Prosper Valley
Plant Communities
Despite sharing the watershed, the plant communities of the Prosper Valley vary from north to south, from the headwaters of the gulf region down to the lowlands of the Valley, varying with moisture, aspect, temperature, and elevation. In the hills, you may chance upon seeps, pockets where water comes up from underlying springs, bringing enrichment from the rocks to the soils and allowing for plants that compete well in enriched areas. In the hollows, in areas where beavers have dammed flowing water and created wet meadows, you will find water tolerant plants, such as willow trees.
The forests differ across the hills, from the higher elevations, where there are forests of red spruce, red maple and American beech trees, or enriched areas of sugar maple and white ash, to the lowlands, where there are red spruce-hardwood swamps. Some of the more fertile valley soils boast silver maple floodplain forests, carpeted in a thick cover of ferns. Shady hemlock forests can be seen on western-facing slopes. A short trek through the Valley can reveal a diversity of landscapes!