Floodplain Forest: Nourished by High Water
Heavy
rains saturated the soil, but the rain kept falling. Before long,
creeks were up, pouring muddy water into the Clinch. Slowly, the
river raised its ponderous bulk up above the banks, spreading out
across the flat land on either side, lapping at the feet of the nearby
hills. The aptly named floodplain was
underwater.
As the rains
ended, the river shrank back down between its banks. But the
slowly moving water that had spread across the floodplain left behind
rich mud and sand, carried off slopes above by the eroding forces of
water and now enriching the bottomland on either side of the
Clinch. Seeds had also been carried by the rushing water --- not
just Bladdernut pods, but also the
seeds of Sycamores, Black Willows, and Box-elders. Some trees on
the Clinch’s bank had been knocked over by the raging river, leaving
gaps in the canopy and sunny spots on the forest floor. The
forces of nature that shape the floodplain forest had done their work.
The entire
length of the River Trail runs through floodplain forest where signs of
past floods abound. The trail follows the curve of the Clinch
River, wending between Sycamore, Box-Elder, and Slippery Elm ---
typical floodplain trees that can colonize areas disturbed by high
water and grow quickly to gain a foothold before the next flood comes
to wipe slower-growing trees away. The floodplain forest tends to
be more open than the denser forests on higher ground, and plenty of
light filters down to feed the healthy shrub layer dominated by Black
Willow, Common Elderberry, Paw-paw, Spicebush, and Bladdernut.
Beneath the
shrubs, the forest floor is coated with herbs that thrive on the
infrequent deposits of rich soil. Virginia Bluebells form masses
of brilliant blooms in the spring, giving way to Purple-node Joe Pye
Weed and Wingstem in the summer. During every season, the
floodplain community is vibrant with life.
The same rich
soil that feeds the floodplain forest has drawn farmers to riverbanks
for millions of years. The earliest human civilizations were
located in fertile river valleys, like the Tigris-Euphrates, Nile, and
Indus River civilizations that arose about five thousand years
ago. Even in our region, many of our towns (like St. Paul)
are located on the banks of rivers that provide us with water and rich
soil for farming. The unfortunate side effect of our interest in
riverbanks is the demise of the floodplain forest --- while a few
patches of old growth oak-hickory or cove hardwood forest may be found
scattered across our region, floodplain forests are typically young and
overrun with invasive species. In many cases, the forests have
been completely replaced by pastures or farmland. In other areas,
rivers have been dammed so that they no longer flood above their banks,
protecting houses on the rivers’ edges but breaking down the complex
web of forces that feeds the floodplain forest.
Although the
Clinch River is dammed in Tennessee, the Virginia section of the Clinch
flows as a natural river. With new government programs that help
farmers create riparian buffers --- strips of trees on either side of
rivers fenced out of the adjacent pastures or cropland --- the
floodplain forest seems to be rebounding. As you walk the River
Trail, you can see firsthand the resiliency of the floodplain
forest. Even though corroded barbed wire hints that the land was
pasture in the not too distant past, the beautiful white trunks of
Sycamores arch over the water and spring ephemerals dot the forest
floor. When it rains, I anticipate the rise of the life-giving
river, feeding Sugar Hill’s floodplain forest.
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