The North Madison Cedar Swamp ( North Madison, CT.)

Graduate students from the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies (Yale F&ES) have been studying the North Madison cedar swamp for many years. This large, beautiful, closed canopy, Atlantic white cedar (Chaemacyparis thyiodes) swamp has been managed as a conservation area by the regional Water Authority since the early twentieth century. A major disturbance such as logging or a hurricane cleared most of the swamp in the late nineteenth century. Individuals which persisted are up to 180 yrs old. We have extensive tree core data from the swamp and have established two sets of permanent plots, one in 1990 and another in 1992. Ten foot copper and PVC pipes were plunged into the peat and labeled with aluminum tags. We have one major publication from the site dealing with the study of the retranslocation of Ca and Mg at the sapwood/heartwood boundary -once contraindicated by Ca and Mg ecophysiochemistry dogma. The presence of 10 or more meters of peat is typical of a bog in the late successional stages. In fact, extensive methanogenisis from anaerobes has developed a methane lense under the south end of the swamp. When punctured the released gas will burn upon ignition. The basin is not a kettle hole, but an ice block depression dammed by a drumlin on the west, ledge on the east and a drumlin and massive till on the south and south east. There are several ephemeral streams in the watershed which holds the cedar swamp and one perennial stream which skirts the swamp.The site is considered an ombrotrophic peatland.