Uphill is an agricultural field. Downhill is the rail road and the river. Despite these, this side has lower than average noise pollution for park. Helped out by the sound of Bull Falls below. Further south from plot is an older forest with similar composition. Less weedy in spots, very nice. On either side of plot are gullies with bedrock exposed. Around the corner to south becomes more rocky and drier.;Medium aged forest with some early successional species (Juniperus, Pinus virginiana) still hanging on. Forest is dominated by Quercus montana, Q. alba, and Fraxinus americana. Subcanopy dominated by Cercis canadensis with Carya and Celtis. Herb layer with low to moderate cover and moderate to high diversity with Hystrix, Carex pensylvanica, and Solidago conspicuous.
Representativeness
Typical forest on east aspect slopes on Harpers Formation above the Shenandoah. This plot is very close to plot sampled by Garie Rouse in 1999 and may be used to assess small scale variations and completeness of 1999 floristic list.
Deer abundant everywhere in park. Faint deer trail through plot, larger one uphill.. Moderate garlic mustard abundance in plot, elsewhere in stand it is worse. (exotic plants, trails/roads, grazing/browsing)