Allegheny Highlands forests

The Allegheny Highlands forests are a temperate broadleaf and mixed forests ecoregion located in a large part of the Allegheny Plateau physiographic province, including both unglaciated and glaciated portions, in Pennsylvania and New York within North America, as defined by the World Wildlife Fund. The United States EPA defines the area as belonging to the Northern Central Appalachians and Northern Appalachian Plateau and Uplands ecoregions. The ecoregion consists of four separate blocks of mixed forest surrounded by lower lying areas of hardwood forest as follows: the Northern Allegheny Plateau in New York State and Pennsylvania including the Catskill Mountains, the Poconos, the Finger Lakes and French Creek areas. The geology is diverse, with Paleozoic shales, sandstones, limestones, and chert. The topography is generally hilly with some deeply cut river valleys and many waterfalls. Areas of the north and central Appalachians; the western Allegheny Plateau in western Pennsylvania and Ohio; and the upland plain around Lake Erie and Lake Ontario. The Finger Lakes overlap the Eastern Great Lakes Lowland Forests ecoregion to the north. These lakes were created by glaciers, which scoured, widened, and deepened existing river valleys. Glacial debris then dammed rivers and created the lakes. The North Central Appalachians ecoregion has a severe mid-latitude humid continental climate, marked by warm summers and snowy, cold winters. The mean annual temperature ranges from roughly 3 °C to 8 °C with an average of 1082 mm annual precipitation. The Northern Appalachian Plateau and Highlands ecoregion, also a severe mid-latitude humid continental climate, has a mean annual temperature of 7 °C, seeing an average of 969 mm of precipitation.

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