Gadway Sandstone Pavement Barrens

Ken Adams, Professor Emeritus, SUNY Plattsburgh 

Saturday, June 6th | 10 am – 3 pm

Sandstone pavement barrens are an open canopy woodland that occurs on very shallow soils over sandstone bedrock. New York’s best examples are found on Potsdam Sandstone in Clinton County, including the Gadway barren. This barren includes an inland poor fen. 

Inventories of rushes and sedges are needed for the Gadway barrens.
The dominant tree is jack pine (Pinus banksiana), one of the best examples of a fire-dependent species in New York. Other associated pines include pitch pine (Pinus rigida), white pine (P. strobus), and red pine (P. resinosa). The shrub layer is dominated by black huckleberry (Gaylussacia baccata) and blueberry (Vaccinium angustifolium). Other important shrubs are black chokeberry (Aronia melanocarpa), sheep laurel (Kalmia angustifolia), and sweet-fern (Comptonia peregrina). The ground cover includes many lichens and mosses, which may form a continuous cover in some areas. Typical mosses include Polytrichum juniperinum and Pleurozium schreberi. Herbs grow throughout this ground cover and include bracken fern (Pteridium aquilinum), wintergreen (Gaultheria procumbens), cow-wheat (Melampyrum lineare), poverty-grass (Danthonia spicata), and common hairgrass (Deschampsia flexuosa).

If you have any questions about the trip before registering, please email gadway@nyflora.org.

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