Chapter 4 Habitats
communities (i.e., habitats) by using widely accepted ecoregional units. Ecoregions are often defined based on landscape settings and patterns that are influenced by climate, soils, land surface form, and potential natural vegetation (Omernik 1987) , and can be useful for organizing, interpreting, and reporting information about land-use dynamics (Gallant et al. 2004) . Though North Carolina generally is considered to consist of three physiographic provinces— Mountains, Piedmont, and Coastal Plain—we have used four ecoregion boundaries described by Bailey (1995, 1998, 2009) and Omernik and Griffith (2008) as a framework for the wetland and terrestrial community descriptions found in this document. Figure 4 .1 -1 provides a map of the four ecoregions used in this Plan to organize information.
Figure 4.1-1. North Carolina Ecoregions (Bailey 2009).
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NC County Boundaries
Blue Ridge Mountains
Piedmont
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Coastal Plain
• Southern Blue Ridge Mountains (Mountains) . The Mountain ecoregion includes all portions of the Southern Appalachian mountain physiographic province that are west of the Blue Ridge Escarpment. As shown in Figure 4.1 -1 , there are several foothill ranges (the Brushy, Sauratown, and South mountains) located within the Piedmont province that are part of the Mountain ecoregion. North Carolina has the highest elevations of any state east of the Mississippi River, with Mount Mitchell being the highest peak at 6,684 feet (above mean sea level or amsl) (SCO 2014) . This ecoregion covers about 17% of the state and is predominantly forested with small patches of agricultural and developed lands found mainly in the broad valleys. • Piedmont . The Piedmont ecoregion includes areas east of the foot of the Blue Ridge Escarpment and west of the fall line, excluding the Brushy, Sauratown, and South mountain ranges. The fall line is a major break in geologic structure between the Piedmont and the
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2025 NC Wildlife Action Plan
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