Home » Regions » North America » Northern Forests » Atlantic Highlands » Northeastern Highlands

Northeastern Highlands

Last updated: March 25th, 2022

To check where a specific point lies, you can look it up in our Ecoregion Locator.

↑Map Legend & Subregion List

This list will help you navigate the regions in case you have problems with viewing or clicking the interactive map above.

Name	†	Color on Map	EPA Code‡
Taconic Mountains	✓		58a
Acid Sensitive Adirondacks	…		58aa
Northern and Western Adirondack Foothills	…		58ab
Eastern Adirondack Foothills	…		58ac
Central Adirondacks	…		58ad
Tug Hill Plateau	✓		58ae
Tug Hill Transition	✓		58af
Rensselaer Plateau	…		58ag
Western New England Marble Valleys	✓		58b
Green Mountains/Berkshire Highlands	…		58c
Lower Berkshire Hills	✓		58d
Berkshire Transition	✓		58e
Vermont Piedmont	…		58f
Worcester/Monadnock Plateau	✓		58g
Reading Prong	…		58h
Glaciated Reading Prong/Hudson Highlands	✓		58i
Upper Montane/Alpine Zone	✓		58j
Green Mountain Foothills	…		58k
Northern (Vermont) Piedmont	…		58l
Quebec/New England Boundary Mountains	✓		58m
White Mountain Foothills	…		58n
Northern Connecticut Valley	…		58o
White Mountains/Blue Mountains	✓		58p
Sunapee Uplands	✓		58q
Sebago-Ossipee Hills and Plains	✓		58r
Western Maine Foothills	✓		58s
Upper St. John Wet Flats	…		58t
Moosehead-Churchill Lakes	✓		58u
St. John Uplands	✓		58v
International Boundary Plateau	…		58w
Taconic Foothills	…		58x
Catskill High Peaks	✓		58y
Adirondack High Peaks	✓		58z

† Status: ✓ = Complete ○ = Needs Image … = Incomplete ∅ = Stub Only

‡ This code refers to the US EPA's Level 4 ecoregion codes for the continental U.S., see here.

↑Progress

↑About the Northeastern Highlands

The Northeastern Highlands includes most of the northern and mountainous parts of New England, the Adirondacks and Catskills in New York State, and the northernmost part of the Appalachians in northern Pennsylvania.

This region consists of hills and mountains and is characterized by nutrient-poor soils, high-gradient streams, glacial lakes, and extensive forest cover that is transitional between hardwood forests to the south and coniferous forests to the north. Common forest types include Maple-Beech-Birch, Spruce-Northern Hardwood, and Northeastern Spruce-Fir.

This area is, and has always been sparsely populated. Historically, this region was farmed more, but farming has declined from the 19th century onward. Agriculture is now mostly limited to areas with the richest soils, including alluvial valleys, glacial lake basins, and areas with rich limestone soils. This area has suffered heavily from acid rain mostly generated from industrial areas to the west, which has acidified the lakes and streams as well as altered the forests.

Plant Lists & In-Region Search

↑References

1. Wiken, E., Griffith, G. "North American Terrestrial Ecoregions - Level III", Commission for Environmental Cooperation, (2011) Web.