Flora and Fauna
Most of Graham's slopes, given their high base elevation, are covered in northern hardwood forest of beech, birch and maple. Unlike the other peaks in the range, first-growth forest begins well above 3,000 feet (910 m), as high as 3,545 feet (1,081 m) on one slope. The summit itself is covered with a pygmy forest, unique in the Catskills, with its black cherry and mountain ashes barely taller than average human height. Balsam fir, which dominates the summits of both Doubletop and Balsam Lake mountains to either side of Graham, is found in small stands on the slopes below the summit of Graham.
Catskill forest historian Michael Kudish has studied the range's balsam fir distribution patterns. There are no other peaks where balsam fir occurs on the slopes of the peak, but not the summit, and factors such as elevation, soil, and topography do not suffice to explain the phenomenon. He has concluded that all peaks represent different stages of forest evolution, in which the stunted and twisted ridge hardwoods gradually have replaced balsam fir over the last 8,500 years.
The forests on the mountain support a typical animal community for the Catskills. Black bear and white-tailed deer are the larger mammal species, with many species of rodent, such as snowshoe hare, lower on the food chain. Beavers have been common over the years, with Kudish finding more evidence of present and past dams and meadows on the slopes of Graham and its neighboring peaks.
Read more about this topic: Graham Mountain (New York)
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