Comments:
Highly dynamic reach dominated by very fine, rich soil materials deposited in a broad and shallow portion of the "Third Branch finger" of glacial Lake Hitchcock; soils include lake bottom sediments (silty) in addition to the fluvial and pebbly sands that also dominate the next two downstream reaches - all highly erodible. Randolph landfill is elevated above a disconnected oxbow on the upstream end of the reach, and numerous other disconnected oxbows are evident through the reach. Irene disconnected one oxbow mid-reach through a neck cut-off; within a few months of original Ph2 assessment in July 2013 (follow-up Oct. 2013) the neck cut-off had been riprapped and the abandoned oxbow was being filled in by excavator, dump truck and bulldozer. Early successional floodplain forests are present in numerous areas, dominated by early components of sugar-maple-ostrich fern floodplain forest (rare significant natural community in VT) on these rich soils. Although the railroad bed reduces the width of the natural valley, it swings further west along one side of the valley rather than bisecting it as in the next two reaches downstream.