8 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA 76 



and growth to 1 5 m may require more than 200 years. West of the Kilbuck 

 Mountains, riparian woodlands persist in narrow bands across the tundra 

 of the Kuskokwim River plain to the lower Kuskokwim River woodland. 

 Along the western face of the Ahklun Mountains, woodlands are lower, 

 more open, and generally more restricted to sites sheltered from the 

 coastal plain. 



Much of the coast and the islands consist of steep, rocky cliffs, rocky 

 promontories, and rocky shores (Fig. 6), with estuaries and freshwater 

 wetland habitats occurring at the mouths of most major rivers (Fig. 7). 

 The exposed, windswept ridges and hilltops of the capes and islands are 

 characterized by numerous rocks, bare soil, fell-field, and dry dwarf shrub 

 mat habitat (Fig. 8). In more protected areas on the capes and in the 

 mountains, grass meadows and low and medium shrub thickets occur, 

 although dwarf shrub mat habitat still predominates. Lowlands near 

 estuaries (Fig. 9) are generally wet meadows, brackish and freshwater 

 ponds, dwarf shrub meadows, and saltgrass meadows. 



Estuarine bays are generally shallow and contain large beds of 

 eelgrass (Zostera marina). At low tide the bays are drained by deeper 

 channels, and considerable areas of mud- and sandflats are exposed. 

 Scattered around the bays are salt marshes drained by tidal sloughs. All 

 of these estuarine areas provide important feeding and gathering spots 

 for waterfowl and shorebirds during migration. Each bay and Hagemeis- 

 ter Strait has one or more long, narrow sandy spits separating the bay 

 from open water. These spits are generally a combination of bare ground 



Fig. 6. Sea cliffs south from Cape Peirce with Hagemeister Island in the 

 background, 30 April 1976. Photo byM. R. Petersen. 



