Southern Great Lakes forests


The Southern Great Lakes lowland forests is a temperate broadleaf and mixed forest ecoregion of North America, as defined by the World Wildlife Fund. It lies mostly in the central northeastern United States and extends into southeast central Canada. In modern times, little of it remains intact due to land use, including agriculture and urban uses.

Setting

This area includes the southern half of Michigan's Lower Peninsula, and much of Indiana and Ohio. It also extends through the southern half of Southwest Ontario from Windsor to Toronto and into Pennsylvania and New York on the southern rims of lakes Erie and Ontario.
This region is characterized by warm-to-hot summers and mild-to-cold, snowy winters.

Flora

This ecoregion is associated with the temperate deciduous forest to the south and thus contained a variety of habitats including freshwater marshes, dunes, bogs, fens, and hardwood and conifer swamps.

Fauna

The Southern Great Lakes forests were very rich in wildlife. Birds include cardinals, downy woodpecker, wood duck and eastern screech owl. Large mammals including American black bear, moose, and gray wolf have been removed from this ecoregion and remaining mammals include white-tailed deer, coyote, snowshoe hare, eastern chipmunk, American red squirrel and eastern gray squirrel.

Threats and preservation

Because of extensive urbanization and agricultural use very little of this habitat remains intact.