, and white pine which is found in areas of richer soil in the lower elevations of this forest
6.
Eastern Great Lakes lowland forests
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The Eastern Great Lakes lowland forests is a temperate broadleaf and mixed forest ecoregion of North America, mostly in eastern Canada. This area includes much of northern New York state, western Vermont, the region includes the Frontenac Axis, the Niagara Escarpment up to Manitoulin Island on Lake Huron, and Lake Simcoe. This region has warm summers and cold, snowy winters, trees of the woodland include eastern hemlock, pines, maple, and oaks. Particular areas include the oak/pine mix of the Albany Pine Bush, areas of dry rocky alvar plain, the Eastern Great Lakes lowland forests are very rich in wildlife. Birds include cardinals, downy woodpecker, wood duck and eastern screech owl, less than 5% of natural forest remains intact. List of ecoregions in the United States Eastern Great Lakes Lowland Forests, archived from the original on 2010-03-08. Central U. S. hardwood forests images at bioimages. vanderbilt. edu
7.
Allegheny Highlands forests
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The Allegheny Highlands forests are a temperate broadleaf and mixed forests ecoregion of North America, as defined by the World Wildlife Fund. The ecoregion has a continental climate with warm to hot summers. Most of this forest was cleared in the late-19th and early-20th centuries, although all individual trees species still remain, their quantities and distribution are radically different from the forests original state. The Finger Lakes area has a rich mixture of woodland. Upland hardwood forests include red maple, American beech, black cherry, Allegheny hardwood forests consist of black cherry, white ash, and tulip poplar. Mixed-oak forests of red oak, white oak, eastern black oak. Northern hardwood forests include sugar maple and American beech, also common are yellow birch, eastern hemlock, red maple, black cherry, and eastern white pine. Hemlock tends to follow stream drainages, while white pine prefers drier ridgetops, white ash, American elm, basswood, and hop hornbeam can occur locally. Boreal forests occur at high elevations, particularly on the peaks of the Catskill Mountains and these forests include balsam fir, paper birch, mountain ash, and red cherry. Wild raisin and mountain holly are shrubs that grow in high elevation swamps, bogs, Wildlife of the forest includes bobcat, American black bear, coyote, and flying squirrel
8.
Appalachian-Blue Ridge forests
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The Appalachian-Blue Ridge forests is an ecoregion in the Temperate broadleaf and mixed forests Biome, in the Eastern United States. The ecoregion is located in the central and southern Appalachian Mountains, including the Ridge-and-Valley Appalachians, the mountains also contain a large variety of diverse landscapes, microclimates and soils all constituting microhabitats allowing many refugia areas and relict species to survive and thrive. The climate varies from humid continental in the north to subtropical in the south. Summers are hot at lower elevations, warm at higher elevations, winters are cold at higher elevations and cool at lower elevations. In terms of biodiversity, the only comparable temperate deciduous forest regions in the world are in central China, Japan, both the Appalachians and central China contain relict habitats of an ancient forest that was once widespread over the Northern Hemisphere. There are species, genera, and families of plants that only in these two locations. The Great Smoky Mountains are particularly rich in biodiversity, the Appalachians are home to 158 different species of tree, more than anywhere else in North America. There are two types of forest, deciduous oak forest at low elevations, and coniferous spruce-fir forest above that. Until 1890 the oaks were mixed with American chestnut but these were wiped out by the chestnut blight fungus in the early 1900s. Cove forests occur in coves and on low north- and east-facing slopes in the southern Blue Ridge and they are among the most biologically diverse ecosystems in the country. Typical trees of these forests are sugar maple, American beech, eastern hemlock, Carolina silverbell, tulip poplar, red maple, white oak, northern red oak, yellow birch, yellow buckeye, oaks gain numbers on drier sites. These forests dominated by pine and Virginia pine. Pitch pine may sometimes be present. Hardwoods are sometimes abundant, especially dry-site oaks such as red oak, chestnut oak, and scarlet oak, but also pignut hickory, red maple. The shrub layer may be well-developed, with blueberry, black huckleberry. Herbs are usually sparse but may include narrowleaf silkgrass and goat-rue, Southern Appalachian oak forests, widespread in the southeastern United States, occur on dry, upland sites on southern and western aspects and ridgetops. The composition of forests varies throughout their range but often includes chestnut oak, northern red oak, eastern black oak, white oak. Hickories such as bitternut, shagbark, and mockernut, are here, as are black tupelo, red maple, white pine. The Southern Ridge and Valley/Cumberland dry calcareous forests occur on dry to dry-mesic calcareous habitats in the southern Ridge-and-Valley Appalachians and they are often found on deep soils in a variety landscapes within their range
9.
Southeastern mixed forests
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The Southeastern mixed forests are an ecoregion of the temperate broadleaf and mixed forest biome, in the lower portion of the Eastern United States. This ecoregion covers the Piedmont region of the eastern United States and it is distinguished from neighboring ecoregions by elevation and vegetation. At lower elevations to the east are the Middle Atlantic coastal forests on the Atlantic coastal plain, similarly, the Southeastern conifer forests occupy the Gulf coastal plain to the south. Higher, and to the north and west, are the Appalachian-Blue Ridge forests, both oaks and hickories are abundant in this ecoregion. Additionally, some 3,635 species of herbaceous and shrub species have been recorded here. American chestnut was formerly an important tree in this ecoregion, and it still persists as an understory tree, but is often killed by the blight before it matures. The most common oaks of this ecoregion are white oak, northern red oak, black oak, black and scarlet grow in open forests. Black oak grows in nearly single-species stands on dry, exposed sites, scarlet oak grows in various habitats. Chestnut oak is found on ridgetops, the hickories of this ecoregion are identifiable by their pinnately compound leaves. They include pignut and mockernut hickory, both of which grow on a variety of sites from dry ridges to mesic habitats, understory trees include sassafras, hophornbeam, and green hawthorn. Flowering dogwood blooms in early spring, shrubs include highbush blueberry, lowbush blueberry, mapleleaf viburnum, huckleberry, mountain laurel. Common pine species are pine and loblolly pine. The pine forests are regenerated by fire, without fire, hardwood species grow in below the pines. Sugar maple, a tolerant tree, grows amid the oaks. Mesic forests occur in fertile, mesic, low-elevation habitats such as deep ravines, dominant trees include American beech, tulip tree, northern red oak, white ash, black maple, sugar maple, basswood, and bitternut hickory. Understory trees include pawpaw and painted buckeye, mesic mixed hardwood forests grow on mesic uplands, ravines, lower slopes, and well-drained flatwoods. Typical trees are American beech, tulip tree, various oaks and hickories, understory trees include American hornbeam, flowering dogwood, and American strawberry-bush. Successional forests include eastern juniper, black locust, and quaking, lee Memorial, Virginia Duke Forest William B
10.
Middle Atlantic coastal forests
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The Middle Atlantic coastal forests are a temperate coniferous forest mixed with patches of evergreen broadleaved forests along the coast of the southeastern United States. The Middle Atlantic coastal forests stretch along the Atlantic coast of the United States from the Delmarva Peninsula south to the Georgia coast and they cover the lower Atlantic coastal plain and are bordered on the west by the Southeastern mixed forests. The habitats of the ecoregion are constantly modified by natural processes, the bottomlands, coastal plains, and maritime areas are vulnerable to tropical cyclones and floods. The drier areas with sandy soils are susceptible to fires. Fire return intervals of 1 to 3 years favor herbaceous plants, longer intervals favor dense shrubs and this ecoregion has a humid subtropical climate with hot summers and mild winters, and with the heaviest precipitation concentrated in the warmest months. The mixed pine-oak forests occur on dry or sandy soils or in areas exposed to occasional fires, longleaf pine, superbly adapted to fire-prone environments, is the principal tree of these forests. Loblolly pine and shortleaf pine grow in sandy soils, on moist soils or where fires are infrequent, hardwoods overtake the pines. These hardwoods include turkey oak, post oak, myrtle oak, Spanish oak, evergreen broadleaved forests occur close to the coast in localized areas as either evergreen Maritime oak forests or as more localized evergreen Hammock. In the open areas near sandy beaches and coastal areas, large populations of Yucca and cactus thrive in the hot sun. The Middle Atlantic coastal forests contain the most diverse assemblage of freshwater wetland communities in North America and these include freshwater marshes, shrub bogs, white cedar swamps, bayheads, and wet hammocks. The bottomland hardwood forests for which the ecoregion is famous are dominated by bald cypress, bald cypress swamps are often dominated by their namesake tree, and are too wet for foot travel. Many uncommon orchids grow among the baldcypress branches, swamp tupelo, along with water tupelo, dominate mixed-hardwood swamp forests. These grow aside water-adapted oaks that include oak, swamp chestnut oak, cherrybark oak, willow oak. Swamp hickory and water hickory are also found here, Atlantic white cedar swamps occur along blackwater rivers. Pocosins are flat and damp, sandy, or peaty areas far from streams and they have scattered pond pine and a dense growth of mostly evergreen shrubs including gallberry. Barrier islands along the coast protect extensive estuaries, lagoons, carolina bays are a unique habitat of the ecoregion. The nine-banded armadillo is an animal that lives in this ecoregion. In the mixed forests, the brown-headed nuthatch feeds on pine seeds
