Throughout the glaciated Northeast, only a 

 fraction of earlier stands remains. Information on the 

 current status and location of many sites is available 

 from the Natural Heritage Programs, the Nature Con- 

 servancy, and State natural diversity data bases. 



The following descriptions of stands are 

 adapted from Laderman et al. (1987). 



t^aine . The northern and eastern edges of 

 the worldwide native range of C. thyoides are in the 

 state of Maine (Rossbach 1936). Maine's eleven 

 cedar stands are scattered from Knox County south- 

 ward to the New Hampshire border, generally within 

 20 km, and never more than 48 km, from the Atlantic 

 coast. They are found among low hills, between 

 ridges, and along lakes and swampy valleys with 

 meandering streams (Eastman 1977). 



Appleton Bog, at 44° 20' north latitude the 

 northernmost site of the tree's range, was discovered 

 in 1931 by Rossbach (1936). The 92 ha site contains 

 well -developed Sphagnum -carpeted hummock and 

 hollow topography dominated by vigorously 

 reproducing, healthy cedars (Worley 1976). Hum- 

 mock tops lie above the water table most of the grow- 

 ing season; in droughts, the water table remains 

 within a few centimeters of the surface of the hollows. 

 There are no streamcourses within the cedar- 

 dominated area, and there is neither inflow nor out- 

 flow of surface water Sixteen hectares last logged in 

 the 1950's are vigorously regenerating. The cedars 

 form dense, pure stands, averaging 15 to 40 cm in 

 diameter at breast height (dbh) ; the maximum height 

 seen was ca. 1 8 m (Worley 1 976). Potamogeton con- 

 fervoides, a pondweed rare in Maine, grew in a pond 

 within the bog a decade ago but may have been re- 

 cently extirpated as it has not been found in more re- 

 cent explorations (G. Rossbach, unpubl. letter). 



Northport, in Waldo County, at 69° 01' west 

 longitude is the easternmost location known for C. 

 thyoides; it contains a strikingly different cedar site 

 just a few km southeast of Appleton Bog. In 1930, 

 Rossbach (1936) discovered stunted cedars scat- 

 tered and clumped on a 0.5 km-wide bog mat floating 

 at one end of Knight's Pond. It has apparently 

 changed little in this half century. Mature cedars 

 (some only 15 cm tall) share the tufted mat surface 

 with stunted white pine {Pinus strobus), black 

 spruce {Picea mariana), tamarack (Larix laricina), 

 and a rich variety of ericaceous shrubs, carnivorous 

 herbs, and Sphagnum mosses (B. Vickery and A. 

 Laderman, unpubl. field notes). 



Saco Heath, northwest of Saco, York Coun- 

 ty, is the only domed bog known to contain 

 Chamaecyparis thyoides, and is possibly the 

 southernmost raised coalesced peatland in the east- 

 ern United States. Saco is the only large Sphagnum 



bog in southern Maine, and is one of the 

 southernmost Atlantic coast breeding sites known 

 for the palm warbler (Dendroica palmarum) (H. Tyler 

 and M. Michener, pers. comm.). 



The earliest reports of C. thyoides in Maine 

 (Goodale 1 861 ) indicated that it grew in York and Kit- 

 tery at the southernmost tip of Maine's seacoast, 

 where now only gnarled stumps of a drowned cedar 

 forest are sometimes visible at extreme low tide. 



New Hampshire. More than twenty Atlantic 

 white cedar stands are scattered through five of 

 New Hampshire's ten counties (P. Auger, pers. 

 comm.; H. Baldwin, pers. comm.). A few rare high- 

 altitude Chamaecyparis swamps are found here. 

 Robb Reservoir in Stoddard at 388 m is second in el- 

 evation only to High Point, New Jersey. At least 

 seven stands are found above 250 m, six of them 

 growing in Hillsborough County (Svenson 1929; 

 Baldwin 1961, 1963, 1965, and pers. comm.; F. 

 Brackley, pers. comm.). Little has been published 

 about the state's cedar wetlands; their continual loss 

 is documented repeatedly in Baldwin's short notes 

 (1961, 1963, 1965) and unpublished letters, and in 

 unpublished records of the New England Nature 

 Conservancy and the Society for the Protection of 

 New Hampshire's Forests. 



Massachusetts. In Massachusetts, Atlantic 

 white cedar is commonest south of Boston, par- 

 ticularly in Plymouth and Bristol counties. Many 

 acres of cedar swamp still exist here, although they 

 are being encroached upon by urbanization. Cran- 

 berry bogs were often created from cedar wetlands, 

 but it is difficult to determine how many acres histori- 

 cally supported Atlantic white cedar Farther west, 

 there are fewer wetlands and less optimal conditions 

 for cedar growth. In some areas of western Mas- 

 sachusetts, in the Connecticut River valley and in 

 northern Worcester County, cedars usually occur 

 within black spruce and larch forests in a more boreal 

 setting. 



On Cape Cod, cedar bogs are sparsely dis- 

 tributed from Provincetown to the Cape Cod Canal, 

 primarily in glacial kettles. Diaries of early explorers 

 and colonists (Archer 1602 and Brereton 1602 [in 

 Emerson 1981]; Emerson 1981) tell of many thick 

 cedar stands on the Cape as well as on the adjacent 

 Elizabeth Islands, where only a single cedar swamp 

 remains today. 



Despite the white cedar's historic abun- 

 dance in Massachusetts, few studies of the state's 

 cedar wetlands have been published. The Mas- 

 sachusetts Natural Heritage Program is currently 

 preparing an inventory of the natural areas of the 



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