Chesapeake and Ohio Canal National Historical Park flora and fauna · Flora and fauna in Chesapeake and Ohio Canal National Historical Park
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Flora and fauna in Chesapeake and Ohio Canal National Historical Park
Flora and fauna in Chesapeake and Ohio Canal National Historical Park
You wouldn't guess it, but the C&O Canal National Park is one of the most biologically diverse in the national park system. The diverse landscapes of wetlands, streams, the river, forests, open fields, and rocky cliffs make for habitats for all sorts of plants and wildlife. Look in the mud beneath your feet and you'll find frogs, toads, salamanders, fish, freshwater mussels, beaver, and muskrats. Around in the woods, there are deer, song birds, red and gray fox, raccoons, gray and fox squirrels, and even the rare black bear and bobcat! Look to the skies for the most famous bird in this country, the bald eagle, which nests along the river alongside rocky cliffs, and is actually quite common along the river.
Be careful when wandering off the path, and avoid picking at the vegetation, because the C&O Canal is home to an extraordinary variety of rare, threatened, and endangered plant species. The region has so much rare plant life because of its idiosyncratic geography. The Potomac cuts through Maryland, known as "America in Miniature" for its radical shifts in geography from east to west. The Potomac cuts through the rolling woodland plateaus of central Maryland, then the Blue Ridge mountains, and further on the valleys of Appalachia, providing diversity of habitats for the plant life. This factor combines with the frequent flooding of the river, and the overlap in Southern and Northern species to make for very diverse and unique environments for plants to grow.
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Where To Stay & Best Hotels in Chesapeake and Ohio Canal National Historical Park - updated May 2024
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Chesapeake and Ohio Canal National Historical Park Travel Guide from Wikitravel. Many thanks to all Wikitravel contributors. Text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0, images are available under various licenses, see each image for details.