The most common trees found in the area were the dawn redwood and swamp cypress. They are only found in China now. From these fossilised remains, Paleobotanists and Paleoecologists imagine these areas as huge swampy lowlands similar to the photograph on the left.

The highlands surrounding the area contained katsura and birch trees. Today katsura trees are only found in China and Japan.

These drier highlands and swampy lowlands were formed as a result of the Eurekan Orogeny. This period of mountain building formed an intermontain basin which was the perfect host for the fossil forests. The new mountains underwent rapid erosion and this erosion is the source of the silt rich flood waters which preserved this outstanding fossil deposit.