Gorges State Park - Ecology

Ecology

Gorges State Park is home to a wide variety of habitats due to its geologic formations, elevation, and climate. It is located between the Tennessee Valley/Gulf of Mexico and the Savannah River/Atlantic Ocean drainage basins. Five streams flowing through Gorges State Park carry water over the Blue Ridge Escarpment, gradually at first, before plummeting over waterfalls into a series of gorges.

Gorges State Park is home to roughly 125 rare plant and animal species and 12 endangered or threatened plant and animal species. Many of these rare plants species would typically be found only in the tropic regions of the world. Scientists are unsure of how these plants, including Pringle's aquatic moss and Carolina star-moss, have come to grow in the Appalachian Mountains far from their usual homes. Some scientists believe that spores blew in from the tropics. Others think that the species have remained from a time period when the surrounding area was much warmer.

Gorges State Park is also home to an abundance of plant and wildlife that is more typical to the southern Appalachians. Plant species include, mountain laurel, rhododendron, white pine, red oak, and hickories. Oconee bells are very rare flowering plants are abundant in the gorges of the park. These flowers are endangered and populations of the plant have been found.

The most common animal species of Gorges State Park are White-tailed deer, black bear, Wild Turkey, coyote, fox, and wild boar. The park is also home to North Carolina's largest known population of green salamanders. The rare Swainson's warbler and three rare fish, the turquoise darter, rosyface chub and redeye bass are found in Gorges State Park as well.