hardwood stands, or as isolated trees or clusters in 

 a shrub-dominated landscape (Little 1979; Forman 

 1979). 



Decline of cedar swamps . It must be em- 

 phasized that the general trend has been toward con- 

 version to other wetland types. In addition to 

 disturbances noted earlier, the decline of the 

 Pinelands cedar wetlands has been hastened by 

 rising sea level, flooding for cranberry production, 

 creation of industry-related reservoirs and recrea- 

 tional lakes, and drainage for agriculture and residen- 

 tial development (Roman et al. 1987). 



The harvest and management of Atlantic 

 white cedar in the Pinelands are discussed in detail 

 in Chapter 6. 



2.3.2 The Delmarva Peninsula 



Atlantic white cedar exists today on the Del- 

 marva Peninsula in remnant stands that represent 

 only a fraction of the species' former geographic 

 range (Figure 13). For literature review and further 

 detail, see Dill et al. (1987) and Dill et al. (unpubl.), 

 from which the following discussion was extracted. 



Just 322 km long and only 113 km at its 

 widest, the Delmarva peninsula contains all three 

 Delaware counties, nine Eastern Shore Maryland 

 counties, and two Eastern Shore Virginia counties. It 

 is bounded on the north by Pennsylvania; on the east 

 by the Delaware River, Delaware Bay, and the Atlantic 

 Ocean; and on the west by the Susquehanna River 

 and Chesapeake Bay. There are two distinct geo- 

 graphic provinces: (1) the Piedmont Plateau, with 

 rocky, wooded hillsides and rich alluvial stream val- 

 leys and (2) the Atlantic Coastal Plain, with soils of 

 clays, silts, sands, and gravels. 



The Fall Zone cuts across the northern por- 

 tion of the peninsula in a narrow northeast to south- 

 west band. Here Piedmont streams tumble as much 

 as 42.7 m to the Inner Coastal Plain below. All Atlan- 

 tic white cedar sites in Delmarva are located below 

 the Fall Zone, with a few stands on the Inner Coastal 

 Plain, and none on the Piedmont Plateau. 



A catalog of 58 present and historic sites in- 

 dicates that white cedar now grows in Kent and Sus- 

 sex Counties, Delaware; Kent, Queen Ann's, Talbot, 

 Dorchester, Wicomico, and Worcester Counties, 

 Maryland; and Accomac County, Virginia. Cedar 

 wetlands are found in six watersheds draining into 

 Delaware Bay: three drain directly in the Atlantic 

 Ocean, and five drain into the Chesapeake Bay All 

 sites are associated with acid water (ca. pH 5) on the 

 Coastal Plain, where cedar is found primarily along 



non-tidal river courses, with a few on pond margins 

 and in isolated swamps. Cedar presence is closely 

 correlated with Delaware soil types (Seyfried 1985). 



The average annual temperature is 13° C; 

 average annual precipitation is 1 14.3 cm. For most 

 of the year, winds are west to northwest, with a more 

 southerly flow in summer. 



f.'*- fall zone 

 population 



Figure 13. The probable historical range of Atlantic 

 white cedar in the Delmarva peninsula, 

 reconstructed from herbarium records and personal 

 communications (from Dill et al. 1987). 



18 



