Biodiversity of the Moodna Creek Watershed - Orange County Water ...

Moodna Biodiversity
L. Heady, 19 June 2008 DRAFT
Forests
While much of the forested land in the Moodna Creek watershed is fragmented, there remain
significant forest resources, ranging from large, matrix forests of global importance to smaller,
stepping stone forests which provide important links to core habitat areas. These forest
ecosystems, located primarily in the eastern and southern portions of the watershed, are
extremely important to biodiversity, but also offer essential services to the human community.
Forests, particularly large stands, contribute to water quality and quantity, mitigate effects of
climate change, produce timber, and provide recreational opportunities such as hiking, hunting,
and birdwatching.
The Orange County Open Space Plan (2004) provides a good overview of forest resources for
the entire county; the following discussion of the Moodna watershed reflects the size classes
described in the Open Space Plan.
Globally Important Forests (greater than 15,000 acres). The Nature Conservancy’s
“ecoregional planning” efforts identified “matrix” community types that extend over very large
areas of 1,000 to many millions of acres, often covering 80% or more of the undeveloped
landscape. The size and natural condition of the identified “matrix forests” allow for the
maintenance of dynamic ecological processes and meet the breeding requirements of species
associated with forest interior conditions. The Moodna watershed contains two such globallyimportant,
matrix forests. The east side of the watershed contains a large portion of the West
Point/Black Rock matrix forest, which in total includes over 20,000 acres (8,100 ha) of core
habitat, and connects southward to the even larger Harriman matrix forest. Protected lands in
this forest include Storm King State Park, Black Rock Forest, and West Point Military Academy
(although the latter is not permanently protected). The watershed’s southern tip in Monroe enters
the Ringwood matrix forest, which in total includes an expanse of over 50,000 core acres (20,000
ha) and includes protected lands in Sterling State Forest. Forests of this size are large enough so
over time they will express a range of forest successional stages including areas that have been
subjected to recent large-scale disturbance such as blowdowns and fire, areas under recovery,
and mature areas. These forests also provide sufficient area to support enough individuals of
most species to maintain genetic diversity over several generations. (Orange County Open Space
Plan 2004)
The large forests of the Hudson Highlands are primarily Appalachian oak-hickory forest,
chestnut oak forest, and oak-tulip forest, and are interspersed with smaller but ecologically
significant patch communities, such as pitch pine-oak-heath rocky summit, rocky summit
grassland, and woodland pools. These large, relatively undeveloped blocks of forests, wetlands,
grasslands, and ridges are noteworthy for the links they provide between the mid-Atlantic states
and New England, and for the wildlife species they support, which are wide-ranging and areasensitive,
and thrive in large, unfragmented landscapes. Examples of wildlife using large forest
habitat in the Moodna watershed include black bear and bobcat; Indiana bat; timber rattlesnake
and wood turtle; and many birds, including warblers and thrushes.
Regionally Important Forests (14,999 down to 6, 000 acres). The Orange County Open Space
Plan highlights forest patches greater than 6,000 acres (2,400 ha) as important for habitat to more
area-sensitive species, and because they can accommodate the large-scale disturbances that
maintain forest health over time. The plan identifies a regionally important forest on and around
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