f) Argent-Brookman-Wahee Association - nearly level, poorly drained, 

 very poorly drained, and somewhat poorly drained soils that 

 have a clayey, slowly permeable subsoil; subject to rare to 

 occasional flooding; on low marine terraces. 



Area of county: 11 percent; about three-fourths woodland. 



Natural areas identified: Federal Paper Hardwood Stand; Stonewall 

 Hardwood Stand. 



g) Yonges-Altavista-Fork Association - nearly level, poorly drained, 



moderately well drained and somewhat poorly drained soils 



that have a loamy, moderately permeable subsoil; on low 

 marine terraces and stream terraces. 



Area of county: 26 percent; about one-third in row crops. 



Natural areas identified: none. 



Three other minor Associations are present in the county: Goldsboro- 

 Lynchburg-Norfolk (4 percent of county area) ; Paxville-Rains (6 per- 

 cent) ; and Leaf-Lenoir-Craven (6 percent) . All are mineral soils; 

 none has any identified natural areas. 



THE VEGETATION 



Much of Pamlico County is comprised of a diversity of wetland 

 habitat types, under the criteria established by Cowardin, e_t al . 

 (1979) . Uncleared areas of the county generally support hydrophytic 

 vegetation, and the soils of the county, whether drained or undrained, 

 are predominantly hydric (51 percent very poorly drained; 29 percent 

 poorly drained; SCS, in manuscript). Either of these attributes - 

 hydrophytes or hydric soils - is sufficient to indicate the presence 

 of wetlands. As in most counties of North Carolina's lower Coastal 

 Plain , large areas of wetland soils and vegetation have been cleared 

 and put into agricultural production. This land use was concentrated 

 on wet mineral soils throughout much of the historical period of 

 development, but recently large acreages of peat lands have been 

 intensively developed. 



About 12 percent of the county has soils considered moderately 

 well drained to well drained, involving several Soils Associations 

 concentrated in the western part of the county. These areas are 

 mostly in second-growth successional communities or are cleared and 



