Eastern Louisiana, USA Photograph by US Fish & Wildlife Services   Eastern North America: Southeastern United States Temperate Broadleaf and Mixed Forests   43,400 square miles (112,300 square kilometers) -- nearly the same size as Louisiana Critical/Endangered

· Big Muddy
· Special Features
· Did You Know?
· Wild Side
· Cause for Concern
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Big Muddy

These forests were once very similar to the magnificent bottomland forests that occur along rivers in the Mid-Atlantic coastal region. However, nearly all of the riparian forests here are now gone, making this one of the most altered ecoregions in the United States. The oak-hickory-pine forests of the Mississippi lowlands still serve as an important part of a major flyway used by migratory birds.

Special Features

It is likely that major river channels in this ecoregion served as important pathways for migrating species, such as trees, during the last period of glaciation. Scientists think this is why the ecoregion today includes species from many different forest types in surrounding ecoregions. The most important environmental condition in this ecoregion is the flooding cycle, which controls the amount of oxygen and moisture available to the forest communities. Based on the flood conditions, scientists classify the different communities as river swamp forest, lower hardwood swamp forest, backwater and flats forest, and upland transitional forest.

	The mallard, which often overwinters in this ecoregion, is the most abundant duck in the world and can be found throughout North America, Europe, Asia, and even in parts of Central America and Africa.

Wild Side

The forests occur along rivers and streams here. Bald cypress and water tupelo trees dominate the river swamp forest, which is home to many song birds, bald eagles, herons, and egrets, and especially ducks such as the hooded merganser, mallard, and wood duck. In the lower hardwood swamp forest, a more diverse woody community includes trees such as water hickory, red maple, and green ash, as well as plants such as butterweed, jewelweed, and royal fern. In the backwater communities, you will find sweet gum, sycamore, laurel oak, and willow oak covered with woody vines such as poison ivy, greenbrier, and trumpet creeper.

Cause for Concern

At the time when European settlers arrived in the area, virgin stands of cypress, mingled with gum, hickory, oak, and cedar, were typically 400-600 years old. Over the last century, most of these forests have been logged, and few individual trees over 200 years old remain. Most of the land today has been converted to soybean farms. Even though so little forest remains, logging is a continuing threat, as is pollution. The loss of floodwaters due to dams and channels inhibits the forests from regenerating.

For more information on this ecoregion, go to the World Wildlife Fund Scientific Report.