Roche-A-Cri Woods

State Natural Area (No. 362)

Location: Within Roche-A-Cri State Park, Adams County. T18N-R6E, Sections 29, 30. 442 acres.

Access: From the intersection of County Highway J and State Highway 13 in Friendship, go north on 13 2 miles to the Roche-A-Cri State Park entrance. Or continue north on 13 another 0.5 mile, then go east 0.3 mile on Cypress Avenue to a parking area south of the road.

Description: Roche-A- Cri Woods features an old-growth pine-oak forest on the sandy terrain that surrounds Roche-A-Cri mound. Canopy dominants are large white pine, white oak, black oak, red pine, and red oak. Associated species include black cherry, red maple, and big-toothed aspen. Saplings of red maple, white pine, and white oak with ironwood and yellowbud hickory are also present. The varied shrub layer contains American hazelnut, nannyberry, and prickly ash with huckleberry and early low blueberry common throughout. The diverse groundlayer contains at least 220 species including bracken fern, elliptic shin-leaf, interrupted fern, wild sarsaparilla, calico aster, Pennsylvania sedge, and spinulose wood fern. Carter Creek, a class III trout stream, meanders through the site. As the terrain drops towards the creek, the vegetation becomes more mesic with species such as ironwood, maidenhair fern, lady fern, hepatica, early meadow rue, and marsh marigold. Bordering the creek is a wet-mesic floodplain forest of silver maple, green ash, and basswood. Numerous birds use the forest including the uncommonly found Louisiana waterthrush (Seirus motacilla) and the state-threatened red-shouldered hawk (Buteo lineatus). Other migratory bird species are eastern wood-pewee, ovenbird, scarlet tanager, indigo bunting, and rose-breasted grosbeak. Minor natural communities include dry sand prairie, northern dry forest, and oak barrens. Roche-A-Cri Woods is owned by the DNR and was designated a State Natural Area in 2002.