Berkshire Valley Wildlife Management Area: Route 15 south
Route 15 south, Jefferson & Roxbury Townships, Morris County, New Jersey

Directions:

Take I-80 west to the exit for Route 15 north;  take the jughandle for Berkshire Valley Road in order to make a U-turn onto Route 15 south; turn left onto Route 15 south; go about 200 or so yards and turn right at the brown sign with white lettering for Berkshire Valley Wildlife Management Area.  Parking in the parking area provided.

Trails:

04/16/2005 (Saturday).    On a beautiful day, Rosemary and Carl Cooney, Ceferino Santana, dog Sonar and I parked by the gate into the Wildlife Management Area.  Walked down a wide road path; grass path off to the left; we are heading west; come to a fork in the path in a huge field area with a mountain ridge on the left; go right (almost North); bear off to the right and wind up down by the River; no other paths down by the rive, so we walk back up to the large field; head southwest; head uphill for a little ways and then follow a rough path to it just peters out; it looks as though they have done some mining in the area with some old mining depressions in the ground; we see dirt bikers up on the top of the ridge.  Nobody but me wants to go up to the ridge, so we turn back to head for the field again.  On the way back, we see a path on the left that goes up toward the ridge; again no one but me wants to go up it.  This is our third area of the day and they want to go home.  So we head back to the car and head home.  Dr. Patrick L. Cooney.

PLANT LIST:
Dr. Patrick L. Cooney

* = plants blooming on date of the field trip, 04/16/2005

Trees:
Acer rubrum (red maple)  *
Ailanthus altissima (tree-of-heaven)
Amelanchier sp. (shadbush)
Betula lenta (black birch)
Betula populifolia (gray birch)
Carpinus caroliniana (musclewood)
Carya sp. (hickory)
Juniperus virginiana (red cedar)
Pinus strobus (white pine)
Populus deltoides (cottonwood)
Prunus serotina (black cherry)
Quercus alba (white oak)
Quercus prinus (chestnut oak)
Quercus rubra (red oak)
Quercus velutina (black oak)
Robinia pseudoacacia (black locust)
Tsuga canadensis (eastern hemlock)

Shrubs:
Berberis thunbergii (Japanese barberry)
Clethra alnifolia (sweet pepper bush)
Comptonia peregrina (sweetfern)
Cornus amomum (silky dogwood)
Corylus sp. (hazel)
Elaeagnus umbellata (autumn olive)
Forsythia sp. (golden bells)  *
Hamamelis virginiana (witch hazel)
Kalmia latifolia (mountain laurel)
Lindera benzoin (spicebush) *
Lonicera morrowii (Morrow's honeysuckle)
Mitchella repens (partridgeberry)
Myrica pensylvanica (northern bayberry)
Rhus sp. (sumac)
Rosa multiflora (multiflora rose)
Rubus occidentalis (black raspberry)
Rubus sp. (blackberry)
Salix discolor (pussy willow) *
Salix sp. (willow) * 
Spiraea alba var. latifolia (meadowsweet)
Vaccinium corymbosum (highbush blueberry)
Vaccinium sp. (hillside or low bush blueberry)

Vines:
Dioscorea villosa (wild yam root)
Smilax sp. (greenbrier)
Toxicodendron radicans (poison ivy)
Vitis sp. (grape)

Herbs:
Alliaria petiolata (garlic mustard)
Apocynum cannabinum (Indian hemp)
Arctium sp. (burdock)
Artemisia vulgaris (common mugwort)
Centaurea maculosa (spotted knapweed)
Cirsium sp. (thistle)
Daucus carota (Queen Anne's lace)
Lespedeza capitata (round-headed bushclover)
Lythrum salicaria (purple loosestrife)
Plantago lanceolata (English plantain)
Potentilla sp. (cinquefoil)
Proserpinaca palustris (common mermaidweed)
Symplocarpus foetidus (skunk cabbage)
Tussilago farfara (coltsfoot) *

Rushes:
Juncus effusus (soft rush)

Sedges:
Carex pensylvanica (Pennsylvania sedge)
Carex stricta (tussock sedge)

Grasses:
Phragmites australis (giant reed grass)

Ferns and Fern Allies:
Onoclea sensibilis (sensitive fern)
Polystichum acrostichoides (Christmas fern )