Central Welland River Watershed Plan - Niagara Peninsula ...

CENTRAL WELLAND RIVER WATERSHED PLANGround cover is predominately Poverty Oat Grass with an abundance of FieldStrawberry, Wild Carrot with Grey Goldenrod, sedges and, Hawkweed as associates. Insome areas, crusty lime green patches of lichens also co-dominate the ground layer.The topography of the Mud Lake Conservation Area (CA) is very complex with piles of fillforming raised berms (spoils from the digging of the Welland Canal), with tablelanddepressions and linear drainage channels below the berms that support forested swampcommunities.The community located on the fill berms is sparse in areas with impoverished sub soil.This soil condition greatly slows succession of woody species. There is a small, moremature section of Maple Swamp in the southern portion of the property.Green ash swamp dominates the lower areas around the spoil piles and the depressionson top of the fill berms. Additional swamp communities occur along the perimeter of theCA boundary in and around the drainage channels. Complexes of Green Ash Swampare found as a mosaic throughout the eastern edge of the property.More open successional areas support wet patches of Creeping Bent Grass or, grassymeadow patches of Grasses, Garlic Mustard, Dame‟s Rocket and Burdock.The community on the western-most edge of the property follows the raised berm.Buckthorn dominates in two layers; the shrub layer and a taller sub canopy layer where itforms a canopy with Common Apple. Scattered trees of Bird Cherry, Green Ash, BlackCherry, Crack Willow and White Elm form a sparse canopy above. Weedy species likeDame's Rocket, Garlic Mustard, Burdock and grasses occurring in the ground layer inpatches as on other parts of the property.In the center of the property is a large cattail marsh dominated by Narrow-leaved Cattail.Complexed within this marsh, sedges and Cyperus create distinct patches where theyare the dominate cover. Below this layer, Smartweed and Beggarstick‟s occur.Near the eastern boundary of the property is a pond dominated by Water Meal andLesser Duckweed. This pond is fringed with Burreed, Cattails, Jewelweed and PurpleLoosestrife. Between this pond and the Cattail Marsh is a patch of sedge dominatedshallow marsh which supports living trees and dead snags of Green Ash and Willow.Wainfleet Bog Sites:Much attention has been paid to theWainfleet Bog over the years, our fieldcrews did not collect data within theboundaries of the Conservation Area,however we visited several privately-ownedproperties in the area surrounding thepublicly-owned properties.The most common communities noted forthis area were Deciduous Swampsdominated by Poplar species. The mix ofspecies was almost equal EasternCottonwood and Trembling Aspen with63