American sycamores are a dominant species in bottomland and riparian forests. Riparian, bottomland, and wetland plant communities expanded. Habitats range from upland pine to bottomland hardwood depending upon location. Widespread draining of wetlands and removal of bottomland forests for cropland has occurred. The plant flourishes the most in floodplain and bottomland areas. The Basin contains nationally significant expanses of bottomland hardwoods, swamplands, bayous, and back-water lakes. Several miles of walking and biking trails wind through the heavily forested creek bottomland. In warmer areas they occur in bottomland hardwood forests. The term "bottomland" refers to low-lying alluvial land near a river. A diversity of plant life has taken root here, including bottomland hardwoods. They generally prefer humus-rich, moist, well-drained sites, ranging from bottomland soils to vertical rock walls. In Louisiana, average daily nest success rate was 95.3% on a bottomland hardwood forest site. In continuous bottomland forest, nests are often about every . Blacks cleared land, selling timber and developing bottomland to achieve ownership. The refuge consists of bottomland and adjacent benchland.