PREFACE 



This monograph on the ecology of Atlantic white cedar wetlands is one of a series of U.S. Fish and Wildlife 

 Service profiles of important freshwater wetland ecosystems of the United States. The purpose of the profile 

 is to describe the extent, components, functioning, history, and treatment of these wetlands. It is intended 

 to provide a useful reference to relevant scientific information and a synthesis of the available literature. 



The world range of Atlantic white cedar (Chamaecyparis thyoides) is limited to a ribbon of freshwater wetlands 

 within 200 km of the Atlantic and Gulf coasts of the United States, extending from mid-Maine to mid-Florida 

 and Mississippi. Often in inaccessible sites and difficult to traverse, cedar wetlands contain distinctive suites 

 of plant species. Highly valued as commercial timber since the early days of European colonization of the 

 continent, the cedar and its habitat are rapidly disappearing. 



This profile describes the Atlantic white cedar and the bogs and swamps it dominates or co-dominates 

 throughout its range, discussing interrelationships with other habitats, putative origins and migration patterns, 

 substrate biogeochemistry, associated plant and animal species (with attention to those that are rare, 

 endangered, or threatened regionally or nationally), and impacts of both natural and anthropogenic distur- 

 bance. Research needs for each area are outlined. Chapters are devoted to the practices and problems of 

 harvest and management, and to an examination of a large preserve recently acquired by the USFWS, the 

 Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge in North Carolina. 



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