Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
 What are the Highlands?
The Highlands of Connecticut, New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania have a topography and landscape distinct from other parts of North America; this is apparent when traveling through them. If you look at these satellite images, the texture in the Highlands resembles nothing to the east or to the west. This texture, as seen from space, is the result of geology (rock type) and climate (the long history of weathering and erosion by such natural forces as rain, wind and ice).
Approached from the east, the Highlands rise abruptly from an even, rolling landscape whose elevations are between 300 and 400 feet. Most of the Highlands are above 600 feet, 40% is above 800 feet, and ridges generally exceed 1,000 feet, with the occasional peak or knob above 1,200 feet. For a mountain range, 800-1,000 feet isn’t very high, but the rocky soils and rugged land-forms of the Highlands have discouraged farming and, until recently, settlement. The result is a nearly continuous band of forested uplands on the western edge of the coastal metropolis.
What is the geology of the Highlands?
Geologically, most of the Highlands are hard crystalline rocks that rise above the terrain formed from softer materials to the east and west. The bedrock geology is complex and includes sedimentary, igneous, and metamorphic rocks that are used to discriminate among the Highlands’ ecological subdivisions. In the Highlands of Connecticut, New York, and northern New Jersey, surface geology is of glacial origin, including material deposited through various glacial and periglacial mechanisms. The terminal moraine of the Wisconsinian glacial advance crosses the Highlands of New Jersey from east to west, marking the southern-most extent of the last glacial advance. Interstate Route 80 crosses the Highlands along the same line, characterized by thick deposits of glacial till that are more easily reshaped than the crystalline bedrock.
The Highlands’ distinct soils have developed over a long time; differences in parent material, whether rock or glacial till, and differences in climate produced the soils of the Highlands. Equally distinct compositions of plants, soil organisms, and animals arose in these places; such compositions are called land type associations.
What are Land Type Associations?
Land type associations are differentiated from one another by patterns of land and water features, soils, and plant and animal communities. The characteristic topography, geology and climate of each land type association affect water and nutrient cycles, natural disturbance regimes and general land use.
Highlands land type associations are derived primarily from geology and climate. Click here for a description of land type associations in the Highlands of New York and New Jersey.
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