click any number on the map above to go to a location

Jug Handle Trail: Location 22

This is the transition zone between the tall conifer forest of the ancient dunes and the pygmy forest ahead (top). The trees are decreasing in size as the soil changes. Here you see the final stage of the podsolization process - most of the soil nutrients have been leached out by water from the heavy winter rains which cannot drain off the flat ground, but instead combine with the pine needles and other forest litter to make a "tea" that is nearly as acid as vinegar.

This tea slowly seeps into the soil, carrying minerals downward (bottom). When the soil dries out in in summer, the minerals are no longer available for plant nourishment; instead, they combine with quartz to create an impervious hardpan one to four feet below the surface that limits the space available for plants' roots, so that Nature could be said to be growing the plants "in too small a pot."