state and is gathering data hitherto unavailable. 

 Even as the information is collected, large tracts are 

 being threatened by major development. 



Occurrences of cedar in the state may be 

 grouped in three broad classes (1) pure forest stands 

 with little other canopy vegetation (the most common 

 cedar community of the mainland), (2) mixed stands, 

 with cedar occurring among other wetland trees, 

 primarily red maple, and (3) in kettles with an open 

 body of water surrounded by a succession of zones 

 in which cedar is one of the concentric rings of 

 vegetation. 



An example of the vegetation sequence sur- 

 rounding a kettle pond would be: a band of emergent 

 swamp loosestrife (Decodon verticillatus) rimmed 

 by a Sphagnum-based mat, on which there is a suc- 

 cession of narrow shrub zones starting with perhaps 

 some dwarf huckleberry (Gaylussacia dumosa), 

 leatherleaf (Chamaedaphne calyculata), blueberry 

 (Vaccinium spp.), and swamp azalea 

 (Rhododendron viscosum), which sharply grade 

 into Atlantic white cedar, and finally white pine, hem- 

 lock, and upland species. Some typical plants of the 

 open Sphagnum zone would be pitcher plant (Sar- 

 racenia purpurea), sundew (Drosera Intermedia), 

 and occasional orchids such as rose pogonia 

 {Pogonia ophioglossoides) or grass pink 

 {Calopogon pulchellus). 



A variation of this vegetation type is found on 

 Cape Cod, where cedars may occupy relatively flat- 

 surfaced kettles rimmed by a moat slightly deeper 

 than the body of the wetland. The cedars, often the 

 sole canopy tree, cluster on small hummocks that are 

 spotted over the entire basin. The concentric vegeta- 

 tion pattern is condensed on each hummock, with 

 ericaceous shrubs, sweet pepperbush {Clethra al- 

 nifolia), and ferns in tight array rising from a sphag- 

 nous carpet that continues into the water of the 

 hollows. 



Species otherwise rare in southern New 

 England are found in Chamaecyparis wetlands, e.g., 

 dwarf mistletoe (Arceuthobium pusillum), a tiny 

 flowering parasite that causes deformation and 

 death of at least the branches of the black spruce on 

 which it grows; and heartleaf twayblade (Listera cor- 

 data), a northern species at its southern limit in Cape 

 Cod (the only known extant location in the state). 

 The northern parula warbler (Parula americana) in 

 Massachusetts now breeds primarily in a few cedar 

 wetlands, as the hanging lichen Usnea, its favored 

 nesting material, is fast disappearing outside the 

 cedar swamps. 



Rhode Island . In Rhode Island, Atlantic 

 white cedar is most abundant west of Narragansett 

 Bay, particularly in Washington County and in the 



western sections of Kent and Providence Counties 

 (D. Lowry and F. Golet, pers. comm.) There is very lit- 

 tle cedar on the east side of the Bay although place 

 names such as "Cedar Swamp" suggest that the 

 species was more common there in the past. 



The largest stands of cedar occur within the 

 state's three largest wetlands, all of which are 

 situated on broad expanses of stratified drift less than 

 30 m above sea level. Cedar forest covers 240 ha of 

 the 870-ha Chapman Swamp in Westerly. The 

 remainder of this highly diverse wetland includes 

 deciduous forest, shrub swamp, bog, marsh, and 

 open water. Two-thirds of the 390-ha Indian Cedar 

 Swamp in Charlestown supports cedar, but red 

 maple {Acer rubrum) is the dominant species in most 

 of the stands in which cedar occurs. In the Great 

 Swamp, which occupies 1200 ha in South 

 Kingstown, Richmond, and Charlestown, cedar 

 covers some 90 ha; the great majority of this wetland 

 consists of deciduous forest and shrub swamp. 



Smaller stands of cedar are commonly 

 found in glacial kettles (ice-block basins) which 

 formed in stratified drift or in thick deposits of 

 morainal material. A highly unusual stand of Atlantic 

 white cedar occupies a kettle situated in outwash at 

 the edge of Factory Pond, 9 m above sea level in 

 South Kingstown. The trees in this 5-ha "forest" are 

 80 years old, but only 1 -1 .5 m tall. Bordered by the 

 pond on one side, the stand is separated from the ad- 

 jacent upland by a moat of open water and a quaking 

 mat of low shrubs. The surface of this dwarf cedar 

 bog is carpeted throughout with Sphagnum moss. 

 The water table stays within a few centimeters of the 

 surface all year, and the pH of the soil water drops as 

 low as 3.1 . The soil is a poorly decomposed, fibric 

 peat. Growing in association with the cedars are 

 leatherleaf, cranberries (Vaccinium macrocarpon, V. 

 oxycoccos), cottongrass (Eriophorum sp.), and 

 pitcher plant. At its deepest point, this kettle contains 

 9 m of peat. 



Cedar wetlands along the Connecticut bor- 

 der in western Rhode Island generally lie at eleva- 

 tions ranging from 90 to 1 80 m. Most of these have 

 developed over valley train deposits of stratified drift 

 or in association with ice contact deposits. A very 

 small percentage of these swamps lie directly on 

 bedrock or on unstratified drift (more commonly 

 known as glacial till). Most wetland basins in till or 

 bedrock tend to be small, and peat deposits seldom 

 exceed 2-3 m in thickness. 



Red maple and black gum (Nyssa sylvatica) 

 are the two tree species most commonly associated 

 with Atlantic white cedar throughout Rhode Island, 

 but eastern hemlock (Tsuga canadensis) is an 

 important associate in many of the swamps lying 



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