Lowville #080203

Sunday Feb 3, 2008. Light overcast, +2 to +3º .

Big storm on Fri, Feb 1 dumped a good measure of snow on the area.

Vegetation:

The vegetation of...the valley consists of forested valley slopes and wetland complexes in the valley bottom. The upper slopes consist of deciduous forest dominated by Sugar Maple - Beech, with Red Oak and White Ash. The forests become mixed in character as one progresses down slope, where Hemlock replaces Beech in the canopy, forming Hemlock - White Ash - Sugar Maple and Hemlock - Sugar Maple - [White] Birch associations. This mixed forest extends to the creek in places. The more mesic areas on the valley floor have [wet mesic mixed forests of Black Maple - Sugar Maple - White Cedar and floodplain swamps of] Hemlock on organic soils and [Crack] Willow swamp forests on the more mineral soils. There is one small cattail marsh which is ringed by a sedge marsh and an [Speckled] Alder thicket on the east end of the study area. An additional cattail marsh is found on the floodplain near the western boundary.

Landform:

The Lowville - Bronte Creek Valley encompasses relatively undisturbed forest valley, slopes and bottomlands on the Grimsby and Queenston bedrock formations of the Niagara Escarpment. The site occurs on stoney till and outwash slopes at the mouth of the Bronte Creek re-entrant valley, which extends westward beyond the site to near the village of Progreston. The site is characterized by a series of till ridges and valleys and an extensive alluvial floodplain along Bronte Creek .

Representation:

The Lowville - Bronte Creek Valley provides the best representation in the Halton Section of the lower portion of a re-entrant valley feature, including the best representation of flood plain features. The site also has the biophysical section's best representation of coldwater river, which flows across extensive recent alluvial deposits. The site has high representation of mature floodplain forest, as well as the best representation in the section of mesic mixed Hemlock lower-slope forests in an outwash channel. This site should be considered in conjunction with the adjacent Bronte Creek Escarpment Valley for representation of a full range of re-entrant valley / outwash channel features in the Halton Section.