Lower
Great Lakes/
St. Lawrence Plain
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The
Lower Great Lakes/St. Lawrence Plain covers the low-lying areas to the
south of the Canadian Shield and north of various highland systems in
the United States. In addition to important lakeshore habitats and
associated wetlands, this region was originally covered with a mixture
of oak-hickory, northern hardwood, and mixed-coniferous forests. Very
little of the forests remains today due primarily to agricultural
conversion. The highest priority bird in remnant forests is the Cerulean
Warbler. Because of agriculture, this is now the largest and most
important area of grassland in the Northeast, providing habitat for such
species as Henslow's Sparrow and Bobolink. Agricultural abandonment may
temporarily favor shrub-nesting species, such as Golden-winged Warbler
and American Woodcock, but increasingly agricultural land is being lost
to urbanization. This physiographic area also is extremely important to
stopover migrants, attracting some of the largest concentrations of
migrant passerines, hawks, shorebirds and waterbirds in eastern North
America. Much of these concentrations occurs along threatened lakeshore
habitats. |