Alabama Landscapes

The Cumberland Plateau

Soil, Agriculture and Vegetation

Soils and Agriculture

Because of the aerial extent of the plateaus in this are (see Figure CG2), most soils are derived from sandstone residuum.  Such soils are thin (average 2-5 feet thick), with a light-colored fine sandy loam surface layer, a loamy subsoil, are acid, and contain low base concentrations. 

Where the bedrock is shale (usually on the slopes of the plateaus and very extensive in the Jackson County Mountains), the soils have a silt loam surface layer and a clayey sub soils.  Small fragments of shale are common in the subsoil

 Soils in the deep valley floors of Wills Valley, Sequatchie Valley, Murphrees Valley and the lower areas of Jackson County Mountains are developed on limestone and dolomites.  They are similar to the soils in the Valley and Ridge.

Crop farming is extensive on the plateaus, with tomatoes, potatoes, corn and soybeans common.

Vegetation

Most of the sandstone and shale region of the plateau consists of oak-pine forests and the valleys hickories replace pines. 

Figure CV1.  Distribution of major forest types in the Cumberland Plateau.  Black circles (N to S): Huntsville, Birmingham. (Simplified from http://www.forestry.auburn.edu/fpdc/alforest.html)

Although the plateau area is shown as covered with oak-pine forests, most of it has been cleared for agriculture (Figure CV2). 

Figure CV2.  Blunt Mountain. Flat plateau surface on Blount Mountain, Blount Co.  Note that the oak-pine forest has been removed for agriculture. (Image © Mike Neilson)