Alabama Landscapes
Highland Rim

Highland Rim Soils, Agriculture and Vegetation

Soils and Agriculture

Soils of the Highland Rim depend on the parent rock material.  In the lower reaches of the Tennessee Valley (from the river to about Athens, Limestone County), the soils consist of 6-10 inches of light-brown to reddish brown silt loam overlying clay loam, which changes to a silt-clay mottled zone at depth.  These soils are up to 20 feet thick in places and formed on limestone (Figure HRS1).  At higher elevations, where they develop on chert-bearing limestone, the soils are thinner (often shallower than 72 inches) and become more mottled.

Figure HRS1. Red silt loam soil developed on limestone, I-65 NW of Huntsville.  (Image © Mike Neilson)

These soils are among the most fertile in Alabama.  Much of the Tennessee valley north of the river is given over to cotton production and corn, soybean, oats and hay crops.  Cotton is “king” here.  Limestone County is the main cotton-producing county in Alabama.  Four northwest counties (Limestone, Lawrence, Lauderdale and Madison) planted approximately 30% of the cotton and produced about 40% of all cotton grown in the state in 2004.

 Vegetation

Much of the Tennessee Valley is cleared land, mainly north of the river.  The southern portions of the Highland Rim consist of oak-pine forests, which give way to oak-hickory forests north of Little Mountain.

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