BOTANICAL EVALUATION OF THE GOAT ISLAND COMPLEX, NIAGARA FALLS, NEW YORK
P. M. Eckel
Buffalo Museum of Science
1020 Humboldt Pkwy
Buffalo, NY 14211 U.S.A.
www.buffalomuseumofscience.org

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3. Third Sister Island
The Third Sister Island is the farthest out from Goat Island of the Three Sisters. The Third Sister was drawn on the 1883 survey map for the first Commissioners of the Niagara Reservation by Thomas Evershed with its characteristic margins made uneven by large boulders. The vegetation then was intact but for a little path indicated on the north end of the island, extending to the west. The bridge to this island was built by the Porters in 1869 (16 Ann Rep Comm, 1900). Between that time and 1897 a walk had been constructed on this island, because it was replaced in 1897 (14 Ann Rep Comm, 1898).

The Third Sister Island may have been continuous with Brother Island just to the west, or downriver, of it: "within a year or two the action of the water has opened a fissure nearly half way through the western portion of the Third Sister island, and trees growing on the islands, undermined by the current, have fallen into the stream" (2 Ann Rep Comm, 1886). In years when the water in the Great Lakes is high, as in 1987, the shallow margins of parts of the Reservation become inundated as could be seen on the western extremity of the Third Sister. The present reason why there is no vegetation on the western end is partly due to removal of vegetation and loss of soil, but also by the soil being washed away during periods of high water (personal observation, 1987). Low areas on the west end of the Second Sister also become inundated for the same reasons.

The heavily wooded and densely shrubbed vegetation of Brother Island, only a few yards away from the denuded banks of the Third Sister give an impression of the density of the primary vegetation, although the absence of conifers there is suggestive of disturbance.

The Third Sister displays old ironworks, concrete patches and walls which are relicts of earlier structures. For example, there may have been an electric cable out to the island and a lamp post installed. This island must have always been a pedestrian terminus of some sort away from Goat Island out into the great river.

Originally, the zonation of the flora would have been like that of the First Sister and other islands: trees in the center, such as Sugar Maple, Hemlock, White Pine becoming more open, with willows, etc. on the margins.

Today, the zonation is roughly polished stone in the center, this ringed by a zone of weedy native and alien vegetation, such as Milkweed (Asclepias syriaca), Dandelion, etc.

The closer one is to the river's edge and inaccessibility, the more intact the native floristic remnant is; there are an especially large number of Chokecherry (Prunus virginiana) trees here, on the west end. The most intact and complex plant community exists in the thin strip of graminoid vegetation at the water margin and close against the bases of trees on the south-central to southeast portions of the outer margins, and somewhat on the northwest margin.

Boulder surfaces isolated from public access because they are surrounded by water have native vegetation. Other boulder surfaces, if they have vegetation at all, support urban weeds (compare boulder tops in the First Sister section above).

The Willows, which are Salix alba - S. fragilis, have been planted a long time ago.

The avenue by which weeds are introduced is the asphalted path connecting all the islands with Goat Island. If one follows the margins of this path, and that of the lawns beside them, one may see a strip of urban vegetation leading back to Goat Island.

VASCULAR PLANTS:

GENERAL DISTRIBUTION