New York Geography: The Land

Geography and Landforms of New York

 
The geography of New York is diverse. New York is 330 miles long and 283 miles wide. New York covers 54,475 square miles. In size, New York ranks 27th compared with the other 50 states. Major rivers include the Hudson, the Mohawk and the Genessee. Major lakes include Ontario, Erie, Champlain and George.

New York is made up of these Physiographic Areas

Adirondack Mountains

Most of the Adirondacks region consists of an ancient dome of Precambrian rock, similar geologically to the Canadian Shield, but also includes the Tug Hill Upland, which is more similar geologically to the Allegheny Plateau. Landforms include high Appalachian peaks (roughly 90 peaks surpass 1000 m), as well as a broad zone of lower mountains and foothills ranging down to 120 m in elevation. The area is dominated by a combination of maple-beech-birch and red spruce-balsam fir forest, but also includes numerous glacial lakes and bogs, as well as alpine communities. Roughly 2.2 million ha. are covered with forest today, with nearly half of this area consisting of state-owned Forest Preserve and most of the remainder in private industrial timberland. The most pervasive human influence on the natural landscape has been through commercial timber harvest and production, resulting in early removal of dominant white pine, hemlock, and old-growth spruce, and a gradual shift towards greater dominance by northern hardwoods. Although total acreage and volume of the Adirondack forests have increased steadily since 1900, harvest and removal of timber also has increased by nearly 90% since 1968. Harvest today is primarily by means of selective cutting of single trees; therefore age structure and species composition of the forest will continue to be affected without creating additional areas of early seasonal vegetation. T

Allegheny Plateau

The Allegheny Plateau covers much of west-central Pennsylvania, the southern tier of New York to the base of the Adirondack Mt., and a portion of northeast Ohio. This area consists primarily of extensively forested uplands, including the Catskill Mountains in NY, Pocono Mountains in PA, and Allegheny National Forest in both states. This is a transitional area dominated by oak-hickory forests towards the south and beech-maple forests towards the north. White pine and hemlocks also are an important component of the forests, more so historically. Small but important patches of spruce-fir forest occur on the Catskill High Peaks and at a few sites in northeastern PA. Several major river valleys dissect the highlands, and the Finger Lakes of central NY drain the northern portion of the physiographic area towards Lake Ontario. Roughly 70% of this area is forested today, with agriculture dominating primarily at lower elevations in western New York, the Susquehanna River valley, and in Ohio.

Lower Great Lakes Plain

The Lower Great Lakes Plain covers the low-lying areas to the south of Lake Ontario in New York and to the north of Lake Erie in southernmost Ontario in Canada. 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. The Carolinian Forest element in Ontario harbors ecological communities, including bird species, that are considered unique and rare in Canada. Unlike in most physiographic areas in the Northeast US, roughly 74% of the land area is in agricultural production. In addition, several medium-sized cities (Syracuse, Rochester, Buffalo, Windsor, etc) comprise over 800,000 acres of urban land, or 7.1% of the physiographic area. Several important National Wildlife Refuges, including Montezuma, protect critical wetlands and associated bottomland forests in New York, and Pt. Pelee National Park and several provincial parks are important areas in Ontario.

Mid-Atlantic Coastal Plain

The Mid-Atlantic Coastal Plain extends from the Atlantic Ocean, south of Long Island, to the Fall Line, where the hilly Piedmont begins. It is arbitrarily separated from the South Atlantic Coastal Plain at the Virginia-North Carolina border (with the exception of the Great Dismal Swamp in the southeast corner of Virginia, which is grouped in the southern area). The area was formed by shifting sea levels and alluvial deposition from rivers draining mountains to the west. Water continues to be a dominant feature of the landscape, creating forested wetlands and salt marsh and shaping barrier island and bay complexes. Upland forests on the remaining land graded in composition from pine dominated areas on the outer Coastal Plain (nearer the coast) to hardwood forests on the inner Coastal Plain. This was the site of the first successful English settlement in North America, and the natural landscape has been altered by European culture for nearly four centuries. The current human population approaches 11 million and is expected to continue to expand into the future, placing ever-increasing demands on the region's natural resources.

Northern New England

The Northern New England physiographic area extends from southern Maine through southern New Hampshire and Vermont and western Massachusetts, barely entering eastern New York in the Taconic Highlands. Landforms within the planning unit include Vermont's Killington Peak at 1,290 m ranging down to sea level along the Maine coast. Most of the region consists of Rolling hills and small mountains with large areas of farmland of the Connecticut, Merrimac, Androscoggin, and Kennebec river valleys. The planning unit also contains a large portion of the Green Mountain National Forest in southern Vermont. A majority of the planning unit is dominated by either sugar maple-beech-birch forest, red spruce-balsam fir forest, mesic hardwood forests dominated by northern red oak, or drier forests dominated by oak-hickory or pine-oak association. Presettlement forests in much of the region consisted largely of white pine and hemlock, with hardwood forests dominating after timber removal and other disturbance. Today, agriculture remains an important land use, but forest harvesting too shapes the habitats throughout Northern New England. Human populations have grown tremendously in this area and development for single family housing especially in rural and suburban areas is especially important.

Northern Ridge and Valley

The Northern Ridge and Valley extends from southeastern Pennsylvania, through northwestern New Jersey and southeastern New York nearly to the base of the Adirondack Mts. It includes portions of several major river valleys, including the Hudson, Delaware, and Susquehanna Rivers. Ecologically, this is a transitional area, with forested ridges grading from primarily oak-hickory forests in the south to northern hardwood forests further north. Pine-oak woodlands and barrens and hemlock ravine forests are also important along ridges, whereas bottomland and riparian forests are important in the valleys, which are now largely cleared for agricultural and urban development. Roughly 50% of the physiographic area is forested today, the vast majority occurring at higher elevations. About 40% of the area is in agricultural production, primarily a mixture of dairy pastureland and corn. Over 200,000 ha is state forest land in PA and NJ; other important public lands include High Point State Park (NJ) and Wallkill National Wildlife Refuge.

Southern New England

The Southern New England physiographic area covers parts of northern New Jersey, southern New York including Long Island, the majority of Connecticut, all of Rhode Island, most of eastern Massachusetts, the southeastern corner of New Hampshire, and south-coastal Maine. This area has experienced the greatest amount of urbanization of any part of the Northeast, including the entire Boston-to-New York City corridor. Urbanization and associated human activities severely threaten remaining high-priority habitats, especially maritime marshes and dunes, relict grasslands, and mature deciduous forests. Forest fragmentation, which is not a major issue in most parts of the Northeast, is a severe factor threatening forest bird populations. Currently, urban land covers roughly one-third of the physiographic area, with an additional 25 % of the region in agricultural production, primarily in the Connecticut River Valley, eastern Long Island, and northern New Jersey. Remaining forests are a mixture of oak-hickory and other hardwoods, white pine-red pine forest, and pine-oak woodlands or barrens.

New York Landscape and Landforms:

Adirondack Uplands

The Adirondacks are located in the northern part of the state. They are the highest and most rugged mountains.  They are located between Lake Champlain in the east and Lake Ontario in the west. 

St. Lawrence-Champlain Lowlands

The St. Lawrence-Champlain lowlands can be found on the shores of Lake Ontario and running northeast along the St. Lawrence River and the Canadian border

Hudson-Mohawk Lowland

The Hudson-Mohawk Lowland follows the rivers north and west and are south of the Adirondack Uplands.  This region is about 10 to 30 miles in width.

Atlantic Coastal Plain

This area lies in the southeast part of New York.

Appalachian Highlands

The Appalachian Highlands are to the west of the Hudson River and they extend west toward Lake Erie.  The Catskill Mountains and the Finger Lakes are in this area.  West is the Erie-Ontario lowlands as New York slopes toward these two Great Lakes.

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