Bottomland Hardwood Forest Concept

Bottomland hardwood forests are floodplain forests that are periodically inundated or saturated during the growing season.

Bottomland hardwood forest concept.

They are found along rivers and streams of the southeast and south central united states generally in broad floodplains. These lowland forests grow along river bottoms and tend to flood during the rainy season. Bottomland hardwood forests support a great variety of tree and shrub species. Typical tree species growing in these forests range from cottonwoods and sweetgums to cherrybark oaks water oaks and hickories.

Bottomland hardwood forests are seasonally flooded forests located along waterways. In the southeastern united states floodplain forests are referred to as bottomland hardwoods blh. 1982 mcwilliams and rosson 1990. Bottomland hardwood forests can reduce the risk and severity of flooding to downstream communities by providing areas to store floodwater.

It occurs in floodplains along major rivers and streams notably along the missouri and mississippi rivers. The reforestation of bottomland hardwood sites with mast producing species including oaks and hickories is the most important step in achieving the goal of ecological restoration in bottomland hardwood systems stanturf et al. A bottomland hardwood forest is basically a swamp or deciduous forested wetland. These unique forests contain many plant species structurally complex vegetation a great deal of cover and a deep litter layer.

Historic blhs were a product of the natural hydrologic and geomorphic processes associated with their adjacent rivers. These forests are subject to occasional scouring action of fast moving floodwaters. These forests are critically important to biodiversity wildlife carbon storage recreation and clean water in the south. The greatest concentration of blh historically occurred within the mississippi alluvial valley mav but the ecotype also dominates floodplains throughout the gulf and atlantic coastal plains wharton et al.

These ecosystems are commonly found wherever streams or rivers at least occasionally cause flooding beyond their channel confines. To provide the scientific basis to manage southern bottomland hardwood and wetland forests and associated stream ecosystems for a sustained yield of forest products and other desired values. Bottomland hardwood forests are river swamps. A special kind of bottomland forest is riverfront bottomland forest also called riparian forest or just riverfront forest.