The Rensselaer Plateau is a small

plateau In geology and physical geography, a plateau (; ; ), also called a high plain or a tableland, is an area of a highland consisting of flat terrain that is raised sharply above the surrounding area on at least one side. Often one or more sides ...

located in the central portion of

Rensselaer County Rensselaer County is a county in the U.S. state of New York. As of the 2020 census, the population was 161,130. Its county seat is Troy. The county is named in honor of the family of Kiliaen van Rensselaer, the original Dutch owner of the ...

, New York; it generally encompasses significant parts of the towns of

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and List of cities in Germany by population, largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European Union by population within ci ...

, Stephentown, Sand Lake,

Poestenkill Poestenkill is a town in Rensselaer County, New York, United States. The population was 4,530 at the 2010 census. The town is southeast of Troy and is centrally located in the county. The town is named after the Poesten Kill, an important stream ...

, and Grafton, along with small sections of several other nearby towns. Many

glacial A glacial period (alternatively glacial or glaciation) is an interval of time (thousands of years) within an ice age that is marked by colder temperatures and glacier advances. Interglacials, on the other hand, are periods of warmer climate betwe ...

lakes, including Big Bowman Pond, Little Bowman Pond, Round Pond and Spring Lake are located on the plateau. Elevations on the plateau range from 1,000 to 2,000 feet (305 to 610 meters) above

sea level Mean sea level (MSL, often shortened to sea level) is an average surface level of one or more among Earth's coastal bodies of water from which heights such as elevation may be measured. The global MSL is a type of vertical datuma standardise ...

. Vegetation on the plateau is more similar to that found in the

Adirondack Mountains The Adirondack Mountains (; a-də-RÄN-dak) form a massif in northeastern New York with boundaries that correspond roughly to those of Adirondack Park. They cover about 5,000 square miles (13,000 km2). The mountains form a roughly circular ...

to the northwest, with abundant Eastern White Pine,

Eastern Hemlock ''Tsuga canadensis'', also known as eastern hemlock, eastern hemlock-spruce, or Canadian hemlock, and in the French-speaking regions of Canada as ''pruche du Canada'', is a coniferous tree native to eastern North America. It is the state tree of ...

Red Spruce ''Picea rubens'', commonly known as red spruce, is a species of spruce native to eastern North America, ranging from eastern Quebec and Nova Scotia, west to the Adirondack Mountains and south through New England along the Appalachians to western ...

, and

Balsam Fir ''Abies balsamea'' or balsam fir is a North American fir, native to most of eastern and central Canada (Newfoundland west to central Alberta) and the northeastern United States (Minnesota east to Maine, and south in the Appalachian Mountains to ...

, along with more limited occurrences of

Red Pine ''Pinus resinosa'', known as red pine (also Norway pine in Minnesota), is a pine native to North America. Description Red pine is a coniferous evergreen tree characterized by tall, straight growth. It usually ranges from in height and in trun ...

and

Tamarack ''Larix laricina'', commonly known as the tamarack, hackmatack, eastern larch, black larch, red larch, or American larch, is a species of larch native to Canada, from eastern Yukon and Inuvik, Northwest Territories east to Newfoundland, and als ...

. While most to all of the plateau was logged late in the 19th Century and early in the 20th Century, little farming was undertaken afterwards due to extremely poor and rocky soils, allowing much of the forest to regenerate.

References

https://www.rensselaerplateau.org/maps-and-gis-data https://www.rensselaerplateau.org/about-the-plateau-c1ulz https://www.rensselaerplateau.org/history Geography of Rensselaer County, New York {{RensselaerCountyNY-geo-stub